The Tuna Factor

Brace yourself, I’m about to post a recipe.

Since I’m a barest-minimum kind of cook, barest-minimum food prep is my kitchen strategy always.  So this will be an easy recipe.  And later, when I’m home (writing this from the cottage) and can reference the cookbook I got if from, I will.  {EDIT:  Cooking Wise: Recipes for Healthier Living, FLTO80 2013 copyright Metagenics Inc.]

But for now.

Tuna Waldorf Salad

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped cucumber

1 medium apple chopped

½ cup olive oil mayonnaise

2 tbps chia seed

1 tin flaked tuna (in water) – yes, a whole can and I’ll get to that in a bit

Mix together.  Eat.

That’s it.   You can put in more or less mayo as desired, as well as the chia seed.  It’s great for hot summer days or any time you need the bulk of some vegetables and a fruit, plus the protein.  That’s the tuna.

When I first prepared this salad I wondered about the need for a whole tin of tuna.  Seemed like a lot.  But the diet I’m on needs enough protein at various points in the day, and the whole tin does the trick for providing me with one of the five portions of protein recommended.  And it’s filling, and I like it.  Hope you do too.

But I’m not posting this recipe and talking about tuna so we can do a foodie exchange, as fun as those things can be.    It’s just that I made this salad for lunch today and as I was opening the tin of tuna, I thought of Suradet.

I always think of Suradet as I open a tin of tuna now.  Ever since that night that the lights went out and the three of us, Suradet, Yupa and myself, ate by candlelight at their table one Thanksgiving Sunday.

It is fall 2015 and I am doing my three month stay from end of September to beginning of December.  By Thanksgiving, being honest with myself, I am missing crisp mornings, soft sweaters, and butternut squash soup.  Particularly on this Thanksgiving weekend, I am missing pumpkin pie.   Yupa has made me a marvellous and very special dish of stuffed squid.  It is delicious.  But it’s not turkey and potatoes and pumpkin pie.   And I notice this.  Even in the midst of the spectacular thing it is to be here for three whole months, I do notice this.

We’re not sure why the power is out.  There’s been no storm, or wind, or any weather-related, or other obvious reason.   Apparently this happens often enough that large pillar candles are at the ready, and this is what is brought to the table so we can eat together.

There’s something about the subdued lighting, or the easy quiet way of our conversation, I guess, but somehow we start talking about our childhoods.  The stark contrast in how we experienced life as children is actually quiet incredible.  Me, a baby boomer growing up in suburban Toronto with a roof over my head and plenty of food and clothing.  Bicycles, summer cottage, summer camps, Christmas mornings, pumpkin pie.

Both of them, but Suradet particularly, growing up an exceedingly poor mountain boy during a rice shortage.  That’s when he tells me.  One tin of tuna would be shared with his family of six.  It would be mixed with rice and perhaps some corn, and that would be supper.  And that would be the only protein he would get all day.  Did I mention this was for a family of six?

On occasion in the past, during times of hurry or distraction while making lunch, I have left my tin of tuna to drain in the sink and absent-mindedly eaten my Tuna Waldorf Salad without any tuna.  Being busy enough to eat at my desk while I work isn’t just a bad habit, it can push me into that not-quite-all-there-zone where I wouldn’t even notice, I admit.   But regardless, what happens, is, way before supper, I’m starving.  I’m missing the protein.  That’s one serving of protein in my day.

So how does a little boy go all day with one sixth of a tin of tuna as his ration?

I ask Suradet, and yes, he remembers being very hungry most of the time.

How much does a tin of tuna cost anyways?

My reading these days has me deep into thinking about thinking, particularly thinking about how I think and perceive life as a Westerner.  And it’s moments like the tuna when I realize, I really have no context whatsoever for this.  None. 

The children at Hot Springs have ample protein and a variety of good foods in their daily diet.  They can go back for thirds if they like.  I know this because I’ve seen Praweet do so on more than one occasion., and he’s not the only one with a healthy appetite.  All of them are full of energy with shiny hair and clear skin and bright eyes.  Now they are.

But the hunger Suradet experienced as a child is the hunger children experience all the time in Thailand and other places of the world.  And every one of the children we now know as part of our family has this memory.  Of being hungry. 

I weep for this sometimes.

So God bless the children! 

 And help us all be mindful, and to love mercy, and do justice, and walk humbly.  Please.

Please keep me grateful.  Help me be open handed.  Bring us what we need to love on Your kids.  

And thank you Father for the chance to make a tin of tuna difference for these kids.

Like A Child

"Missionaries, by the nature of their task, must become personally immersed with people who are different.  To follow the example of Christ, that of incarnation, means undergoing drastic personal reorientation.  They must be socialized all over again into a new cultural context.  They must enter a culture as if they were children -- ignorant of everything, from the customs of eating and talking to the patterns of work, play and worship.  Moreover, they must do this in the spirit of Christ, that is, without sin.  While most of us may not face situations requiring such total reorientation, the incarnation principle can also be applied effectively in family and church life."

Sherwood G. Lingenfelter

Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships

(Emphasis mine)

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, 

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  

Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child 

is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

Jesus

Matthew 18:3-4

(Emphasis mine)

It's crossing the street where I feel most stupid.

But just to be clear, before we get to that, I feel stupid a lot of the time when I'm in Thailand.  It's just part of the deal when you're learning a new culture.  And after ten years of visits I've lost count of, there's still just so much to learn.

Like how to cross the street safely.

In my own defense, there are two significant factors that increase the chance for traffic mishap in Thailand that are not in place in Canada.  One is that they drive on the other side of the road.

This shouldn't be such a big deal really.  Just imagine all traffic happening in a mirror image and you'll get the idea,  Left hand turns on a red, right hand turns swinging over to that far lane, passing on the right.  

