I Suck At Sharing

In this collective culture I'm learning that food must be shared. This week I saw one of my Khmer siblings preparing a snack- a single serve portion of instant noodles. In the time it took to boil the water, cook the noodles and put them into a bowl, three other relatives had emerged. The bowl was put on the floor and using eight chopsticks and a couple of spoons the snack was quickly gone.

I used to think I was pretty good at sharing but I'm being challenged again with this lesson. On Wednesday evening we had a team meeting so I knew I wasn't going to be at dinner time. I went to the market in the afternoon to buy some fruit and bread. Thinking it would be nice of me to share, I arranged about two thirds of the fruit on a plate and explained to my family that they could eat as much of this as they wanted (just don't eat my fruit still in the plastic bag!)

I came home at 8:45pm ready for some food. I wasn't at all surprised when my younger brother Ramy sat down at the table with me since he seems to be able to eat six or seven times per day without any problems. Ramy and I started eating my dinner. Five minutes later there were six of us, including myself, around the dining table. There's enough Khmer in my to offer food to everyone- aware that they will probably all have at least a taste, if not more. But there's enough Australian in me to feel like saying, "I love you but couldn't you just leave me alone to eat my dinner?" Yup- I'm still learning to share.