I CANNOT read the directions!

Last night was a big deal for us.

We'd finally gathered enough tools to "cook" a meal...and we had food stores enough to put "something" together...and so, I went for it...I cooked our first dinner here.

Not much to write home about really...but since I write for this blog everyday...you're going to hear about it anyway...

Beef and red peppers cooked up in my new wok. Only one injury with my "WAY SHARPER THAN ANY GINSU" knife. Magpie excised a bit of her pointer finger...but she was committed...

Then I thought I would cook up some rice in my big new RICE COOKER! It is really fantastic looking and by all the pictures it can cook LOTS of things...not just rice.

Ms Yang had assisted me with the purchase and recommended it highly.

However, there were no English directions...and NO PICTURES on the dial/control, that could indicate HOW LONG the rice should be cooked.

I tried to think upon my rice-cooking days at The Old Place. There I had some slick little rice cooker (actually is was stolen from my dear mother...she'll tell you that upon our move here, she received back many items I had "retained" in my kitchen)...

I figured equal parts rice and water and I thought it took about 15 minutes to make the rice.

So, in the absence of any native language readers...I put it in for 15 minutes and crossed my fingers.

Then arrived, quite by surprise, some dear friends here to welcome us! It was a great celebration and made us feel very "at home."

However the crisis, on my part, arrived when I now had to feed the extra guests my "trial/first dinner!" I had no seasoning for the meat, but soy sauce. I wasn't sure that the shiny new rice cooker would in fact produce rice...but here we all were...and I needed to feed them!

It turned out that I only over-cooked the rice by 7 minutes or so...and everyone said the food was delicious (I am certain they feared for my fragile mental state had any of them turned up their noses at my offering.)

It was a really hopeful time. Our old friend here brought a new friend who was full of questions about us, our lives, our kids, our culture and why we came. He was so interested that I invited him to bring his wife and daughter back to visit with us again. Daddy and I were so relieved to see a glimpse...actually more of a confirmation...that there is work here that was prepared in advance for us to do...and it isn't about being anyone/anything special...it's just about being us and sharing whatever incandescence that comes through us in our fragile, broken state.

People are people everywhere...but for some reason, these are the people we've been given for this time. We wonder if they will ever fill the enormous void in our hearts from all our loved ones at The Old Place...but at least the ache felt a little less strong last night...and for that we are thankful...