fish remains.

Overall I feel like I've adjusted fairly well to my new surroundings. I am slowly learning the language, have gotten over the time change, and am becoming more and more comfortable and confident doing things on my own. I have even cleaned my plate every time an unfamiliar Liberian dish was put in front of me- until today.

Up until lunch this afternoon I've enjoyed rice with pumpkin soup, rice with cabbage soup, rice with peanut soup, rice with lentil soup, and rice with collard greens. Today's meal, however, tasted absolutely foul to me, and instead of sucking it up (like I should have), I asked my friend Debbie what was in it. "Fish remains," she replied.

I attempted another bite after I heard the secret ingredient, and barely got it down. "I can't eat this," I whispered to my boss, Seren. "Too spicy?" she asked. "Not really..." I said.

Just this Wednesday I learned a lesson from James and Pastor Roberts, two Liberian men, about how you should always accept food that is offered to you. 'NDBFF,' or 'Never dress back from food,' they said. Now I felt like I had to finish my fish remains and rice or I would deeply offend our Liberian cook, Dee.

Starting to panic, I discreetly explained to Seren that knowledge of the fish remains was freaking me out too much to swallow. To my surprise, the four girls I was sitting with offered to each take a little food off my plate so I didn't have to finish it. Thank. The. Lord.