Eating

853pm 31.8.8
One of the hardest things about being a pilgrim for me is eating. For someone else, it may be the loneliness or the inability to communicate basic things or the temperature, or the firmness of the beds, the coldness of the showers, or whatever. Everyone of us has things that would be difficult for us to handle on a pilgrimage.



For me, it’s eating. One thing that I value most about NET was their hospitality training. In specific, their rule that you eat whatever is given, unless it’d kill you. It’s only polite, and it also makes sense. These people prepared for you a meal they thought you’d like, why would you insult them by turning your nose up at it? The courteous thing to do is to eat, smile, and appreciate the love they put into it.

There is a problem though… You see, I’m allergic to pretty much everything. But even that doesn’t bother me, I’ll eat anything I’m allergic to (except hazelnuts and noticeable amounts of shrimp, because they could kill me). I’ll eat it, even knowing that I’ll become sick the next day, and may have a rash for a week. That’s fine with me, that’s my way of returning their hospitality.

I’m even okay with eating foods that I shouldn’t because I could get something fun, like giardia. (e.g., thin skinned fruits that you’re unsure of how they were washed).


(Coffee plants amidst trees)

Tonight for example, I sat down to a wonderful meal. It actually was very tasty, and I had mushrooms! Which was a first in India, and a treat for me by far! My problem (and I I do claim it as MY problem) is that I have always hated eating liver. And it’s not the kind of hate that’s like my hatred for eating kielbasa, because that kind of hatred is just because it’s bland and tasteless. I can get by that, and I do. My hatred of liver is perhaps one of my few hatreds of foods based off of a gag reflex. Liver tastes so much LIKE liver and like metallic rotted meat paste, that at the very taste of a hint of pure liver, my stomach tries to escape my body through my throat.

Yet my hatred of liver is something I’m working on. Why? Because it’s only polite and loving to eat what’s on your plate when you’re the guest of honor.

So tonight, forgetting that Indian cooking utilizes the WHOLE chicken, I unfortunately pulled some liver, heart, kidneys perhaps and also some white meat onto my plate. I can deal with kidneys, hearts and other organs, I don’t exactly have a taste for them, but my body can ingest them, and actually try to enjoy the fine details of their flavors. But liver, like I said already, my body just reacts at first bite. It’s not even something I can fight yet, it’s an auto reflex. Two times during dinner, I was deeply ashamed of my contorted face, and all I can hope and pray is that no one noticed. I was able to force the liver down, with the help of diluting it with the white meat and rice that remained on my plate.


(A man preparing snake repellent herbs)



It’s hard to be a pilgrim. To love another, you have to suffer. In ways that perhaps you’d prefer not to.

The family was fantastic! And the meal was overly generous, as I’ve discovered most Indians are with their guests. The highlight of my night was praying with them in their home as a family of Catholics.
924pm