17-4-2010

One of my favorite youngsters, Benito, who were surrounded by a few younger gals calling him ¨Papa Benito¨! You can tell how nice he is from this!

The Chinese meal I prepared for everyone!

Elvis, as well as the other kids, were so excited about this meal.

After much planning and anticipation, I finally fulfilled my goal of cooking a Chinese meal for everyone. I went to the market with the crew, consisted of the older kids including Benito, Ahias and Walter. Going to a local market was quite an experience, even though I come from Hong Kong where the markets freak most gringos out when they see it the first time. I managed to get everything I needed, although it wasn't perfect because there weren't all the exact ingredients that I wanted. Oh well, I can survive with it. And the boys were very helpful, especially Benito who rushed others to do things quickly as he knew that I needed to rush home and prepare the dishes. He's one of my favorite youngsters here, who's very courteous, responsible and has really good manners. And he posesses many good qualities such as sensibility and respect that a lot of youngsters of today and even adults lack.

Immediately after returning home, I started cooking right the way, and fortunately some kids came to help me, and they were interested to learn. It's the first time I had to cook for 80 people, and it isn't easy at all! The menu was: HK style Swiss wings, fried and boiled wontons, fried rice and HK famous milk tea. The most proud for myself was the milk tea, as it's pretty close to restaurant standard in Hong Kong. The kids loved the food and they kept saying "tan rico" which means "taste very good". One older boy, Rafael, who doesn't eat meat since he went to the market once (somehow I can understand why), so I stirfried some vegetables with garlic for him. At the end, everyone thanked me and gave me a warm applause, and some went to me and gave me hugs. The whole meal costs about 300HKD, which approximately equals to a Japanese dinner or half a buffet dinner in Hong Kong, or a fraction of what we spend on dinners in New York City. Honestly, this worths so much more than one or even half of those relatively expensive meals we consume all the time, and it has made all the kids ecstatic and happy. I really don't know exactly how to put my sentiments right now in words, as I'm totally blown away by the "values shock" I am experiencing right now.

"We could easily spend money on things we don't really need, but if spending it wisely, if can make a big difference in many people's lives. " Now, I don't just understand it, I live in it.