I have lived in East Asia for almost 4 1/2 years and I have managed to make only American and European friends, probably because our co-workers until August were all Americans, and Europeans are close enough;) Not only that, but it's one thing to eat tortillas every day and sleep in a hammock in a hut during a short-term trip to the Yucatan (I know because I did that in high school), but its another thing altogether to sell all of your stuff and move your entire family to another country indefinitely. In that case, a gal tends to make a home for herself much like the home she had in the old country.
I remember as a kid
judging questioning the Mexican-American immigrants in our town who bought homes in the same vicinity as one another and decorated their porches alike and spoke Spanish to each other and to their kids and celebrated Mexican holidays and ate Mexican food.
You are in America, now, I ignorantly thought,
why don't you branch out a little?
Let's just say that I have eaten those words a thousand times since moving overseas in 2008. Chewed 'em up and swallowed 'em.
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| Me, stirring up a cheesecake at Food Club. |
And now, I am finally taking my own advice. I am branching out a little. You are looking at the co-coordinator of a multicultural community group for women centered around the theme of cooking. Otherwise known as Food Club.
Ohhhhhh, friends, Food Club is where it's at! Alisa and I teach our Chinese, Singaporean, and Filipino friends how to make meatloaf (your recipe, Lydia Harrigan) and twice-baked potatoes and cheesecake, and they teach us how to make pull-apart toffeed sweet potatoes and stewed ribs with star anise and chili paste. Mmmmmmm. The eatin' is so good and the fellowship is even better, as we share from our hearts and our pasts in two different languages and learn how The Father has done mighty works in each of our lives.
It is sweet. All of it. I am blessed, blessed, blessed by this tasty new part of my life!!
