Lancaster Talk

New Brighton, MN

Hello,

We have returned to MN, but you will hear about one more things from PA. Our hosts had sponsored a family from Cambodia and we were privileged to meet them in their home. The woman showed me all of her plants; some familiar and some not. She includes more flowers, leaves, and stems in cooking than I would have thought possible. Her tip about the safety of a plant is that if it turns the rice yellow it is poison. Survival skill number 601? When our Laotian family was with us she smelled everything and declared it good or not good to eat. We are missing out on knowing how to get along in the world that we have been given.

Janet especially likes soft shelled crab. I think I would have liked it better if I had not had to see it being cooked. Leroy and I shared one and we did not quite get it all down. Such landlocked people as we are do not know how to appreciate the finer things in the sea. We did, however, enjoy the crab cakes. They were a remembered treat. Perhaps we like our meat disembodied and disguised.

Leaving these wonderful people was a bit hard. We might not get back for a long time or maybe not again, knowing that made it seem more permanent.

It was also hard to get on the bus as it was not on time. First a half hour delay was announced, then extended to one hour, and then cancelled. The next bus came in 2.5 hours. We were grateful that we had an air conditioned place to wait, a source of information, and a toilet. Our supply of reading material was quite limited so we had to seek entertainment from our imaginations, imperfections in the floor, or by observing the population around us.

Paula