Page 162 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL FALL 2024 SPAIN

busied herself with disinfecting imple-
ments, dipping each one in bleached wa-
ter, while Fara, our indispensable assistant,
boiled the mysterious fruits to make exotic
beverages. At one o’clock, groups of SIA
members gathered in turn around our
kitchen table, to feast on our creations.
And eat they did! From bowlsful of rice and
boiled vegetables, to spaghetti with
tomato sauce and even paiche which our
expert crew, after dicing the dense, white
flesh, mixed it with onion and chiles, before
wrapping the Amazonian delicacy in a tree
leaf, and grilling it over hot coals.
I was more intrigued with the women
gathered around a wood fire, cooking for
the patients who had arrived from various
parts of the Rio Momón. The aroma of
their chicken stew lured me to the huge pot
bubbling over the flames. One of them
squatted beside a wheelbarrow full of
chickens, plucking each one and adding it
to the pot, as the growing crowd required.
Would she mind exchanging a plateful of
their rice and chicken stew for a bowlful of
our braised vegetables? Much to my sur-
prise, my fellow cooks agreed, and new
bonds were formed.
While our crew busied itself with the
food, the doctors set up their “offices”
around the camp. Soon, lines of “forgotten
ones” were forming in front of the cardiol-
ogists, dentists, chiropractors, gastroen-
terologist, pediatric doctors and other
specialists ready to examine them.
A clown, acting as Pied Piper, enter-
tained a myriad children in a remote cor-
ner of the field. Others shrieked with
delight at the face painting station. And
my friend Franke sat in a stifling tent dis-
pensing reading glasses. The activity went
on daily from 10AM to 3PM.

162 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE FALL 2024