Rumble in the Jungle...

Yesterday I travelled out to the Community Service project to see how it was coming along since I left over a week ago. Since then 9L has completed the concrete slab and now 9K is working on putting up the wooden frame. It was great to see it all moving along and the girls really have worked like Trojans! The head builder Sak had put our school name into the concrete using bamboo. So our girls will be remembered long after we leave.

Today I was with Group Four (9L) to do Jungle cooking. We walked to the Prem Farm and picked the fresh produce. The girls gathered lemons, chilies, herbs, cucumber, beans and chives. They then went about making a small fire from scratch to cook on and then in groups they divided up the different recipes- smoked chicken and pork, sticky rice, omelets, chili sauces, banana in coconut milk, mushrooms and sweet basil, salads, minced pork with coriander... my mouth is watering again. All of these thing were wrapped in banana leaves and smoked or cooked in large Bamboo shoot over the fire. We then sat down on the ground together and shared the food, eating with our hands. We dipped the sticky rice into each dish and it was sooooo good. The food, which had been slowly cooked over a medium heat, was full of flavour and it was all natural and fresh. As we ate we were warned "Taste your food, don't just stuff it down- that's how you get fat!" We nodded and kept chewing; guilty fingers stuck with rice and bits of pork.