Fake Out

Date: 9-19-07

As I walked home from work I prayed with everything inside me that the meal wouldn't be spit-sauce and boulle'. I'd loved it last week but now this week and Quinine for Malaria has left me wanting to barph at the site of it. I surveyed the cooking pots on the coal in the courtyard and tried to say a happy "Bonjour, ca va?" as I spotted the creamy peanut butter being prepared to be poured in with the boiling okra. Oh boy..I thought as my stomach turned inside out. Am I gonna make it another 8 months? I ate 3 bites and had to quit, telling them it was my Quinine. For the 3rd time since being here I stayed the whole day with my family without returning to the hospital to e-mail/eat American food. Little baby steps. But unfortunately that meant dinner with my family!

As I watched them roast the feathers off the chicken I wondered what might be in store for me. I immediately knew it was leftovers when one of the girls headed for the food-hut which I have fondly named the cockroach hut. I watched as they washed off whatever might haven let by those nasty critters off the boulle throw it in some water to boil for 5 minutes and "voila" leftover's of cold peanut spit sauce and boulle on a dirty plate appeared in front of me. Two of the girls dug in, I tried one bite and the stomach said uhhhh, no. So I faked. I stuck my head in the light of the moon and acted like I grabbed some boulle, acted like I dipped and then sucked on my fingers for a llittle while and chewed. Boy what nutrition. I knew eating with my fingers would come in handy.my family never knew, and you never could've accomplished that with a spoon and eating from a bowl by yourself!!!!