This pretty much sums up my day.
I received a "test" care package from my Parents. My mom had mentioned to me earlier that she was sending me a bunch of Slim Jims, just to see if they would make it to my address. I hoped that she was joking. She wasn't. I was headed out to the project site to make some measurements. So I threw a couple Slim Jims in my backpack just in case I get desperate for food or trapped under a boulder.
Today I also bought my first machete. In order to start planning our community layout; I had to begin clearing our site of all debris. My plan is to use a measuring tape and some string to locate all of our existing site features. I researched methods of triangulation and I was looking forward to hanging out with Betty and getting my geometry on.
It was 7am on a Saturday morning, so I had not requested any help from our beneficiaries. But when I showed up on the site; there were about 40 people there, waiting for instructions. We got to work, clearing the football-field-sized area of 5 foot tall, spider infested weeds.
Half way through the effort; I was chatting with one of the elders and he mentioned that he was hungry. I saw this as a golden opportunity to unload some dead weight. I reached into my bag; pulled out a tiny shrink-wrapped tube of processed animal parts; handed it to him and said, "snap into a Slim Jim".
He grabbed it out of my hand and announced for everyone to come see this strange new food item. I jumped on the opportunity and made it rain Slim Jims on everyone who was willing to take one. Everyone was way more excited than they should have been. The celebratory sound of laughter and intrigue soon turned to a cacophonous display of disapproval, choking and spitting. Yes, they were spitting it out. At one point, I thought they were spitting it AT me.
Mom, you have inadvertently managed to offend an entire community of strangers on the other side of the planet. I love you.
