How to Prepare a Popcorn Party

1. Confirm with my family that I can have my church over for the popcorn party at 2:30 pm on January 13, which is the anniversary of my arrival in Africa.
2. Get a list of current church members and regular visitors from our pastor.
3. Ask my director’s permission to have one of our organization’s drivers use its truck to bring guests from town to the party and back.
4. Arrange with one of the drivers to serve in this way.
5. Create a copy of the previous year’s invitation, changing the day of the week and the year.
6. Make sure I have tape, a black permanent marker, at least 40 sheets of colored paper, and at least 80 sheets of copy paper.
7. Print the invitations on colored paper, and cut each sheet in half to separate the two invitations on it.
8. Using the church list, write the names of members and visitors on the invitations, combining families.
9. On the two or three Sundays preceding the party, invite everyone to it during the announcement time at church, and distribute the invitations before and after the service, with the help of someone who knows the people I don’t know.
10. The week before the party, try to distribute any remaining invitations — for example, messaging a photo of the invitation for those who haven’t come to church.
11. Ask two ladies from the church to come on the morning of the party to make the popcorn on our charcoal stove, and give them money for the bus fare to my house.
12. Buy four kilograms of popcorn, five liters of oil, one kilogram of brown sugar, half a kilogram of fine salt, and 60 Styrofoam cups.
13. Decide on a game that children and youth can play in teams, that involves running throughout the 20-acre lot beside our home; prepare the necessary materials.
14. Ask Rosário to bring the church’s hymnals in the truck with the party guests.
15. Ask to use charcoal, a tablecloth, three big basins, potholders, and the huge mortar and pestle (for the brown sugar) that the family has here at home.
16. The day before the party, confirm plans with the driver and the cooks.

On the day of the party:

1. Take out to our kitchen shed everything the cooks will need.
2. Bring 50 chairs from the preschool.
3. Roll 50 sheets of copy paper into cones for holding popcorn, securing them with tape.
4. Wipe the chairs clean and arrange them around the tree in our front yard.
5. Clean the living room as an alternate party location in case of rain.
6. Clean the outhouse.
7. Mount and fill the water tank for drinking and washing hands.
8. Make final preparations for the game.
9. Set aside the money to pay the driver.
10. Cover the three basins of popcorn — two sugary, one salty — with a tablecloth and tuck it underneath so the cat can’t get to the popcorn.
11. Serve lunch to the cooks.
12. Put party supplies outside:  cones for popcorn, Styrofoam cups, a marker (for labeling them), a trash sack, and game materials.
13. Rest a bit in preparation for the guests’ arrival in the truck!