When the director is away...

The day before I left my village, my director invited me to his house. He wanted to give me sesame flour and have his wife teach me how to make sesame dumplings with sauce, so I could make it for my parents while I was home. (In case I got sick of eating crab rangoon, Waldo pizza and steak)

In the middle of the cooking lesson, he left for an overnight trip to a neighboring city. Suddenly, the girls were home alone.

It may be just me, but when I’m somewhere in my village and the men leave a room, they seem to take the tension with them. I no longer have to worry about offending (or being hit on by) anyone. The other women no longer have to worry about one more person’s demands. 

When I lived at home, when my dad would be away on business trips, my mom and I always ate KFC for dinner one night. It was our guilty pleasure. We knew my dad would never accept fast food as a suitable dinner option. (He was always a plate of home-cooked meat, starch, vegetable man) It was as crazy as my mom and I got, but it was our secret.

That night, I ended up staying at my director’s house for dinner. Usually, when I eat at someone else’s house, I eat with the men of the family (ie before everyone else in the house). That night, myself, his wife and another female student ate together. That night, sitting on a straw mat, all eating from the same bowl and at the same time, we could have been eating KFC.