What do you Eat?

    If you don't like rice you are in trouble. There may be ways around eating rice but they have yet to be determined. In our
time here I have heard stories that the National government has worked very hard over the last 15 years to create a national
identity and also promote all that Indonesia has to offer. In doing this the President realized to promote out the country
must try to experience what the rest of the world is doing. This included a "no eating rice day" because Indonesians feel
eating rice is the only way one can be full. So before the actual day happened the campaign was limited to no eating rice for
one meal. The hopes of the government was that people would have to venture out and find other styles of food, this is
extremely difficult outside of the major cities. With that said in Jakarta there was reports that people would go to McDonald's
for a meal but then still found a street vendor to buy rice from afterwards. This seems like nothing but when living here you
soon realize this is no light issue. The family I live with makes amazing food and I am thankful for that but it is funny
being served noodles and still asked why I am not loading my plate with rice. With rice/noodles comes Tempe, tofu, eggs,
vegetables, and sambal (a spicy tomato based sauce which can be made about as hot as one can stand). All the foods mentioned
will find there way to oil. Our daily intake of food has been an adjustment but after some time I think we have figured out
what we really like and what foods we need to eat more of to balance the diet. One thing is for sure you will not go hungry.
The fruit is amazing here and there are 5-10 fruits that I have never tried or seen before coming to Indonesia. Bananas comes
in a dozen different forms and are the best I have had anywhere.
    Another aspect of life here that I have come to appreciate is how food is supplied. Living in a village I have been able to walk
miles of farmland that range from avocado, corn, eggplant, grapes, and of course a lot of rice.
Everything is managed by individuals and sold daily to the regional markets. The markets are stuffed full of food and are
very raw in appearance. Most villages have people who go to the regional markets when they open at 1:00am. They buy as much as they
can and then return to the village and sell. The local women go to the village store around 5:00am. Men traditionally
do not cook so the Wife starts cooking early enough to provide a meal for everyone at breakfast. This meal will be big enough to last through until dinner. At dinner more food is cooked if needed. You learn quickly American sanitary standards are lost after day one and yes you definitely have to experience the "D-iariah" a few times in the first month.
Next week we head to our permanent site for two years. There we will teach English at two different public high schools. As of now we know very little about the area but are excited to explore the say way we have during training. The following pictures are from the last two weeks. We had a few days off to help around the village, so we helped with a preschool class that my host mother is the principle for. We also hiked a local mountain called Panderman with a group of volunteers and have explored around our village. Thanks to all for constant emails and prayers. It is also nice knowing how the Mavs and Rangers are doing.