Table for One

Yesterday I found myself in my new homestay, by myself, during lunch time. Of course it would have been "ridiculous" for me to eat lunch out, so our femme de menage cooked an entire meal for me and I called it another solo meal with Josh & Chuck. Yesterday's topic was "How House Swapping Works," it was just ok...

I decided since I was in a new house by myself I'd take self-timer pictures and photograph my entire meal (normal right?) so you can feel like you were there. This is a meal for one in Madagascar. 

Let's get this one out of the way... solo dolo. 

This is how you keep the rice hot...

  

Meet the loka. 

 I spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out if this was fish. No, no, just pork skin and pork fat. Mmm (SARCASM. SO. MUCH. SARCASM.) Why do they enjoy eating straight pork fat? Just pork fat... no meat. 

And this is the vary. 

 Put them together and you would have "vary sy loka" (Rice and everything that's not rice)

Then there were THIS MANY apples for me to eat. Really? 

The most delicious drink in the world. Not kidding. 

The above drink isn't dirty water, but "rice water" and a lot of us are obsessed with it. Basically when you're cooking rice in anything but a rice cooker, you burn the bottom of the rice and then pour all of the leftover "burnt water" into a pitcher and viola! there is your rice-y beverage. IT'S SO GOOD. 

Now for a quick tour of the house...

This is H's room. It's separated from the dining room by sheets.

And my room... bed's behind that strange sheet.

And this is how we wash our clothes.
Mine are in a miserable state by this point in the trip...

And on an ending note, I noticed this picture I had tried to take of CC the other day holding a baby kitten. I then realized I had actually taken a super intimate baby photo... Watch.

CC and kitty picture fail

But wait... what's that?

So intimate. So, so intimate.

 This could be on a baptism card.

Ok that's all. Life in Madagascar is still strange and exciting. I have 26 days left here and sometimes that feels like all the time in the world and sometimes I remember it's only a little over 3 weeks... and that is nothing.