Hangry

Raphaelle occasionally mixes words up a little when she speaks English, particularly "angry" and "hungry." However, this is really rather appropriate, as we find that the two feelings often occur in conjunction with one another. For instance, yesterday we had 6 students from Yale visiting the home, and at dinner they had their own table with a plate of fresh tomatoes and onions. Neither the children, the caregivers, or the other volunteers were given fresh vegetables. Ironically, the visitors didn't even want to eat the tomatoes, as most of them had only been in India for a few days and they still had the traveler's fear of raw fruit and vegetables instilled in them. We normal volunteers, on the other hand, have enough experience to know that it's probably not as bad for you to risk sickness from eating raw vegetables as it is to not have them at all, and when we saw that the Yale students had tomatoes and weren't even appreciating them, we felt a little bit hangry. Elysia and Raphaelle sat at the table and stewed for a bit about the unfairness of the situation, but I took some action about it in the form of going over and asking "hey, aren't you gonna eat those tomatoes?" Upon receiving their permission, I took a few tomato slices, after which Elysia, realizing that the tomatoes were remaining completely unclaimed by the Yale volunteers, went over and politely absconded with the whole plate. We who had felt so deprived reveled in our newly won fresh vegetables. My improvised wrap of chappati and beans was dramatically enhanced by a few tomatoes. Elysia ate whole slices with reckless abandon, caveman style, like she would never have another chance to eat tomatoes again. We felt slighly foolish and still rather annoyed but at least temporarily triumphant, and the hanger dissipated, at least until the next inevitable slight in our continuing line of kitchen-related conflicts of stinginess...