Beneigh.
<< ben-eigh >> N: Beneigh, Beneighs:
1.The fried dough ‘sticks’ that accompany meals at a restaurant in Cambodia.
Ashley enjoyed the Beneigh more than the cow lung at the restaurant.
2. A completely made up word to describe said greasy deliciousness.
Ashley decided to call the ‘sticks’ Beneighs. The name stuck.
When we went to the restaurant, before church exactly two weeks ago, we were introduced to these pieces of fried dough. They came with the meal kind of like chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant.
That was the time that we ate noodles at the restaurant. They were interesting, to say the least. There were sprouts in the bowl, different tasting plants and different chunks of mystery meat. I found a piece of different looking meat in my bowl, I asked Dara (our contact) what it was and he said cow lung. I started to move it to the side of my bowl when he said, “try it”. So, I did.
(That was just an interesting story. What I really want to talk about is Beneighs.)
When we were at the restaurant, we tried the offered plate of greasy fried dough. We liked them- a lot more than the noodles :)) I asked Dara if we could get some more, Tso he got them to bring some more. At the table, I just started calling them Beneighs. The name stuck. Team Burning Joy loves Beneighs. Dara noticed- as the observant contact he is.
Two days later, Beneighs started showing up for every breakfast. Aside from the first morning Ehop (Emily Hopper) was reunited with our team (she came to Cambodia later be of some health reasons) we were served Beneighs everyday. At first, it was Beneighs and fruits. Then it was Beneighs and banannas. Gradually, it turned into Beneighs and French bread baguettes. Then the amount of the breads just increased and increased. We’re starting to get Beneighed out.
This morning, we had Beneighs and French bread again- this time there were also banannas. (They really like alliteration it seems) We were talking about all the bread we’ve been eating. Couple that with rice at every meal… we are looking at carbs for DAYS. When we talked about the Beneighs this morning, we realized that this is the 11th day that we have had this greasy, tasty bread. 11th day on our 11 countries in 11 months. I started thinking about our Beneighs being our manna and us being the children of God in the wilderness. Annnndd then, we started talking about manna. And that solidified it. I was going to blog about it.
I haven’t totally thought about and processed all of it, but when we started talking about manna, all I could think of was the Israelites and their ungratefulness. It served as a huge slap-in-the-face/reminder to be thankful in any situation.
Our team has been doing a splendid job of being uplifting, positive and thankful. When we run into a subpar condition we start saying what we are thankful for. *Just call us little Pollyanas* An example is our toilet situation. At New Life, the first church, the toilet didn’t flush- we had to pour water into the commode to ‘flush’ it. The toilets were big enough to sit on though. No soap, no toilet paper. We originally thought that those were not great bathroom conditions aaaannnnddd then, at the second church, the bathroom was a squatty potty on a level like a foot above the ground. When we saw that, everyone started saying things that they were thankful for.
We went to Siem Reap yesterday on our ‘rest’ day. We ran into racers from second generation Z squad. It was so awesome! They are at the end of their 9th month. It was pretty comical to see the difference in one month vs. nine month racers. We had our skirt, shorts and tee shirts (obviously US clothing) and they had their Thai pants and native clothing. We had our REI daypacks and they had satchels and bags that they had bought in different places. They were pretty tan and we… well weren’t. Anyways, they got to telling us that this month, in Cambodia, is the first month in their race that they have had vegetables on their race. 8 months without vegetables.
EIGHT.
Suddenly, I am so thankful for the interesting vegetables that we have. I am super thankful for this food that we like and can eat. (They said that Africa is pretty hard food-wise)
I am super thankful for our Beneighs.
<3 Ash
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