October 6

Had game night tonight in the institute.  I did, indeed, take all the left over buns and the few left over cookies to the institute.  I just opened the bags they came in as walked around distributing them.  It was fun, until the begging for food got to me.

I am not sure if it comes from the village culture here, but every time I serve food at the institute many of the YSA men (not women generally) will ask for seconds.  It has amazed me that even when they can see that there is not enough for every one to have two or three, they guys will ask if they can have more than one.  I has driven me crazy.  It does not matter how much I make it is never enough. I told Scott some time ago that I was not going to make treats for the institute class anymore, because it made me feel bad that I never had enough.  He talked me into continuing cooking.

Well it hit me tonight that it was not that I did not make enough; it was that no matter how much I made it would never be enough.  I do not know what happened to me, but I snapped after one of the guys, Phillipe, asked me three times for another roll before I had had a chance to give everyone one.  I grabbed him by the arm and told him to come with me.  I took him to the back door entryway and asked him if he was planning on serving a mission.  When he said yes, I told him that asking for seconds was bad manners all over the world and that if he did it as a missionary people in other countries would think badly of him.  His reply was to ask how he was to get seconds if he could not ask for them.  I told him that he would just have to do without seconds or he could hope that whoever the cook was would offer him seconds.  I was back with the YSAs before another guy asked if he could have another bun (his third).  Again I took him for a manners talk.  After the fourth manners talk, I just announced to the entire lounge that I was declaring this "manners night."  Everyone laugh, but I spent the entire night talking about manners.  Even the YSA men began to say "The only place I can ask for food is at home.  The only place I can ask for food is at home."  They all were good natured about it which is indicative of their basic good cheer.

It is of some note, that I took about 8 dozen small hamburger buns (rolls really) and the 40 YSAs ate everyone of them----plain.