Like that.  

I do have my international license and I have driven very briefly on the side road leading up to Hot Springs.  But I am no where near confident enough to risk driving in Chiang Mai proper.  Just imagine heading across Toronto, but everything's opposite to what you know.  Eeeeee!

But the stupid I'm talking about isn't even about about driving.  I'm talking about that basic skill we all learned before kindergarten.  

"Look both ways before you cross the street."  

We learned it so long ago that now it's instinct, right?  Before stepping out, you look to your left for the cars that could be closest to you, then you look right to make sure there's no one coming on the other side of the road from the opposite direction.  But not in Thailand.  In Thailand you have to look right first, then left.

Sounds simple.  But it's not.  I do it wrong every single time!  And the effort of unlearning that basic instinct and not feeling confident to cross the street -- that's what makes me feel stupid.  Like I'm five years old again and someone needs to hold my hand.  

But I'll get to that in a second.

The other not-in-Canada factor is the wild free-for-all attitude Thais have to driving.  

Not kidding.  

The lines on the road can be considered 'suggestions'.  Really, you can drive anywhere your vehicle might fit.  And you don't even need to be heading in the same direction as everyone else.  The shoulder can serve as a way to get to an awkward drive way or side road even if you're going the wrong way, but as long as no one is zipping up the left side going the right way.  Weaving in traffic is a given.  Small motorbikes squeeze their way through intersections wherever they can fit.  There might be as many as five people on that small motorbike, by the way.  Sometimes old rattletrap pick ups are loaded down with impossible stacks of something or other, rising high above the roof of the cab and extending way past the guard rails.   Stops signs are just meant to slow you down a little.  An orange light means 'hurry up quick and get through the intersection', and as many as possible attempt it - every time.

I'm not exaggerating.  And if you've been to another place where it's like this, you will have your own stories and description to add, I have no doubt.

So when we're out and about, especially downtown Chiang Mai or even in the smaller city of Sangkampeng, Suradet always acts as crossing guard, reminding me to wait for his signal to cross.  Yupa always reaches out to take my hand.  And actually, by now, I'm always ready with my hand to be taken, so that with the help of my two 'grown ups' I can get safely to the other side.

But the thing is, holding hands to safely cross the street is just one example of the ways I have had to accept my own novice status within this culture.   My vulnerability in something so simple as crossing the street is just a small thing compared to all that I am still learning.  

Like a child.

This has been so good for me, the way any unwanted but necessary discipline is good.  Like many high achievers, left to my natural inclinations, I would be obsessively focused on gaining status and credibility.  I long to be taken seriously, want to be seen as competent, don't mind if I'm respected for my areas of expertise.  I started this cross-cultural journey when I was 51 years old, a time when one might expect to be regarded with a certain degree of esteem, particularly if you've been a leader and a teacher for a good part of your adult life.  And by now, at 61, the gramma-sage persona temptations are there, I'll admit it.

So being thrust into a continuous learning phase of this very different, absolutely lovely in so many respects Thai culture, feeling like a child, it's done and is doing wonders for all that silly need for whatever that is that I think makes me important.

Because the truth of it is, I'm important enough to someone to make sure I get across a crazy city street safely.  There's love in this hand holding.

And it occurs to me that if for whatever reason I couldn't let myself be humbled in this way, I would probably miss out on receiving that message.   That I am loved here is equally as strong as my sense of being like a child.  And it's demonstrated in oh so many ways.  Like this.

So I guess it's also true, that it's in crossing the street that I also feel loved.

And that just makes me fill all up with wonder again at this thing we're doing; this thing Lingenfelter calls "incarnational relationship".   

Because, truth be told, in a way that's very Thai, crossing the street isn't the only time Yupa and I get to hold hands.

 

Building The Library At Hot Springs

HOT SPRINGS LIBRARY PARTY

(With Grammas and Aunties In Mind, But TBH Anyone Can Join In)

Saturday, October 6^th

1:30 to 3:00 p.m.

  My House

79 Blythwood Road

Waterloo ON N2L 4A1

Or

Online pre-orders

See instructions below

If you believe every child is empowered through reading

this party-with-a-purpose is for you.

With Usborne Books as the backdrop, and my capable daughter Kristyn Hiemstra as our representative, I am hoping to increase the English library at Hot Springs (near Chiang Mai Thailand) in the following way.

It would be my hope that you would join us on the 6^th and that you might come prepared to purchase two books please (prices are very reasonable, varying products and ranges).

One book would be for your own grandchild, niece or nephew, or other special child in your life.

The other would be selected from a prepared list and travel with me to Hot Springs in November. 

If you come in person:

·         I am baking my (she lowers her head modestly) somewhat famous chocolate chip cookies.

·         There will be teas galore to choose from.

·         Bring a picture of yourself reading to your special child/ren (optional, just for fun).

If you can’t come in person:

·         The online catalogue can be viewed by going to www.usbornebooksathome.ca and selecting “Browse Catalogue” from the top of the screen (on your computer) or by selecting “Menu/Browse Catalogue” (on your mobile device). 

·         Simply take note of the title(s) you’d like to order, and which book you’d like to donate to Hot Springs (list to be provided soon).  Then send your list to Kristyn at the email below. 

·         Please mention that you are participating in “HOT SPRINGS LIBRARY” Party.  This way she can combine the orders and offer the best pricing on shipping and customer specials!

Kristyn or I would be happy to answer any questions.

Kristyn - books.cleverness.more@gmail.com

Ruth Anne – rabreithaupt@hcckw.ca

Please RSVP no later than October 1^st

^{to rabreithaupth@hcckw.ca}