Some memories from the Jantar D’espirito Santo
As originally posted on http://azores.paulofernandes.net
The other guys are going to talk about the Jantar D’espirito Santo (Dinner of the Divine Holy Spirit) at an overview level, so I wanted to share a few of my favorite memories of the three days we spent on this project.
Sunday Morning Sopa Delivery
After getting up at 6 AM on Sunday, we made our way over to the local church to begin work by 7 AM. The first task of the day was to deliver the traditional sopa (soup, made of beef broth, beef chunks, heavy bread and fresh herbs) to most of Almagreira, as well as shut-ins and others in the surrounding parts that would not be able to attend the Jantar—between 100 and 150 orders. This involved loading up tureens of piping hot soup into the back of a pickup truck, climbing in, and driving through the streets of Almagreira. At every second house, the truck would stop and four of us would jump out, arm ourselves with a tureen, and knock on the door. When the door was opened and a resident appeared (often with a stunned look and less than full attire, especially right at 7 AM) we would exclaim “Sopa D’Espirito Santo!”, give them the sopa and then wait for them to put it into another pot and give us the tureen back. After a quick “Obrigado!”, we’d get back into the truck and head to our next delivery.
The sopa delivery was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. Flying back to the church to reload on soup with the cool wind (and the occasional rain) blowing by us as we looked upon the Almagreira countryside from the back of the truck was an awesome experience—likely my favorite of the day.
Sunday Afternoon/Evening Serving
We were on the front lines for the dinner at the church. Every 30-45 minutes we would have a sitting for the sopa, where we would ensure that everyone had enough vinho (wine) or somo (juice) to drink and enough sopa to eat. Once the dinner concluded with a cheer led by Paulo amongst others (“Viva Espirito Santo!”, or “Long live the Holy Spirit!”), everyone left and we cleaned and re-set the tables. Rinse and repeat for 7 hours.
While this was also a lot of work, it was great to see the community of Almagreira and surrounding areas come together to share good food and fellowship, the rich and poor alike.
The Monday Cleanup
I won’t say too much about this one, as it wasn’t very interesting for the most part. However, one of the tasks I took on (along with Dan and Jamie) was the cleaning of the eight 60 litre cauldrons used to cook the soup. We used degreaser and wire brushes to go at it, and the cauldrons were looking much better after we gave them a good scrubbing. Unfortunately for me, much of the scrubbing moved the blackened and baked-on grease from the cauldrons onto my shirt (the same white shirt I used for serving the day before). Needless to say, I looked like I’d been caught in a snowstorm of black greaseflakes.
Monday Night Dinner
As a final wind-up for the weekend’s activities, the entire family and all the volunteers got together for a dinner of kebabs and lots of other good food. It was a nice way to finish off the Jantar D’espirito Santo, and made it easy to forget the numbness that occupied my feet a day earlier.
That’s all for now—I need to register for my university courses next year. Take a look at our photos to get a better idea of what the Jantar was like, and please keep the comments coming. Bom Dia!