The Day After Son Zeng

Why should I write about the day of Son Zeng itself (May 31) when the time has flown so quickly. Every family with children seems to relish the end of the school year, and my host family is no exception. They have been talking about living in Boradigah with Nana #1 for the Summer, so on June 1st, the day after Son Zeng, I packed my pajamas for an overnight at her house.

I found myself thinking about what a luxury this place is for me: a comfortable bed in a bright and breezy room with an attached bathroom with western toilet. No need to prepare meals. Time to myself for reading. No need to entertain the family. A Mercedes parked in the yard. Peace and quiet after the final week of school.

If only I wasn't worried about writing Peace Corps reports for my Close Of Service, or thinking about what I will do for a week of English lessons for 12 year old girls. It's no fun to think up things to occupy 3 hours each morning for the next week, i.e., 15 hours of teaching English. Okay I do have a few ideas, but mostly I want them to feel more confident about speaking English at the end of the week. Speaking a new language seems to be the biggest obstacle in language learning – and I'll attest to that.

Meanwhile, I'm basking in the hospitality of Nana #1. There is not a moment that she does not devote to eating or preparing to eat. She is overweight and has diabetes, but doesn't seem to care about either. When I first visited, she did check her blood sugar at the end of the day, but since then I haven't seen any of the medical items she brought back from her stay in Moscow. Georgie will give her a massage later, and wrap her legs in ace bandages.

When we arrived at 1pm Saturday (after another harrowing ride with a relative), she was seated on the floor chopping and grinding mutton for boz bash. This daily fare consists of a bowl of broth with a couple chunks of potato plus either a ground meat ball or a bony piece of meat. At her house, we get both. Often chopped greens are sprinkled on top of the oil that floats on the broth. I will say that I've taken to sopping up pieces of bread in the broth just the way the rest of the family does.

We had lunch about 2pm and talked about what foods to buy at the bazar on Sunday. My host mother brought along a large bag of loquats from a tree in our yard. I hadn't eaten these before altho' Sally says they do grow in California. It is a yellow fleshy fruit a bit smaller than a plum with 2 large seeds inside. We peeled the skin before we ate it. Not quite as juicy as a peach, but definitely fun watching nana eat dozens of them.

 That is one big pile of garlic bulbs. I wish I could remember the price - about a dollar for a pound!

A typical pan filled with an assortment of greens - dill, cilantro, basil, and ??? These are also inexpensive and an essential part of most meals.

For this weekend, I remembered my essentials: camera with battery charged and lots of memory, my iPod loaded with podcasts for listening, and my Kindle for reading time. I was excited to go to the Boradigah bazar on Sunday morning to take some photos and video of this colorful event.

The only snafu in the weekend was the unexpected arrival of Sunday afternoon guests. I had specifically told my host family that I needed to return to Masalli in the afternoon to prepare for a week of English classes. When the guests arrived I felt obligated to stay for a meal with them. So instead of getting back about 3pm, I was given a ride about 7pm. It was such a toss-up to risk offending the family by leaving or to rush them into serving dinner earlier so that I could leave. A nice ride home in a Mercedes helped calm me down.