Orientation and Good Food

Q: How do you get to know someone the best in the shortest period of time possible?

A:  Share a meal with them

The first night of orientation, maybe the second but it was early on at least; I had dinner at one of the missionaries’ homes from the Center for Global Outreach in Ft. Myers along with the other missionaries who have gone through orientation with me.  The host made Thai curry and it was absolutely delicious.  To wrap up Orientation we had dinner at Outback Steakhouse tonight.  We technically finish tomorrow but it will mainly be just debriefing things.

As many of my readers know, I love food.  I love good, quality food even more when it’s free.  Hence, between the first night of Orientation and tonight being the last, I’ve loved having some great food as I mentioned above.  For some reason, I seem to keep coming back to this topic of food on this blog.

It is a sincere belief of mine that food is sacred.  It sounds weird, but hear me out for a minute.  When you share food with someone, you are sharing something that binds all humanity together.  Christ and the Last Supper is a good reminder of this.  What did Christ do as one of His last teachings before He was crucified?  He had dinner with His friends.

There is just something special about sharing food with others, whether they are old friends or new ones.  Now, that is not to excuse gluttony which I am guilty of way too often.  Food should be enjoyed thoroughly though, just as long as it doesn’t lead to excess.  Perhaps this is a discipline I need to cultivate in my life – how to thoroughly enjoy food without going overboard.

Food has a way of bridging cultural differences.  This can be a difficult thing to accept.  If you travel much at all, you will undoubtedly have some times where you can’t believe people actually eat what is set before you and call it good.  That’s when you just have to swallow your cultural pride though and dig in.  In almost every culture it’s considered an offense if you don’t eat their food.  Even if it tastes terrible, you must learn to eat it and put a smile on your face at that.

With that being said, there are many times where you will eat a new food that will rock your world.  The first time I can remember this is when I was in Kenya and had chipati and Chai.  It was incredibly delicious.  They just kept feeding us as is their culture until we simply couldn’t fit anymore in our stuffed stomachs.  Another time was when I had ceviche in Lima, Peru.  I’ve had ceviche here in the states in  Chicago and it’s just not the same.  There’s something about eating a local dish in a hole in the wall that just has a certain ambiance to it.

Orientation has been good overall.  I really like NMSI as an organization and have enjoyed getting to know the missionaries.  As I shared with a couple people today, I think they could shorten it by several days but then I was told that part of the reason it’s 2 weeks is to build in some community time.  I’ve learned a lot about NMSI as an organization and feel really good about moving forward with them.  Now it’s just a matter of hustling and praying for God to bless me with the funding I need to head back to Myanmar as soon as possible!