A Takeaway for Lupita

 

Meet Lupita, a little girl who lives in the Bahía de Banderas area of Mexico. As our son Chris explains:

“Lupita is now 10 years old, but started at Pasitos de Luz when she was just 8 months. She was born prematurely, and then suffered a major head injury in a serious car accident at 2 months old. This resulted in Lupita experiencing major psychomotor delay. When she arrived at Pasitos de Luz, she could make no voluntary movements whatsoever and entered straight into our physiotherapy program. Almost 10 years later, Lupita has taken another major step in her rehabilitation; she has officially started school!”

Lupita in the physiotherapy room at Pasitos de Luz

 

We support the work of Chris and his colleagues at Pasitos de Luz (https://pasitosdeluz.org/) in various ways. One is serving to our neighbours a Mexican takeaway in return for a voluntary donation. This time we had a little extra help from Diana, a chef from Mexico City, who now serves delicious mole negro (a black sauce of chiles, chocolate and several other ingredients), enchiladas in green sauce, and who made for our takeaway Jan’s favourite (and very indulgent) pastel de tres leches (cake of three milks: condensed, evaporated and full cream). Diana and Alvin run Cielitos restaurant in very un-Mexican Virginia Water.

 

Jan and I provided the rest of the meal:

 

Ensalada de nopalitos: a salad of prickly pear leaves, tomato, red onion, coriander leaves and feta cheese, dressed with lime juice and olive oil

 

 

Ensalada de frijoles y hongos: a salad of three types of beans, mushrooms, celery, grated parmesan, and plenty of parsley, with a vinaigrette dressing

 

Tinga poblana de pollo: tinga is a sauce whose key ingredients are chipotle (smoked jalapeño) chiles, onion, tomato, parsley and coriander

 

Pastel de calabacitas, piña y nueces: courgette, pineapple and nut (in this case pistachios) cake

 

We rewarded ourselves with a margarita before eating our own takeaway.

In anticipation of a margarita

 

 

Our neighbours’ donations will help more children who need the kind of support provided by Pasitos (https://pasitosdeluz.org/) to emulate the progress that Lupita has made:

“Her vocabulary is expanding and she can now name all five vowels. She can identify colours and different animals, and brush her teeth by herself. We have also been working with Lupita on her emotions, as she enters puberty, helping her to express herself when she feels happy, excited or sad. We have been teaching Lupita patience and the importance of sharing. We would love for her to be able to write her own name.”

Lupita learning about colours