Life; an adventure, a journey with Jesus

Breakfast Date!

Ever since Don and I were married we have had a Saturday morning breakfast date. In the early days of our marriage, we found this to be the most affordable meal to eat out so we took advantage of it. As the girls began to reach the age of being old enough to stay home alone, we found it was a great time to let them sleep in (they didn’t mind that one bit!) and we had some quiet time to ourselves to regroup and plan without them being present. As the years went by, we found it to be one of the highlights of our week – our Saturday morning breakfast date! This tradition continued until we moved to Peru.

Now, we didn’t stop the tradition on purpose; we just have not located a breakfast spot in San Juan de Lurigancho. The Peruvians eat sandwiches for breakfast, or bread or an oatmeal drink. The restaurants are not open for breakfast. Instead, neighborhood women prepare meals for those on the go on the street corners. They carefully stock their carts and push them to their favorite street corner and set up shop. A cart will have a bucket of water, or two, plastic dishes, glasses, and maybe forks. It will have sandwiches, fresh fruit, juice, and maybe other entrees. There are plastic stools for you to sit and relax as you eat, and when you are done, the plates and utensils get rinsed in the bucket of water. This same water is used the whole morning long. So, needless to say, we have not patronized any of these street vendors.

However this week, we accidently came upon a little café and enjoyed our first breakfast date in Peru. We had to go to the clinic for Don to have some blood work done in the laboratory. They told us we could pick up the results in one hour. There was no need to go anywhere, and yet we were oh so hungry. The McDonalds down the street isn’t open for breakfast. So, we headed upstairs to what we saw in passing that looked like a coffee shop. Sure enough it was just what we needed. Two young ladies were working at the time. The café had 5 small tables and 2-4 chairs at each one. The blackboard menu directed us to the choices of sandwiches, beverages, lunch entrees and pastries. Don had fasted and was of course hungry by now and so was I. We had ham and cheese croissants and coffee. Juice was also on the menu. Total cost was about $5.00! It appears we went back a few years in time and enjoyed an affordable breakfast date after all! Can’t help but wonder if we might become regulars on Saturday mornings (at the hospital cafe!).