Been too long - Can't wait to cook soon!

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I must preface this by saying that there are many things I like about this country, however there are several things that I don’t like and even detest about this country. As I have already mentioned before, the cuisine here is very very average. Basically my biggest problem with this country is that they eat things here before they mature. And honestly it just boggles my mind, I just say in my head why in the fuck would I eat that. For example, why would I eat green bananas or plantains? Nature is telling me that they are not ready to eat. They are fucking GREEN! And of course viveres (any starchy vegetable such as green banana/plantain, yucca, squash, etc), who wants to just eat them plain after you just boil them. I can’t believe no one has thought of a sauce or something to do to make them more appealing. I will say it here, Dominican cooking can be more bland than American cooking. Ooh so a little story to just quickly shove in here, I was in Cotui with my project partner, Mateo, and I said to him that I hadn’t eaten breakfast as we were in a guagua (pickup truck…we just bought the zinc sheets for my roof!). The driver drops us off at a little comedor (diner sort of…eatery…something like this), and I entter the place with Mateo. I then tell him that I didn’t want this food, Dominican food. I just wanted a box of fruit and pan tostado (2 pieces of bread with some kind of sliced meat and cheese and then put on a press). So naturally, the waitress comes up and she says you don’t want arenque (some kind of salted meat, but not good), or bacalao (dried fish that is salted, I can eat it, but it sucks), or mango (boiled green bananas that are then smashed), or some boiled yucca or green bananas? And in one fellow swoop I responded with a, “No, I don’t want it.” Also I should mention that there were ants all over the plastic tubs that housed the already cooked items.

So lets ends this with a funny story. I was talking with a neighbor of mine and then realized that I needed to eat lunch. Hence, I left, but one of the younger children (he is like 6 or so) followed me back to my house. I then grabbed my lunch (if you said rice and beans, YOU WIN), and sat outside underneath the gazebo looking structure. Unfortunately, the kid joined me and throughout the whole time I was eating he proceeded to sing songs about evangelicalism. After telling the kid to stop singing like 10 times, I went to take a piss near the latrine, which is located in the back of the house. I pull my pants down and start to piss like I always do with reckless abandon and freedom, however, the little boy followed me and we proceeded to have the following quick conversation spontaneously:

Boy: I can’t believe it looks the same. (As he is staring at my penis)

Tal: Of course they look the same. The only difference is that mine is whiter than yours.

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