In my previous post I talked about our Thanksgiving in Kenya. One of the common threads of discussion at the Thanksgiving dinner focused on food. We all shared about our favorite meals, our favorite treats, and so on. We also talked about how it was "weird" that one of the first things you miss is food from home. And whenever someone from home says, "what would you like in your care package?" the items usually include food items (for us it was JIF peanut butter!). And as this thread carried on, I began to realize that from my experience this is a universal trait.
I remember visiting the home of a Burmese refugee. They had boxes of spices from home (Burma) that they sold to the other refugees from Burma. In Newberry, when the migrant workers started moving in from Mexico, not only did a bunch of "tiendas" sprout up, but the supermarkets started placing food items from Mexico in whole rows. Whenever one of my African friends flew into Atlanta for his first visit to the US, his luggage was exceedingly heavy from the supplies he brought for some African friends he was to visit in South Dakota. And the list could go on. And you could probably add a few stories to the list.
Food is part of all cultures. There is something about familiar tastes that make visits abroad (short or long) more tolerable, more, well, like home. So let's hear it for sweet iced tea, Coca-cola, Cracklin Oat Bran, pecans, JIF peanut butter, Smuckers Strawberry Jelly and so on. I could even add, gulp, I can't believe I am going to write this, McDonalds to the list..nah, but throw in a Crackel Barrel and I will be just fine.
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