from email dated April 7, 2009i have one funny story this week. members and investigators always love their elders and always love to show their love by giving us food. they especially seem to love us during mango season. we get tons and tons of mangos, nearly every day. we've actually started giving them away because there's no way we can keep up with them all. my khmer mom even came down from siem reap to eigth branch to see me with a bag full of mangos and said she wants to ship a whole box but i'd have to go pick it up at the bus station. yeah, lots of mangos. anyway, that's normal, the mangos. what's not normal is what happened with a recent convert last friday. we just got done teacher her when she asked us if we like chicken..."sure, chicken's great", we said unknowingly. she went and caught a live chicken (she's got tons of them) and tied its legs and gave us the whole darn thing. "you just cut its throat, boil it, pluck the feathers, and cook it however you want",she said. oh yeah, easy enough i guess, though i didn't want that mess in our house. i did however take the chicken; i stuck it in the basket on the front of my bike and rode to the next appointment. at the end of the day we got another member to fix the chicken for us and take most of the meat (i figured butchering a chicken myself would make a nice mess of blood and feathers i didn't much feel like cleaning up). we ate some of it anyway, and tasty it was. yeah, i'm not sure how many elders have ever gotten live chickens from those they teach...we did. :) i'll attach a picture for you.
Ben the Elder P, with a G in the middle
