“Okay we should makan nasih now, yeah?” said one of my parents’ friends as he spoke softly in his Malaysian-Indian accent. Makan Nasih means ‘to eat’ in Bahasa. “So this people really want to serve you guys and they woke up at five in the morning to prepare lunch for you. All you need to do is wash your hands and sit down and they will serve you with the food.” A sound of ‘wow’ filled the whole room as people grasped the idea of how generous these people were because they had come all the way from Malaysia to cook us food.

As I sat down right in front of me was a plastic cup and a banana leaf that had beans that looked like as if it had been boiled and some fish crackers. I stroked the banana leaf to see if it was real. And as its skin touched my finger, I could tell it was real because it had a powdery touch to it. There was no cutlery meaning that we had to eat with our hands, the traditional Malay style. So the Malaysians started serving after everyone in my table was seated. When one of them came to me to give me rice, he scooped it gently to my leaf so that it wouldn’t fall. What he gave me was only one scoop and it was already enough for me. But no, he gave me two more scoops and each of them had bigger mass than the other one. I started to feel my heartbeat in my throat, swallowing my saliva, wondering how long it would take me to eat this much rice if ever I finish it. But that was only part one of the serving.

Part two came when a Malaysian man was carrying a big pot full of Indian curry. The smell of the curry permeated the entire room and as it touched my nose I knew at that moment I was ready for some chicken and potatoes. When the man came to my side, he scooped up two scoops that was only chicken and potatoes and another scoop that was purely soup. I watched as the soup gave color to the rice making it brown with a touch of orange in it. It was already too much but I didn’t want to be rude to them so I just kept my mouth shut.

We started to eat to fill our stomachs with the amount of food they gave us. So much love was put in to this. Thank the Lord for amazing friends. And then it happened. Some peoples’ banana leaves started to look clean as the food that was on the leaf was now in their stomachs. The Malaysians got their box of rice and their pots of curry ready. They asked people if they wanted more. For that first time, people didn’t want to be rude so they said, “Sure! Just a little bit though.” Well, the Malaysians weren’t going to take ‘just a little bit’ for an answer so they gave more than what the person had asked for. One man gave my dad twice as much and I started laughing at the whole situation! I didn’t want to become a victim of this so I decided that I would eat as slow as possible so that the Malaysians would see that I still had plenty on my leaf.
Anyway so the second round of eating had begun and people started to relax and eat super slow because they had begun moaning, groaning hoping that their stomachs were still allowing the amount of consumption that was being given to them. People also started laughing and saying “No! No!” as the Malaysian man with the box of rice came around giving out rice to those people he saw that had leaves that were nearly empty. One woman was very defensive as she laughed and blocked her arm from the man as he attempted to shower her with rice. At many points the Malaysian man was successful with a concluding “Ahhhh!” Even one of my friends, Zach was pointing to Saih gesturing for the Malaysian man to come over and give him more rice! The whole situation was merely filled with laughter. Then I looked at my leaf, at the brown with a touch of orange rice that had chicken and potatoes all over. I still needed to at least try and finish my food. At one point I started to taste bile in my mouth, a discouragement from the stomach. Finally after 30 minutes of stalling and procrastinating, I had finally finished my lunch.

Well, who has a meal without dessert? The Malaysians distributed cups that had liquid with the color of mustard in it and it had some jelly balls at the bottom. They also gave us three pieces of blocks of candy. It was too much to handle because I didn’t really even know when I was going to reach breaking point and explode. My dad couldn’t handle it either so he went out to look for a plastic bag. When he finally got one, he put all his candy into the bag. My mom and I decided to pitch in. Last food consumption down to go! When the rim of the cup touched my lips and the liquid entered my mouth, I could taste the ginger in it. The drink was hot so it was soothing as it made its way down my throat. As I got to the bottom of the cup it started getting sweeter because of the jelly balls. When I attempted to drink it all, the sweetness triggered a bit of a nauseating effect so I decided not to finish it. I threw it away.

This has been the day where I have skipped dinner because my lunch already had covered it all. It has also been the day where God has shown me another culture, one that I am unfamiliar with. Even thought the Malaysians had given me a lot of food, all I can say is I came, I sat, I ate…I conquered.