B.L.O.G.

Food is really something you grow up with.  You do not suddenly develop a taste for snails or avocado at the age of forty.  You gradually start eating those “strange” foods while you are a toddler because your mother constantly asks you to try at least one bite.  I remember giving my daughter Isabelle a coffee spoon of avocado and she did not really like it; but she did not gag, so it was OK.  My mother used to say that if they gag, you have to stop making them eat; but if they do not like it, then you can try again the next time.  To make a long story short, Isabelle now loves avocado, and other “strange” Southeast Asian foods. I originally come from Laos from a Colonial French family and I was raised to be French, but unfortunately, and to my mother’s dismay, I am very American.  Nevertheless I am an American with an intensive background in cultures and culinary.  I gave my grandchildren escargots, mussels, crabs (all kind of seafood), different ve...

Haiti, a country I learned to love.  I was not sure what to make of Port-au-Prince when I first arrived  (this will have to be in my next posting) ; then Barnett forwarded an email about participating in a Progressive Dinner.  I've always liked Progressive Dinners, and we did a lot of that in the Foreign Service.  I called the person responsible for coordinating the event and asked if we might end the evening at my house with desserts and coffee.  The answer was "yes."  That was my introduction to Robin.  It was a successful event, everyone went out of his/her way to make all of us newbies welcome.  I made lots and lots of Lao and Thai desserts using the mangoes and coconuts I found in Petionville. In a corner of my living room, I had a comfortable arm chair, a lamp, and a small table covered with books that I would pick up and read every morning while sipping coffee.  In particular, I like the Daily Spiritual Reading.  Robin actu...

Laos was not exactly an assignment for me since I was home, and I didn't depend on the American Community, and what was in itself a great thing.  Afghanistan was our first post, and back in 1976, spouses were not allowed to work.  Therefore, it was a lot of gatherings, shopping, book club meetings, thrift shop visits, traveling around the country  (which was a good thing) , cooking sessions, and of course parties. Those parties that ended in the morning, and I remember having to carry my shoes home I danced all night. Then there were the "dreaded" luncheons. I was in one of those dreaded luncheons at my neighbor's home.  The Ambassador and the Director’s wives were there.    I was about 26 years old, young, hot-headed, and quite obnoxious, “the hoity-toity princess” with a very loose mouth, I might add.    Now that I think about it, I was not sure why they invited me to begin with.    I was not always a pleasant person.    And...

I woke up yesterday and realized that I really have nothing to do all day; but I don’t mind having nothing to do all day.  Of course, I can find things to do, all kind of things to do to keep me busy; but do I really want that? I think not... My daughter Isabelle said, “Mom, you are like a raft floating down the Mississippi River, sometimes it is fast, sometimes it is slow.”  That is a good analogy.  I am retired now; I had just spent almost two months in France and Luxemburg and had a blast.  I am home and very happy to be home doing nothing... Today is a good day.  Tomorrow is tomorrow.  The future? Who cares!!! I am a raft floating down the Mississippi River and I don’t care where it is going to take me.  I am living and enjoying whatever life I have left in me to the fullest.  If it is doing nothing, then it is doing nothing... October 2010? Not sure, but I will probably be in France attending a Mauritanian R...

Monic (Chounramani) Kraft and Laure (Souvannavong-Drouot) Chessin I was in France and Luxemburg having a good old time.  I drove so much.  I was constantly on the road visiting someone somewhere.  When I took the car back to the airport, the woman at the desk said, “You drove a lot.”  Hello? Isn’t that what I was supposed to do, drive? I guess she is not used to seeing over 10 thousand kilometers driven in a month and a half.  It is France, after all. I hooked up with friends I had not seen in ages.  When I said in ages, I really mean in ages like as far back as 1972.  I went to Normandy to meet my childhood friend Monic.  We were teenagers, growing up in Laos together.  She was eighteen when she married Ken and left.  I was devastated to see my one and only friend leaving me behind.  As soon as she was gone, I resigned from the Colombo Plan Hospital where we were both working as nurses.  Eventually, I married Barnet...

Unfinished Statue... (Written in March of 2010) It was one of those long days in Antananarive that became one of those nights… I was tired and I went to bed early.  The phone rang, and it was a long lost friend calling from France.  They had no idea that I was already in lala land dreaming about being home, in Spotsylvania.  After we talked, I tried to go back to sleep, but sleep evaded me.  I left my bed; I walked out on the balcony, sat in the cold misty Malagasy air with an Air France blanket wrapped around my body.  I watched the faraway lights, and thinking to myself, "There is life out there", and I wondered what they were doing and what they were thinking.  As I walked back, my reflection in the mirror on the wall knocked my soul out of its socket, and I looked at myself for the first time in forty years, really looked at myself. I was wearing a white old lace convent-type granny nightgown.  Not only did I look dumpy, frumpy, but my grayish ...