avoid the dog kebabs

Day 7  (officially 1 week!)  

My biggest victory of the day? Avoiding the dog kebabs at lunch.  

I walked to a little Indonesian place near my office and had a fairly palatable lunch, complete with properly steamed and perfectly oh-so-sticky rice, papaya flowers- which are very bitter but are said to ward off malaria (I obviously inhaled them- they are definitely bitter), and some sort of piece of fish that I didn't end up eating- yeesh.  I am pointing and smiling selecting cruciferous treats as I move down the line and then I arrive at the meat section and my eyes fall squarely onto a dish of "RW" kebabs.  Oh. My. Gosh.  I knew I would be faced with this predicament at some point but I wasn't prepared for it to happen- so soon.

Early on (as in 4 days ago) my friend advised me of 2 very important things upon arrival in Dili:

1.) I can't remember the first but I am sure I will at some point.

2.) Don't order anything on the menu called "RW."  It's dog.

Luckily in the heat of the day I remembered this and used the universally recognized frowning face/head shaking/hand motion trifecta signaling, "no, but thank you!  If you want to eat Fido go ahead but don't put that stick on my plate!"   Victory.  I watched her put the spoonful of diced tomato garnish on my plate as we continued on past the kebab, and blacked out for a moment before I paid my $5 for the food that wasn't dog.

I have eaten dog before (in China over a decade ago) but it was accidental and so I don't even think about it.  Nonetheless, it's already checked off the "list" if you will (and I will).  So, no RW sticks for me.

The rest of my day was pretty tame.  I made a lot of progress on revising a media survey that will be in great shape by the end of the week, and also on some procurement reading.  Fun stuff.

Ah, what will tomorrow bring?