My favorite coffee takes me back in time.
We were a group of lively girls, I knew my dear friend Mavi, more than a friend, she was my sister because we were related for so many years. Then there was my dear colleague who did not recognize me because I was very young when I arrived at the hospital and she was the head of the pediatric service and someone I was introduced to in those earlier weeks was my dear Dulce, she had been an accountant and was now simply retired.
I met them at my church, we had a Bible study course that was taught by a pretty little sister from Las Pastorcitas congregation. She was called Maria and had this gift of transmitting the word of the Lord with so much passion that at the end of the class we all wanted a little more, but she was a busy sister.
Then things started to get bad in my country and Sister Maria was asked to come back to the country where she came from, she started to pick up all the older sisters and left the younger ones, but it was never the same again.
Then the priest of the church took over the class and he continued the course for the whole year.
We met every Friday at 3pm. My colleague Mirna would pick me up, we would pick up my dear sister Mavi and go to Dulce's house, there we had the most spiritually nourishing meetings. We had to do the homework that Father left us, and the rest was to do the rosary and follow with a very good cup of coffee.
We all brought things to share. Cookies, jams, vegetable creams and other things, but the best thing was the delicious coffee with milk.
When I was young I learned to make coffee the way a friend taught me in a village in the Andes Mountains.
I put the water to boil with a stick of cinnamon and some cloves and then when the water boils I add the coffee powder, when the coffee’s finished, I pass it through a strainer to remove the remainder of the powder. I put it in the blender with some milk and a spoonful of cocoa.
It’s my best coffee, delicious, aromatic, addictive, relaxing. My group of friends and my best coffee.
I loved my Friday afternoons until the pandemic hit and it was all over.
No more live course, no more meeting with my friends, one of them left for Europe and now I'm still drinking my coffee but alone at home, hoping that someday we will meet again. To share again my tasty coffee flavored with spices and flavored with cocoa from my land.
Times are changing, we have to enjoy the time we are living, even if we are now under this test, we have to move forward.
Mia friends and I are physically separated, but we are in contact through the networks and with our prayers, we’ll have to continue to take care of each other but we will be back in groups as before.
Only my group will be different now, my friend Dulce went to live in Spain with her daughter. She is not going back to Venezuela anymore. She only has two children, her oldest son who is in Japan and her youngest daughter with whom she moved. Maybe this confinement was the best thing for her because now she will be with a relative.
My friend Mirna just went through Covid. She is a doctor and so is her husband, he’s still active and a patient he treated was an asymptomatic carrier and ended up infecting him.
They are older people, but he is a retired doctor from the Venezuelan oil company and the epidemiologists immediately responded to his call. They all tested positive.
They were treated quickly and efficiently. They are all well now.
My sister Mavi is expecting a second grandchild, the first grandchild takes all her time to take care of and now she will have a second grandchild and I don't know how she will deal with that.
The truth is that the pleasant times of my Friday afternoons will never come back… At least with my group of friends.
Now I have my good coffee with my son, on occasions when we want to share a while. We make it and sit down to talk and enjoy.
Thanks my friends, for stopping by to read and thanks to all my new and continuing sponsors.
No me gusta el café. Pero me sentaría contigo a tomar un jugo y a recordar viejos amigos y buenos momentos.