All Hands on Deck

So I get to eat an authentic meal from my country every day. I spend the afternoon with an arabic-speaking family to learn language and lunch is included. I help a little in preparing it of course. My official job has been to peel the garlic. After you peel it, you crush it really finely to put in the sauces used for lunch. I have to admit, I've gotten pretty good at this job, but I would still rather walk into Super Targetand just grab a bottle of minced garlic off the shelf. Guess I need to stop living in a fantasy world. Once lunch is finished (this usually happens around 2:30 or 3:00pm so I hope you ate breakfast), all the food is placed on a very large tray.A usual meal consists of a moulah (sauce) with meat, potatoes, etc, and something to sop up the moulah with, such as bread, rice, kisar, or esh.Kisar is a thin, light tortilla looking thing, and esh pretty much resembles playdough. The tray is placed on the ground and anywhere between 4 and 12 people gather around it, and then it pretty much turns into a free for all. You eat with your hands (right hand only actually),and it gets tricky to get the hot food in your mouth without burning your fingers. Most of the locals are really good at making sauce and rice stick together to go neatly in their mouth. After 2 months, I would not describe my eating habits as neat at all. I usually end up with more food on my clothes than in my mouth...the skills are slowly coming though. It's polite to eat only what's directly in front of you. The host will occasionally throw extra meat or bread your way. This concept also gets tricky when a small child keeps stilling your bread. You have to get pretty good at stealing it back without getting caught. Now I've also gotten to eat some pretty interesting things as well. I've learned not to ask what kind of meat we're having, but sometimes the family tells me anyways. There was the time I had sheep's head and another time when i ate something's stomach. These situations have really improved my hiding skills. I have learned to play with something just enough so people think I'm eating it, and slip it under a plate at the last second. Everyday is not like that though...I've actually had some really good food. Just wanted to share some of the wonderful things I've been learning!!