If I ever eat Rice again, it will be too soon.

I like to eat. I like all kinds of food. There are very few things that I won't eat, I eat just about everything. No lie, everything, things that many people don't. However, for ten days until this past Sunday, I ate only rice (and beans for dinner). While this seemed like a good idea at the time (ten days before I started) I can now say I was wrong.

As suggested by our JVC February Newsletter, my community took on the challenge of a "Rice Week". I'm still a little confused as to why they called it "Rice Week" instead of "Rice Ten Days." Last time I checked, a week was seven days, not this week though, it was ten. Perhaps it's some sort of JVC lingo they forgot to tell us about, I don't know. Anyway, the rice week included a prayer service and different reflections to do throughout the week, all pretty legit stuff. This challenge was suggested as a way to be in solidarity with most developing countries of the world (specifically Haiti)who do live primarily off of rice and beans. And while I thought that it would be a great way to understand another way of life, eat simpler, and probably allow me to be more aware of other areas of my life, in many ways, it set me apart from my clients at work, and it prevented me from doing a lot of the things that I enjoy.

At work, dinner is usually a pretty fun time of the day. Especially in the corner house. MK usually helps cook, which he did all week, and is usually really proud of whatever he makes. He always has you test his sauce before he serves it to the others. And even if I don't really like it, I always find myself telling him how amazing it is. Well, this week was no different, except this week I had to reject the taste test. He was pretty understanding, but kept telling me I should treat myself. So every night last week when I was at work, we would sit down to dinner and I would pull out my rice and beans while I served meatloaf, italian sausage, shrimp alfredo, mashed potatoes, etc., etc., etc.. Most of the residents thought I was on a diet or that their food wasn't good enough for me (even though they know I'd choose their food over mine most days...unless they're eating liver, chitlings, or pig tails). Dinner at work was not nearly as fun this week. I also lied a lot about what I was eating to make it sound less weird to the residents. For example if I was ever having breakfast with the blind man, I would tell him I was having oatmeal (boy did I trick him). This wasn't so easy when I was eating with the other residents who could actually see what I was eating. They would look at my bowl of rice for breakfast and say, "Rice for breakfast? I ain't never heard of anyone eatin that for breakfast. oh honey, that's crazy.."

I also used my rice fast as an excuse to exercise less last week, and sleep in, and just be plain lazy when I wasn't at work. Which I guess was nice in some respects, but I would much rather have been out doing something.

Although I could continue complaining about why I would probably never do the rice fast again (at least not as a JV working in a job like mine), I guess I should tell you some of the positive things that came out of the week (ten days). First of all, my jeans were a little looser. Can't complain about that. Second, on Sunday, when we ate real dinner for the first time in ten days, it was delicious and put me in a really good mood that lasted a couple days. Third, and probably the best....As a community challenge we walked around the ally behind our house and picked up trash. Several people came out of their houses and said hello, and we actually found out that there is a group who picks up trash together once a month. Had we not done the rice fast, we wouldn't have done the community challenge, and we wouldn't have found that out. It makes me want to hang out with the rats in the ally just to meet the neighbors. Thank you rice!

Now that I'm on the second full day after resuming regular eating activity, I'm starting to feel more like myself. Yesterday we had a FJV (former Jesuit Volunteer) potluck at our house. People brought all sorts of delicious food and you can bet I ate that up. I'm also excited for dinner at work tonight, I'll actually get to eat it, and taste it before I serve it so I know I'm not poisoning the poor folks. I am still a little thrown off when meal time rolls around. I have to remind myself that I can eat whatever I want. I also have to tell myself to only eat two of my gummy vitamins in the morning (I may have had 6/day during rice fast).

I'm not sure that I would choose to do the rice fast again, at least not as a JV in a placement like mine. There are so few things that allow me to relate to the residents at work. There's something very special about sharing a meal with someone, about eating out of the same pot. By not allowing myself to share in that aspect of their lives, I isolated myself from them and created an even greater gap between us. While this experience allowed me to reflect on certain realities for people around the world, I just can't justify it because it took aways from the experience I committed to this year. I do think that had I been home more of the evenings during the week I would have a somewhat different perspective. I think that it was definitely a good community challenge and allowed us to accomplish something together in our community. Anyway, if I were doing this again, which I won't be anytime soon, I think I would change it a bit. Fortunately I am not restricted to eating rice for every meal, though I have a better understanding for how it might affect my productivity if that were the case. I would be more intersted in doing some sort of fast that did not deal with food. Perhaps a fast from television, a fast from certain forms of transportation, a fast from negativity, etc. I think those types of fasts would be more relevant to the people I am serving this year and my experience as a whole this year. So, I am happy to say farewell to rice. At least for now.