A reprint of Jane's Coconut story

Hi folks,
I hope all is well with you. I thought I would share a story with you about my baking adventure last week. Unfortunately none of my cookbooks were packed in the bags that we took. Oops, mistake numero uno. So let's try to remember from the top of my head some receipes that will hopefully be complete. I thought about making chocolate macaroon drop cookies. John doesn't like them but I needed to bring something for the home church we went to the next day. When shopping in the playero grocery store I couldn't find any bagged coconut so instead bought a fresh one. Next dilemma is how do you open them? They are rock hard and cannot be cut with a machete. John's bright idea was to throw it off the patio onto the driveway below. So we did. It cracked open on one end a little bit. So do it a second time and see what happens. Success at last. The coconut meat is difficult to get out so I used a sharp knife and pried it out piece by piece. The next step was to grate these pieces using only a regular hand grater. An hour later and a few skinned knuckles the task was complete. Next I turned the oven on to 400 degrees (when it is already 35 plus degrees in the house) to toast the shredded coconut. 20 minutes later and turning it twice the house is now very warm because the oven is not insulated like the ones in Canada. The recipe says to cook the ingredients on the stove top and then immediately drop by spoon onto a greased cookie sheet. As it is cooking it is now 9 pm and I said to John I sure hope the power doesn't go out, 30 seconds later, it does. It gets dark here at 7:30 every night so John came to the rescue and held the flashlight while I scooped the cookies onto the baking sheet. When the power supply goes out the pump doesn't work to refill the water reservoir so we were careful to use only a little water to clean up which has to be done immmediately or the sticky residue becomes rock hard. From start to finish it took 3 hours to make a batch of drop cookies that were devoured in 10 minutes the next morning. They were enjoyed by all except John and we found out on Sunday the proper way to open a coconut. Apparantly you need to stick a screwdriver in the end of the coconut with 3 small holes, then take a hammer and smash it open. Who would have thought!!!
Maybe next time I can remember a recipe which requires a lot less work.
Anyways, on Sept 23 John's sister Betty and her husband Arnie are coming here for a week to work. Paul is getting together a few suitcases ready for them to take so my cookbooks will hopefully accompany them. Life will be a lot sweeter then. Everything here takes a lot longer to do than at home but that is part of the culture stress here. We are both doing really well and look forward to spending more time in the village working. We have been getting settled in and finding how to live life here until Elio returns on Saturday. We have been visiting the villages and started sorting out the sewing room but what a monumental task. The sewing program has been idle for a while so I will be trying to revive it to give these ladies a job. They are so excited about it!
We are going to attend a new Spanish language program for missionaries starting Saturday which promises to be quite intense. We are really looking forward to it especially since there are 4 other couples from Canada, US, & UK who will also be attending.
Give our love to your families and Hasta la Vista.
LOL John & Jane