listening to norah jones' 'Chasing Pirates'...
She looks different these days. More mainstream. Period.
~~~
We celebrated D's birthday dinner at Long Beach on Wednesday. The group tucked into a sumptious spread of bamboo clams, prawns, both chilli and black pepper crabs, and a lot more food.
CY who was back from his work in Hong Kong, told us about his month-long stint in Ethiopia. He took a month off to do voluntary work there. Very noble so we shouldn't laugh, but our silly friend ignored the existence of weather dot com, and packed for the trip based on his own impression of the country. It was hilarious when he told us how he only brought shorts, coz he thought Africa would be hot, then ended up wearing two trackpants and still shivering. BTW, there is Wi-Fi connection in certain regions of Ethiopia, and people don't really regard you as God just because you have a mobile phone in your hand (iPhones included).
His experience at the feeding house was a humbling tale to all of us at the table. The usual meal dished out at the feeding house consist of flat doughy bread and 2 scoops of yellow bean soup. Nothing is wasted during meal times. The plates are re-used at least four times with minimal washing, and the leftovers on the plates are collected in buckets to be re-distributed at the end of meal time. Kinda like tapao-ing, except you're packing home scraps from ALL the tables in the restaurant. I guess hygiene isn't the priority when you're starving.
US$40 could feed 1000 Ethiopians with a meal. The cost of our seafood dinner was enough to stop three thousand people from going hungry. *gulp* In CY's words, 'We probably rolled a six to be living in Singapore, and a triple six to be where we are.'
Yupperoos. Grateful, I am.
1 comment:
gosh, that's really sobering... :(
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