Rudy, "Of course, in Guatemala, Bananas are better" (2)

I don’t have any religion, so I have never thought of the life of being a Mormon Missionary. Well, from the reading I can see that they travel a lot, and they also have great opportunities to experience other cultures. However, as the reading discussed some of the missionaries did not have great and enjoyable experience with local unfamiliar food they had.

“Exotic, Edible, and Palatable” are the three realms of experience to enrich discussions of food ways. Unlike tourist, missionaries always have extended-stay in the different countries, different places. The length of their stay always forces them to eat exotic, inedible, and unpalatable food. Also as missionaries, they always involve active of persuading other to proselyte for whom were interest in. They have to spend a lot of time with others, to live with them, to eat with them to seek to establish a relationship for teaching about the LCS faith.
There are so many examples of missionaries being served inedible and unpalatable and exotic food. The food is different from where they from. The most difficult thing is to gulp down the nasty soup with an appropriate manner. For my opinion, inedible just means that the food is different or unfamiliar with once own culture, it doesn’t really mean it is “inedible.” Once you have the word “inedible” in your mind you always feel it is “unpalatable”. However, there are also some enjoyable experiences of missionaries. They get along with local people; they are willing to accept the exotic food. Once they accept the exotic food, they will not even think about whether or not it is edible, and the food will become more palatable. Once when you leave the host country, you may still miss the food in there.

It doesn’t mean that we all have to accept all the chicken beak, but being a exploratory eater in a host country will form relationship, communication, and comprehension between us with the local people.