it's a malaysian thing

(source)

At camp post mortem, many people touched on the issue of the food served on the camp site. Diverse views were voiced out - some thought the food was the suckiest of all camps, others thought the food was the best of all camps. Strange, but taste is relative...I think.

That got me thinking about a conversation I had with Encore on the second day lunch - I asked him how was the food, mentioning that I didn't think it was that good. His reply surprised me - "Gou chi hou le" (Chinese for "As long as we've got food that's good enough").

Yeah, the quality of food was mediocre to some - but the whole purpose of the food is to nourish us, to fill our stomachs for energy. And the other purpose of eating we always overlook - the gathering of people over a meal. Eating with people fosters a bond that you can't get through any team-building activity. Just ask families who make weekend dinners compulsory, and cell group leaders who insist on serving food at the end of every meeting.

I hope that at camp, the campers got to bond over food with people they rarely talk to, and that new friendships were made from meal times. I did!