Feast & Farewell

On Sunday night the students at the dorm gave me a farewell party. (I'm not leaving for another 2-3 weeks but I'm taking a short holiday in between.) So, Sunday night was the official goodbye.

We started with the formal program. This included singing, readings and people saying nice things about me : ) It was surprising to hear some of the ways in which sharing life with this group of young adults seems to have impacted them. I was encouraged and humbled.

After this, we shared a wonderful meal together. We played games and took photos. We got silly instead of getting sad as we pulled dumb pranks, joked and laughed until our bellies hurt.




A group of the girls spent most of the day preparing the feast for about 20 people. There is a stack of work that goes into preparing even a mid-sized party. All the food is bought fresh on the day. Meat, fish, vegetables and spices are carefully chosen at the market, prices haggled over and then the produce hauled home on the back of a motorbike. The cooking is all done from scratch. Fish are scaled and cleaned. Spices are crushed with a mortar & pestle. Garnishes are precisely cut. Shellfish are thoroughly washed, broken open by hand and tossed into a frying pan with hot sauce just before serving. Last minute trips to the market are made for soda, ice and cakes. The final result is always amazing (even if it seems that the meal is over far too quickly!)....

For the feast and the fun farewell, I am deeply thankful.