What's your idea of the most delectable dinner of your life? A date with your romantic partner in a swanky restaurant that serves classy entrees? A grand party highlighting a buffet table groaning under the weight of all sorts of food?
My workmates and I were doing a community service project with a very humble family who lived along the shoreline of Davao Gulf. The husband worked as a mason and the wife hawked food at the town's bus terminal. Together with their three children, the family dwelt in a tiny shack facing the deep blue sea.
After noticing how decrepit the hut was, we offered to help them build something more durable. Together with the couple, we affixed palm shingles on the worn-out roof and repaired the craked posts. We had grown up in the concrete confines of the city and really didn't know how to install these rural fixtures. But the grateful head of the house assisted us and somehow, we were able to make their house more livable.
The family had nothing to offer us in return except the bounty of the ocean. They caught crabs and, with a few vegetables - a small overripe tomato, a stub of ginger, a few greens - thrown into the pot, steamed them. When the pot was placed on the worn-out table laid out by the gravelly ground, I tipped the cover and out came what was perhaps the most bewitching aroma that has ever wafted into my nostrils. It smelled so divine!
I slurped a spoonful of the broth and felt like grabbing the entire pot. That was how enjoyable that seemingly humdrum meal was. In the late afternoon breeze and with the rhythmic lapping of the waves against the nearby rocks, I think I realized how simply happiness could be achieved. And had I not spent my earlier years doing acts of service, I would have never experienced such kinds of wonderful moments.