Yesterday, I was asked if I wanted to pull the school corn. Of course, I did!!! I love my garden at home and could not wait to pull corn. I even showed up early I was so excited. The corn is not planted in rows or at least I could not see any.

So I am thinking I am really pulling corn. Nope! Like many things I do here, I do not always know the real meaning. Focused on picking corn, I turned around to see the principal and a sea of students behind me. I am running around picking corn and putting it in bags, when Yoga finally stops me and says, “Trish. You are not supposed to pick the corn. This is a photo opportunity for the principal. She invited you out here to act like you are picking corn. They will fill the bags with corn and you get your picture made with the corn. She does not want you to work. The students will pick the corn after the photos are taken.” I wondered why she kept running up beside me and holding up corn or picking the corn while someone took a photo.

The principal is the woman in purple and yellow. At the end, she got her perfect photo!!! (At the end of the photo slides.)

Things always seem to have a way of coming back around. This is one of those stories.

When I first worked with Abdul in 2019, we were eating at a cafe on the way to collect data. I asked about what he was eating and he said Bakso, which is a bowl of meatballs in soup. At least that is what it looks like to me. I was told it is not soup! It is something else. To me it looks like meatball soup.

As he was finishing up this delectable dish of meatball soup, he tells me a story about his colleague at the university. His friend did a DNA test of the meatballs being sold at food stalls around campus. The findings show the meatballs contained the DNA of chicken, beef, pork and …. wait for it …. can you hear the drum roll … rat!!!

I did not care that it was rat because I always take my food and NEVER eat the food outside my house. Which means I eat apples, dragon fruit, peanut butter and crackers and canned tuna. Now you know why I get so skinny here.

When I am traveling with a new group and we stop to eat, I always ask if they are getting Bakso. Of course, I always tell the story about the rat DNA. Yoga, Deb, Riska and I went out dinner and Yoga got Bakso. I told him the story about the rat and pig (remember they do not eat pork) DNA. I think they are more upset about the pork than the rat when I tell the story. I am more upset about the rat. In the video, I am picking the corn. You will hear me say something is eating it. Then Yoga says it is squirrels. You need to listen closely to the video to hear the rest of the story … He remembered the rat story. He is so funny!

I took the title for this post from Pulp Fiction. Do not watch the clip if really bad cursing bothers you. But the way they talk about eating pig and rat is so philosophical.

This is my video of picking corn.