Such a simple question, yet when it was asked of me today I felt somewhat ashamed. lol

I went to the staff room to warm up my left over pork chops LOL and kumala that I had brought from home for lunch and was pleasantly surprised to see my co-worker in the staff room warming up her food as well. She had her lunch in one of those big fancy containers that held several other smaller sized containers. I mean it just looked very put together and very fancy! Mines was in a huge Tupperware container (and I had to bring the biggest one because I needed room to cut up my pork chops, you know?! lol) that was wrapped in a Safeway plastic bag. lol

So imagine my surprise when she turned around to ask, “Hey Pele, what’s for lunch?” I hesitated for a minute, contemplating whether to tell her a lie or not… telling her that I had brought a salad (or a sandwich) but I knew that if I did, she might ask me further questions like, “Oh what kind of salad do you have?” or “What kind of sandwich did you make?” Because, if she did – I probably would’ve caved and just said, “Ok Ok Ok – I lied, I brought pork chops!” LOL

After she warmed up her food and left, I went back to my office to eat my lunch behind closed doors. But as I was sitting there eating my pork chops, I thought about how this isn’t the first time I’ve been ashamed of what I had brought for lunch.

In my primary school years, my Dad was the stay at home “mom” while my mom went to school. We had just moved to Fiji and trying to make friends and fit in seemed so hard at first. My Dad was responsible for packing our lunches and I remember during lunch break, we all sat together under this big pavilion eating our lunch. The kids around me took out their lunches and they ALL had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, with fruits, cheese and chips etc. I remember thinking, “oh wow! I must’ve missed the memo that today was bring peanut-butter-sandwiches-day!” I slowly reached inside my bag to grab my lunch out and the girl sitting next to me asked, “Hey, what did you bring for lunch?” I remember sheepishly answering, “I don’t know. My Dad packed my lunch” and opening my lunch box to find our left over lu and manioke from the night before inside.

I don’t remember if I ever did tell my Dad, but he continued to put our left over dinner into our lunch boxes and I remember just before school started I would quickly eat my lunch and then when lunch time came around I just choose to go play instead! lol

Anyways, I find myself consciously doing the same thing when I’m packing my kids lunch for the day. I spend so much time (and money) planning in advance what it is I need to buy in terms of snacks, chips & yogurt for the kids, because I fear if I pack our left over dinner for lunch, that they would be mocked because of it!

What I’m trying to say is that, even though I felt somewhat ashamed that I brought pork chops for lunch, it didn’t stop me from inhaling it. LOL What can I say, it was a dang gooooood pork chop! 🙂 And now, I’m ready to go into food coma and wake up for dinner tonight. lol jokes!