Feijao e Arroz

Beans and rice. I think I have a love-hate relationship with beans and rice. I love that they are so healthy for you (of course, as usual, that depends on the way you make them, but for the most part). I love that they are so cheap. I love that if you don’t have anything else to eat, they are right there for you and you still get great protein. They are definitely plentiful here, that’s for sure. But, I have to say...not my favorite food by a long shot. Not even close.

The other night at our couples’ meeting that we have every Monday night, the speaker asked our favorite food and we went around professing our love for a specific thing. Mine was basically anything Mexican. Joel’s was stroganoff. But I was baffled...utterly shocked. In fact, Joel had to tell me to stop making faces (didn’t realize I was...I was just so in amazement). :-) A few of those people said “beans and rice.” Hello!! Are you serious?!?!?

Here’s the thing...they have it EVERY DAY!! It is served for lunch and most of the time a little serving of leftovers is given at supper too. They sometimes have other things too...a meat, some salad of some sort (sometimes that is more like what we’d call a relish or even salsa...chopped up tomatoes, onions, and green peppers), etc. But, yeah...every day. If I had Mexican every day (and not even the same food of the Mexican variety), that would cease to be my favorite. I asked Joel too and he said that yeah...if he had stroganoff every day, that would no longer be his favorite either. I was just seriously in shock. :-)

These people at our meeting are what would be comparable to middle class in the states too. They aren’t poor. They aren’t eating beans and rice because that’s the cheap thing to do and it’s the only thing they can afford...they aren’t doing it out of necessity. They have nice houses, nice cars, nice jobs...they don’t HAVE to eat beans and rice every single day of their lives. But, they want to. It’s very much a part of the culture here, no matter your financial status. But, still...to declare that as your favorite food when you’ve had it every day of your life (literally...I’m SO not exaggerating)...I’m still amazed.

Variety. It dawned on me the other day that that really kind of sums up what is not here that I miss. Not just in the category of food either. There is very little variety in cars here. Very little variety in stores. Very little variety in houses or yards (or walls really...that’s mostly all you see). There’s not much variety in the opportunities you have here either...not many different choices in the schooling you can have or where you can go for schooling...and it’s hard and very competitive.

It’s a simple life here. That definitely has its advantages, but also its drawbacks of course. It’s definitely different, esp. coming from the United States...the “land of opportunity,” where you have the world at your fingertips literally (importation is nice) and all the variety you’d ever want. But, it’s good here...just things like that are very interesting to me. It’s a nice life, but I do still try to stray away from feijao e arroz. :-)

P.S. Did you see who commented on my blog yesterday?!? The founder of Waterbirth Internation for heaven's sake!! I've read her book before, visited her website in previous pregnancies. But no...I hadn't contacted her at all...hadn't even visited her website with this pregnancy. I am amazed. I don't even know how she found my blog...assuming she did some kind of search. But, still...amazingly cool. Another God connection I'm thinking. Exciting.