enjoy america for meeeeeeeeeee

I've noticed that emails with current PCVs usually close with something along the lines of please enjoy america and eat a lot of food! After hearing this for the first time I had heeded the words and started eating at my favorite places. I've gained like 10 pounds, but every day is something old and true, something that I won't be able to have for two years (but I will try to replicate as best I can, for sure!). Last night was the awesome pakistani or bangladeshi spot Roti Boti for the second time in 4 days, but something went horribly wrong. I asked for the Tandoori chicken skewers with lentils over rice and one naan, and instead of getting the chicken he grabbed two fried baseball sized pucks.

My bewildered response went a little like this:

COSTA: "No no I wanted the chicken on the skewers, but what is that?"
ROTI MAN: "You'll like this try something new. Ground chicken and lentils."
ROTI MAN smiles and puts the two pucks in the microwave


Well guess what?! THESE THINGS HURT! They are so spicy, its like im eating spice, and they sprinkled powdered chicken and lentil flavoring on it. I felt bad ass eating one last night but I didn't feel bad ass in the bathroom this morning. Or... in a manner of speaking I did feel really, really bad ass in the bathroom this morning.

So another lesson safely learned the hard way. Safely because I didn't die and I was in my own bathroom, I'll try to not let this happen in my village in Senegal where instead of AM radio to console me I'll have a goat and a kid staring at me.