Friendship: What do half boiled baby duck eggs and
friendship have in common? Well, in
Cambodia whenever the Moringa staff wanted to celebrate something, we would get
together after work at this restaurant with thatched huts and we would sit on
the floor of the hut around a small low table.
Then my friends would order the food and soon the eggs would come out
looking suspiciously like normal boiled eggs and everyone would dive in. Ok, so they did. I waited for the chicken legs to arrive. Even if it was a party for me, we would go to
the same place because it was about being together. My celebrate food would be a nice hamburger
or salad; their celebrate food was duck eggs (with the little baby inside…shudder). But, I miss baby duck eggs because it always
meant friendship and being together.
The Journey: The journey was much more important in Cambodia
than the destination. A three hour trip
could easily turn into a six hour trip because we had to stop and take
pictures, or get a snack, or buy fruit or take more pictures. So, really the journey was the point, being
together was the point, not getting from place A to place B in a timely manner (even
though it’s hot and bumpy and I’m sitting here but my legs are over there
because we are all crammed into the car).
It’s never an inconvenience, it’s always an adventure.
Generosity: No matter how much you have, you always have something to
give. Poverty doesn’t equal stinginess. Whether it was the widow from church who
generously gave me some of the peanuts she had made to sell at the market, or
the pastor and his family whose table I was always welcome at, or the woman who
loaded me down with fresh fruit from her trees even though I told her it was
just me at home, or the gifts that I would receive from my friends (horrid,
ugly things from the stationery shop, but they were given with such love that
those items became beautiful). Even if
you are dirt poor, you can still give joyfully.
Don’t hurry. Work
hard. Take breaks. Be friendly.
Be polite. Stop to pick fruit
(even if it belongs to someone else). Take
naps in a hammock. Take any opportunity to
sing in front of people even if you can’t carry a tune in a bucket (it’s not
about the sound, it’s about having a good time together). Eat together.
Color your hair. Bargain. Do your part.
Laugh and smile. A lot. 
