Breakfast

My morning routine was interrupted again today when, on my way to my favorite little balcony breakfast bar, Bong and his family waved me into their house to have breakfast with them.

The island is in a bit of a party mood right now due to the fact that a very respected elderly man passed away a few days ago. There is a week long celebration occuring on the island in honor of his death and last night the villagers decided to sarifice a goat and then BBQ it. Now, I should mention that while this does sound almost set up, no travelers are invited to the celebrations. Therefore I only know what I hear from Bong's family. At any rate, there was a BBQ last night in honor of the recently deceased, and Bong's family had a bunch of the left over meat and sticky rice left from last night. So I sat down to feast on goat meat and sticky rice. And then there was the soup...

The soup seemed to be comprised of all the left over parts of the goat. There was chunks of flesh with fur, intestines, parts of organs, and other assorted treats. Now, I'm basically a vegitarian due simply to the fact that I don't enjoy the taste of meat very often. In some instances I will put aside my dislike of meat in order to enjoy a meal with company or to dine on a pork chop with a beautiful chef. However, one look at this soup and I know I don't want to even taste it. But what am I going to do? Finally after a two or three minutes I take a spoon full of the broth and suck it down.

This soup tastes worse than it looks, and I quickly stuff some chili coated rice into my mouth to mask the taste, and that's when it happens. Bong's father (a new character, introduced to me at breakfast this morning) starts going through the pot looking for choice pieces of the meat to hand to me. The choice pieces being flesh with fur, intestines, pieces of organs, and other assorted treats. I slowly take the first piece, and then the second piece, and then the third piece. All of the various body parts taste the same. Putrid and slimy. I start to stuff my self with sticky rice quickly saying "mi li, mi li" I am full, I am full.

After breakfast I hunted down one of the thick sludge like cups of coffee that I have come to love and tried desperately not to think about what was being digested in my stomach at that very moment.