First impressions of the Fruit from Outer Space

Or perhaps I should call it the Fruit From Unda Da Sea. I can't figure out whether it looks more like a Tribble or a sea anemone. Maybe it's more like Dr. Seuss.

Dan saw them by the side of the road as we were travelling back from Yaounde. "Lycees! I had those in Indonesia! We have to stop and get some!" "Some" ended up being 500 francs worth (about a dollar): about fifteen or twenty little red balls that, just by their looks, seemed to defy the idea that they might be good to eat.

A lycee (lee-chee-- also called "rambutan" in Indonesia) is bright red, with 2-inch rubbery spikes all over it-- but the skin breaks apart surprisingly easily to reveal a shiny, translucent white flesh. You pop the entire white part in your mouth and chew it for a long, long time, until no more sweet juice comes off the pit. Despite the fruit's feisty attempts at looking fierce... we ate them all.

And now we have about fifteen or twenty little seeds, covered with a remnant of white stuff. I wonder how hard it is to grow lycee trees (doesn't that sound like Dr. Seuss?)...

Can anyone tell me...

what the appeal of the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" is?

 

As someone who has not seen the movie... I find the reports very conflicting.

 

I have never heard anyone say, "Oh, that's such a good movie!"  Not once.  The following represents a sample of what I have heard:

 

"Oh, it's so dumb."

"It's really funny... as long as it's 3am."

"Well, it's sort of a cult movie, like Monty Python."

"It's a series of disconnected clips with no plot."

"I watched it and went, 'Oh, that's why people homeschool.' "

"It's, well, really weird."

 

But the consensus seems to be that it has somehow taken the college-and-under population of the United States by storm.  Everyone quotes it (the main quotations being "Go-osh!", "Yea-ah," and "You're trying to ruin my life.", I think).  Why?  Can anyone help me with this?

 

And is it really worth seeing the movie?  Is it that much of a cultural phenomenon?

At long last

I figure that three and a half weeks is quite long enough to neglect a blog-- even when an international adjustment is involved.  I guess I just have to hope that the two or three people who check my blog haven't given up on me in that amount of time.  :-)

 

It's been a tougher adjustment than I thought it would be.  You don't expect there to be much to adjust to if you've only been gone for a month... but it's been almost as disorienting as my first few weeks in country last year, at the beginning of August.

 

But it's good to be back, too.  --It's one of those situations which make it painfully obvious that I'm not home yet.  Even if I'd lived all my life in the same country, that nagging unsatisfied homesickness-- Augustine's restlessness-- would have been part of me... but I might never have known it.  Right now, it is abundantly clear that no matter where I am, California, Cameroon, or Mars, something that I love is missing.  Until I make it Home.

 

"They agreed that they were no more than foreigners and nomads here on earth.  And obviously people who talk like that are looking forward to a country they can call their own.  If they had meant the country they came from, they would have found a way to go back.  But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland."  (Hebrews 11:13-16, NLT)

Two notes about technicalities

Since I'm posting via email by shortwave radio and won't have internet access most of the time...

 

1.  I won't be able to read comments, sadly.  If you want to post comments for other readers of the blog to see (hopefully there will be more than two in the future), that's fine-- but if you want to comment directly to me, use my email address. 

 

2.  I also can't tell what the formatting looks like when I post via email.  If my lines are "wrapping," or something else weird is happening, will you drop me a quick note and let me know? 

 

Thanks!  Much appreciated!