Burnt Beans

Since we first arrived everyone has been worried about us, and their favorite question to ask is ¨do you know how to cook?¨ , to which Aubrey and I indingnantly reply, of course we can cook!
This week we had the privelage of receiving a visit from the circuit overseer of the sign language congregations...and we volunteered to feed him on Wednesday. All week we had been planning on what to cook, and decided on a beef stirfry with rice.
Here´s how it went:
Tuesday night we met the brother and his wife (Carlos and Dalila), who informed us that they don´t eat meat, so we scratched the idea of beef stirfry and decided to go with a vegetable one and beans and rice. Simple enough. Well, we soaked the beans that night, and got up early to cook them the next morning. what I mean by ¨get up early to cook them¨I mean that Aubrey got up at 5 in the morning and turned on the flame, then came back to bed, and we both fell back asleep. About an hour later we woke up to a sizzling sound, and when we opened the door of the bedroom the house was full of smoke! The Beans!!! Burnt to a crispy, black, stinking mess!
Plan B. We no longer have time to cook another pot of beans, we´ll buy some canned beans from the store, we have to go to the market anyway. Well we get to the market, and the store is not open. We assume that it is because the whole country is on strike that day (something we had found out the night before). So we are standing there in the middle of the market wondering if we should buy a chicken to cook, which means that someone would have to kill it....until we find out that the store will open at 8.
Into the store we go, imagine the scene...it´s 8 in the morning, the store barely opened, 2 white girls walk in and buy 4 cans of beans, and a can of oust -rain fresh air freshener! I can imagine what they thought of us.
The air freshener was to spray down the apartment which reeked 0f burnt beans that we could not feed to the CO.
The beans came out of the can, and into a pot. Then we ran to meet the service group, went in service for an hour , then went back home to finish cooking, accompanied by Manuela(a girl our age who decided that we needed her help cooking).
The first thing she did when she walked in was open the pot of beans and taste one. She said ¨hmm, they need more water¨
Water was added, the beans were seasoned, we cooked rice, vegetables, and Carlos and Dalila arrived, ate it, got seconds, and said they loved it.
Success!!! No one even suspected that our beans were from the can!
Pffh. Who says we can´t cook?!