Tex-Mex Meal

Left to Right:  Chris, Julee, Chenda, Aiden and Socheata

(Chenda is Chris' tutor and Socheata is mine)

Today we had our teachers from the Khmer School of Language over for lunch.  My tutor has been asking me for several weeks to make them some 'western' food.   I told her I would but asked for suggestions as to what exactly to make for them....as many Khmer don't like anything but Khmer food!

I asked other foreigners here what they have fixed for their Khmer friends and no one had a positive story to tell, one even saying that she fixed a large Khmer meal (Ginger Pork and another stir-fry style dish with veggies) for some church leaders one time and at the end of the meal one of the women exclaimed "WOW, American food tastes okay too!"

Needless to say I have been wracking my brain for several weeks on what to fix for them.  I wanted them to get a taste of the kinds of food that Chris and I grew up on, but I also wanted to fix something that they might actually like and eat ;o)   So....I went with good old fashion tex-mex!  I made fajitas, spanish rice, beans, and pico de gallo and to top it off I made a chocolate wacky cake and added some cinnamon to it for fun.

When they came this morning I had already made most of the food, all I needed to do was cook the meat and veggies for the fajitas.  As I explained to them what kinds of food we were having and told them the ingredients in all the dishes I could tell they were a little unsure as to how delicious this meal was going to be, but they were still excited and ready to sample it all.

I am proud to say that they seemed to enjoy all of it...though the beans were probably the most challenging for them.  I was really unsure about the rice.  Unless you are making traditional fried rice here you really don't mess with your rice...plain white rice is just the staple of the meal, so I considered making an extra pot of plain rice in case they didn't like any of the food and needed to fill up on something else.  I didn't end up having time to get that done but it was okay as Chris' teacher finished off her first serving of the spanish rice and then took another large serving and finished it all off!

After lunch Chris put Aiden down for a nap and while he slept we played Qwirkle together.  Now that was a challenge trying to explain to them how to play a game in Khmer!  But we succeeded and really had a fun afternoon with them here.

It is sad to leave these relationships behind as we prepare to move on to Battambang, but we hope to try and keep in contact with them and meet with them when we do make it down to Phnom Penh in the future.  Pray for both of these girls as neither are followers of Jesus.  Pray for them to have a continual flow of strong Christian students in the coming years and that they will some day make the decision to become followers of Jesus.