My mother, had taken me and my brother down to Upper Darby when we were children. where we would meet our babysitter, Sodsee. Our mother wanted us to learn how to cook her recipes. She had no clue of how making the Asian food. My mother was never interested in other cultures of food. She was only into her heritage of food and never wanted to go outside of whatever she had a taste for.
Our mother pulled off to say a goodbye, Sodee’s exterior was small and bush of vegetables growing in the front of her house. The exterior didn’t have much else besides the rotting plaster on the exterior walls. We entered the interior of her house, it was very minimalist, old, and somewhat decaying. nothing on the walls besides some pictures of elephants. The textures of her walls felt bumpy and rough. I entered her place for the first time with Nicholas, My brother. He had loved her cooking as much as I did. I’d enter her damp unrenovated kitchen with my brother and I. would help her cut up some of the ingredients. Like Scallions’ and peppers. We’d help her make a dish called “Thai pork” with rice. She had many ingredients that I haven’t seen before. A lot of those ingredients were from her marketplace, she was running a supermarket that she had built with her family’s inheritance. She had this special siracha that tasted completely different from the one you’d usually get from the grocery store. The secret though, was the extra garlic that gave the dish its bold spicy flavor. We still have her recipes that she written down from a long time ago. They’re old, but the quality of the paper holds up, it sits on the refrigerator like it was yesterday. Untouched, yellowed and dry. But I could never make it like she did. She was excellent at cooking. But I was terrible. But keep in mind, I was about 10 years old. I wanted to explore cooking as much as my brother did. This had led us to introduce us to other tastes of culture to our family. Sodsee came to the USA look for a job in architecture. She was studying over from her hometown in Chung Mai, Thailand. A town that preserves the old city, but maintaining a modern environment. The school system was divided as a boy school and girl school. But they could go to either school if you had wanted to study another subject. She had finished school and wanted to start over in America. She told me a story once of her boss hiring her because of how calm she was when instructed to schematics again. A lot of the workers quit because the boss of the place wasn’t really a person that would let you off easy. He was a guy that wanted everything perfected. Later in time, technology was growing more rapidly in the late 80’s and 90’s. Computers where being introduced into workplaces and her boss wanted her to learn how to use computer. She only knew how to draw the schematics and blueprints, which lead to the inevitable of losing her job. Unfortunately, had nowhere else to turn. So, she put an ad to put babysitting in the newspaper. It was easier for her to travel because near her place. It was a more convenient. I greatly admired her personality. She always remained calm even at the tensest situations. She forgot to pay at a toll both because she thought It was free parking Sunday and the guy came out of his cramped both and gave her an earful. She had remained calm, and understood what she had done wrong. without making a ginormous scene. We finished cooking and sat down, I was starving, Like a Camel in the Sahara. So, I dived right in, and the taste of the pork was spicy, sweet and tangy. The rice, was sticky, it sticks to the roof of your mouth. Some of it can stay on your clothes if you’re a slob. This food wasn’t something you’d taste at one of those Asian American restaurants. No, it was truly the authentic cuisine! We finished eating. and I had looked around all’s I see is the empty space. No materialist items. Such as a TV, computer, car and phone. I had asked; “Don’t you have a TV or computer I could use?” I asked; “No, “Sodsee replied I wondered why she doesn’t even bother to have a TV or a computer? It seemed strange. But in an intriguing way. I wondered If she was living in the 21st century? Most people have these common items for everyday use. So I was intrigued in the state that she was in. So I had asked to fill the void of uncertainty; “Why don’t you have a computer or a television?” She gets up a takes a breath. And says; “Because materials have no value to us” “Do you care to explain?” She explained a specific term in Buddhism called “Taṇhā” Which refers to Thirst, desire and longing. Which then is an extension of “Dukkha” which is the meaning of “un-satisfactoriness”. The Term “Dukkha” is what we all have in ourselves. Everybody experiences Dukkha, either they go through the pain of lost loved one, or the suffering of debts. for some people, are what I describe as Taṇhā. Our Desires can leave us unsatisfied. “I reply; “What about Christmas! People buy presents they feel happy!” Sodsee Replies; “That is where both “Dukkha” and “Tanha” come in, those people will eventually be unsatisfied with what they are given. then will keep wanting more to satisfy themselves. Sodsee was raised a Buddhist. She was more invested then I was in religion. Her parents had introduced her to a temple at a very young age. She had grown a liking to what the monks had told her. in contrast of me with Christianity. Christmas, had lost its true meaning of celebration and turned into a capitalist buy-fest on the first week of black Friday. This doesn’t mean some people don’t purely celebrate Christmas on tradition. It just means that Christmas cannot be truly celebrated when all you’re asking for is presents and money. It made no sense to me at first. The terms itself are hard to pronounce since I don’t speak Sanskrit. But as I began to think deeper and as time went on. All of what she was saying made absolute sense of why she had nothing in her house. Lots of people have attached to items that have no meaning. Often feeling unsatisfied with what they’re handed of course. most of us have leaned onto items for happiness like a TV. Unless you can give you a meaning. Then there isn’t a purpose to have anything besides food, water, shelter and clothing. She also never wanted anything wasted like food or clothing. We had to finish our meals or she wouldn’t serve these meals ever again. But it was for a good reason. People complain about certain livestock, wood and other mammals are extinct but we as species, are to blame. Our world has turned into a trash dump filling the land with preservatives and not with organics and artificiality. She’d take anything she found on the streets and fertilize it for 8 months. The jar smelled like Compost, as you’d expect. But, it’s use was so versatile. Its most prominent use was for zits and pimples. The smell was so strong that it burned a homeland for the zits. After I had left that day, what Sodsee had told those days had stuck in my mind for a long time. Those teachings were branches to lead me on a different path. Reading practices from not only Buddhism, but its other branch Hinduism and other religions. I was raised a catholic my entire life. It had changed my perspective on the world. The home that she had lived in, was rundown. So, we never could go back there for quite some time. She moved back to Thailand and sold her house to support her supermarket she owned. I missed her house, the contents were nothing but old newspapers and plants. How I feel about this place is different from my real home that I’d live in. The space made me move around more and clear my mind. Even though the color of the interior wasn’t my forte. She still comes to my house and delivers food that she made. The same way she had made it from when we would go to her house. I but it isn’t the same as going to her house. It had an atmosphere that touches a different place in my heart. I hope to visit her exact home in Bangkok, Thailand one day. One of my true goals was to get into a university in Thailand and visit her. She had truly inspired me.
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Here is where I blog for our English Composition class. I am a student at DCCC and is 22 years old.
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