G.B.T. (Goodness Beneath Tin)

This article was written for the Khamar-Dhaban Camp Report (featured in a picture below):

A few potatos, carrots, onions, some oil, a can of meat and pasta or rice--that's the staple meal of GBT volunteers in the Khamar-Dhaban. It is a hearty diety for the volunteer trail builders who spend hours unearthing rocks, lopping branches and moving soil. When they return to camp they are rewarded with bottomless bowls of hot soup and cups full of steaming tea. Volunteer Bach from Germany commented, "The salad is always good and I found the fish soup good for me...everytime I'm full."

However, a recent poll found that sweetened condensed milk by the heaping spoonful in tea, on bread, with cookies or alone is addicting and absolutely necessary to maintaining a health happy work camp. "Without the gooey goodness, I'm not sure I could survive each day" commened a blonde Russian volunteer. Even after multiple projects, Sally from Bostom is almost speechless about her obsession, "what can you say about something that is so perfect?"

At the end of the day, when all the soup is gone and everyone is sitting by the campfire, ther eis just one thing they all speak of, that Goodness Beneath Tin (GBT). "I don't care if each spoonful is plugging my arteries, it's delicious," said Johnny from Portland, OR. In ten years when I remember my two weeks in the Khamar-Dhaban, I'll remember spoonfuls of sticky sweet milk with every meal--the real reward after a hard day's work.

Tea Ceremony Style

This wasn't my first tea ceremony and it won't be my last. Tea ceremonies are always more than I expect and they are always really overwhelming, in both an exciting and an exhausting way. It started with a multi-course lunch of rice, miso, grilled fish, tofu, vegetables, pickels, fish eggs, a fish stomach (?), a stinky flower, and sashimi. After lunch we had our first course of sweets and a thick tea. After thick tea we had another course of sweets and thin tea. After some more ceremonies and formalities, we finished with a plate of huge strawberries, some more formalities, a photograph and good-byes. Here are the photo highlights: