A REPORT FROM THE ORPHANAGE FROM RACHEL CASTELLANO

It's common knowledge that eating is a sacred time in the daily life of a Laotian.

That's why I felt an incredible amount of guilt when I had to tell Yeng, one of the girls at the orphanage whose English is really good, that I couldn't eat with her because we were going out to a restaurant.

I understood that the main reason we weren't eating at the orphanage was because we didn't want to eat their food and take the chance of not having enough, but it still felt wrong not to accept their invitation.

However, the girls obviously weren't very offended because the next day they invited us to eat again. This time, our ride wasn't there to pick us up yet, so we agreed.

Isabelle, Jesse, and I, (Caleb was playing soccer), followed them into their dormitory and watched their daily ritual of setting up lunch (breakfast really, because their first meal is in the afternoon).

They took out mats from underneath their beds and set them out on the floor. We were instructed to take off our shoes and put them aside. Then they put the beef, congealed blood (which we didn't try) and noodle dish in the middle next to the sticky rice.

Then it was time to dig in. They were surprisingly generous with the amount of food they offered us, considering it's rare for them to have such a rich meal.

The entire time I was sitting in the circle with two of my best friends
from home, and five new people in my life I would never forget, I couldn't help but feel incredibly honored that they wanted to share this with us.

This was one of the best moments of the trip.

(This photo is from another time we all had a meal together)

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at July 10, 2012 08:16 AM

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