Yog nyob rau lub caij no Canadian no feem ntau yog hmo uas tau npaj txhij txog nplua ntawm kab tsib coj ib lub txhab nyiaj khoom noj khoom haus rau lub neej.
Seva zaub mov txhab cia nyiaj hauv Mississauga twb nyuam qhuav tau peb zaub mov txhua lub limtiam ntawm cov zaub mov xa tuaj los ntawm peb qhov chaw hab txhawb tis. Ntawm lub thawv expected kua zaub, cereal, nplej zom thiab ua tau ib daim ntawv qhia txog nplua uas ntev yellowish li xyoob sticks. Feem coob ntawm peb cov neeg twb tsis muaj lub tswv yim no nreeg tau zoo li cas thiab vim li cas peb yuav tsum tau lawv. Txawj cov feeb tsis meej, peb tuaj pab dawb traveled kom ib tug nqa ib saib cov kev nplua thiab xav tias nws yuav raug kab tsib.
Paub txog tias yog li cas tseem tsis teb cov lus nug txog ntawm "li cas ua koj noj?"Khiav luv rau lub sij hawm ua ntej pib qhov kev ua haujlwm, peb tuaj pab dawb tshuav tej kab tsib lub sticks hauv peb cheeb tsam sorting uas peb cov neeg tau yuav pab lawv tus kheej kom lawv xav xijpeem. We opened our doors and the initial rush of families soon filled our reception area. As they made their way to the sorting area to collect their orders, most of our clients looked at the sugarcane, shrugged and moved on. About half an hour into our shift, not a single client had taken any of the sugarcane.
Just then, an elderly Carribean-Canadian lady slowly walked into the sorting area. She looked casually over at the pile of sticks, stopped, and immediately yelled “Shugaacane!” Rushing over to the pile, she picked up a sugarcane stick and instinctively snapped it in half over her knee. She took one end of the half-stick, put it in her mouth and proceeded to strip off the bark and suck out the sugary juice. Several bites in, she soon realized that all activity around her had ceased and all eyes were on her as she devoured the sugarcane. “What?” she remarked to the family next to her, “haven’t any of you ever had sugarcane?”
Recognizing that none of the families around her had ever seen sugarcane never mind actually chewing it, she proudly started giving impromptu lessons. Especially valuable was the tip to use your back molars to strip off the barks as you might lose your front teeth if you tried.
Within 15 minutes everyone in the food bank was walking around chewing on a chunk of sugarcane in their mouths and piles of chewed bark started piling up in the garbage bins. Regardless of whether they originally came from the tropics or grew up in cold-climate countries, a warehouse full of Canadians came together over a random shipment of sugarcane.
- Kulvir hauv Mississauga, Ontario