Monday, June 26, 2006

what's in my lunchbox, mum?

nothing quite as interesting as what's in my breakfast box!!! i believe that i've mentioned how thai breakfasts are like thai lunches and thai suppers (in that they include both rice and meat, but lack fruit and milk). and i, like the dutiful quasi-missionary that i am, have politely eaten everything that has been set in front of me, including the flabby cabbage (did i TELL you that story? so one time, we were having this soup that had cabbage in it, and pieces of slightly darker something else that i ate, telling myself all the while that they were flabby pieces of reddish cabbage, and not mushrooms at all. through one of those happy twists of fate, pi ganniga decided on then and there for a language lesson, listing all of the ingredients of the soup. i forget what it was in thai, but in english it was most certainly 'mushroom').

ANYway, the other day i came down to find rice, this delicious sweet-potato thing, and four ocean-pot-table fish (as in, from the ocean into the pot and onto the table, sans beheading). 'you eat?' asks max? 'hey, no way, man. those fish are looking at me!' everyone laughs. later, pi ganniga (who's secret thai thoughts run thusly: please oh please let me feed you, let me iron you, let me teach you to speak thai! i love you, but you are altogether too thin and wrinkled and foreign) spoons two bites of fish onto my plate, which i wash down with heaps of rice. everyone laughs. they have infinite mercy for my non-thai-ness.

mild moment of panic. we run a kids english-teaching program on wednesdays, starting tomorrow, and headed up by me. well, headed up by carmen usually, but she's leaving, so this is for me to take and run with. eep. i am not a good runner. i am an excellent follower, but heading up projects (especially at such short notice) makes me a leetle nervous. of course i can, carmen. it'll be awesome. meep. it'll be awesome. awk! i guess i should go prep for that???

4 comments:

Jane said...

I am in awe of all that you are doing. From the food with faces attached to the heading up of English thingys.

Praying for you and your boys daily,

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't eat anything that still had eyes attatched either. Remember that one Simpsons episode where Lisa turned vegetarian and in a thought bubble she would see an animal and the peice of meat drop out of it onto a plate? Yeah, exactly.
Did you know that Chevy Chase owns chickens? One of them's name is Wilt.

Dana L Penner said...

ah the joys of mysterious international cuisine... when I was in Guatemala my host mom would always make the funniest things for me, and like you I would smile and eat up. Until I got sick... for about 3 weeks all I ate was "soupa" (chicken noodle soup) and "gelatina" (jello) cause let's be honest they were safe foods for a sore tummy and it tasted like home...
happy trails friend!

Nater said...

The term "flabby cabbage" made me laugh for some time. Cheers to your way with words and blogging diligence.