Free Food and Lots of People May Be Better (than just free food)

On Saturday night our neighborhood had a big party with a guest speaker, tents, and the whole nine yards. Around here "the whole nine yards" means that people spring for some fancy imported rice, kill a few goats, and eat together. This is one of the pots of rice. They planned for about 1,000 people but felt like they came in more like 700-800. Its hard to count people in Asia since people sit much closer together--you can't go by the number of chairs you have!

The food was served up on these big trays. A bunch of rice, some curry with vegetables, and some fresh goat meat. Turns out these particular goats made the ultimate sacrifice right on the grounds some time Saturday afternoon. For them I am thankful ... and just normal full, too.
This is not very normal around here but to encourage fellowship, they took the trays and put them on some mats, then you circle up and dig in. A certain person learned today that some people were given silverware while others did the right thing and ate with their hands like everyone else. You can see the spread here: rice with meat cooked inside, some meaty/vegetably sauce, some pineapple, and some watermelon. This is seriously good food. How good? Given the choice between this and The Lighthouse in Sulphur Well, Craig would eat this, with his hands, on the ground. But the biscuits make it a close call. I have a feeling that is a day-to-day call, though.
Some friends who are actually skilled at this type of thing.
Some seriously skilled friends, notice their tray is about empty.
Finally, two funny things. One, it seems for some reason that we stick out. Our section of the neighborhood has about 300 households. Plus we have three other sections so its quite big. That means we met some new folks last night. We'd chit chat about a number of things and eventually ask, "So where do you live?" After they'd explain we'd say, "Oh we live on so-and-so street." Then they'd reply, "I know." This happened over and over. It seems everyone knows where we live.

The second was that our friends have this greeting that is basically, "Have you already eaten?" (Jaeetyet? in the South) So we got to hang around all night at this feast listening to people ask one another if they had already eaten like there was anyone there who hadn't!