Chapter 2: I doubt it was something I DIDN'T eat

My great aunt has always said that the two worst things in the world are nausea and loneliness.

Yesterday I woke up at 2 am and couldn't get back to sleep before my wake up time of 5:30. It was just one of those things, no reason for it that I could see. But it was all it took for me to get sick. A few hours later I was sharing my lunch with the toilet, the greedy bastard. My host mother mentioned that it was probably because I didn't eat enough for dinner. I refrained from blaming her cooking for the rock concert in my intestines.

As far as illness goes, it has been fairly mild. I've had much worse back in the states. But there's nothing like being ill to make you homesick. I called my mom, and felt my first real pangs of being away.

But my family here has been great. They made me soup (which the greedy toilet also stole from me), and they are currently making me my favorite dish. Their concern lead them to knock on my door at 5am, and again at 6, and again at 6:30. When I tried to explain that I should probably sleep, they explained that I should probably eat, and my mom sat next to me and watched me (grinning sweetly) until I ate what she thought was an appropriate amount of soup. Two ibuprofens later I was sleeping again, and feeling better already.

And I'm mostly over it now, only a day of feeling under the weather is not bad at all. My friend stopped by with candy and a hard drive full of movies, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I watched American History X. I probably should have just watched Family Guy like all the normal kids.

A word on food: carbs. Carbs carbs carbs. White rice, fried potato, xima (pronounced sheema) which is essentially corn mash. This has the effect of making all the guys skinnier and all the women fatter, or so we've been told by all the Volunteers we have spoken to so far. It is a slow quest to explain to my family that I want more vegetables, fruit and meats. My family has been receptive, however.

Now I get eggs in the morning sometimes (bathed, soaked, lathered in oil), more fish, and the fruits that are in season, which these days are apples, bananas, and papaya. The bananas are small and appear overripe, but are delicious--a sharp contrast to the ginormous, yellow mutant bananas in the Westwood Ralph's. Papaya does a number on your gag reflex until you get used to it.

My most recent campaign has been my most important: peanut butter, of which there is only one brand, "Black Cat," which my family thought the substance was actually called. I now get it almost every meal. God bless America.