I was single and had my own apartment as I conducted archival research at the AGCA in Guatemala City in 1997. After a long day working in the archives, I would go work out, then come home, shower, turn on the cassette player or radio, and cook for hours. The church I attended in Maryland had a service for its members attending college, serving in the military etc, in which they would send you a cassette of the Sunday sermon and Tuesday night bible study. My father would receive the tapes and then ship them to me in Guatemala City. Those tapes helped me stay connected with the congregation and an important part of my life back in the states. I listened to them for hours as cooked and relaxed in my Guatemalan Kitchen. I remember having a problem getting the archivist at the national archives in Guatemala to bring me out enough documents to keep me busy working. One of the many benefits of ADD/ADHD is the incredible energy you have that when focused gives you the ability to do more work than the average person. One particular archivist could be a real drag to deal with. One night while I was listening to a new batch of cassettes that had arrived, I heard my pastor talking about how to deal with difficult people in our lives from Proverbs 25:21-22. He talked about taking the high road and treating even ones enemy with great kindness. I did not view the archivist as enemy but she made miserable for us researchers. The message, which I listened to several times, inspired me to make a great big pineapple pie for the archivist and her colleagues. The fact is most them received insufficient compensation and appreciation for their work and thus felt little motivation to be agreeable or do anything extra on the job. So I wrapped the pie that I felt very proud off carefully and brought to work the next day. It caught the archivist in question and her colleagues by surprise. They felt valued and showed gratitude toward me. The remaining months I did research at the archives went smooth and I always had enough documents to keep me busy.
Pineapple cherry pie recipe: http://www.oruntilgoldenbrown.com/2011/04/recipes-gluten-free-cherry-pineapple.html
Pie and cobbler stories and recipes: http://frederickdouglassopie.blogspot.com/search?q=cobbler
Good Food’s Pie-Cast Chef Rick Bayless’ Peach Pie: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/gf/gf100707piecast_rick_bayless
My book based on the research: http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=OPIEX001
Surviving Graduate School Series:
0 comments:
Post a Comment