Eating Without Things

Imagine you’re with a group of friends and you want to go to a restaurant near by. There aren’t any taxis around, and you don’t have a car, so you all decide to walk.

Turns out there is only one restaurant in the entire area. When you walk in, you find a bustling kitchen attached to large, empty room. There are no tables or chairs. You discuss for a while and decide to stay.

There are no menus and you don’t speak the language, but your friends do so they order for you. You take a seat cross-legged on the floor, and soon a large metal plate filled with food is set on the floor in front of you. The meal is rice mixed with pieces of canned tuna and spices, with a small bowl of pepper sauce on the side.

Everyone sits around the plate and begins eating. There are no forks or spoons, and possible you could request one and they may even have one… but you don’t want to be the odd one out. So you follow as they do: pour some sauce over the rice and fish.




Scoop a small amount into your palm and then shift it towards your fingers, squeezing it into a small ball.






Lifting your thumb underneath it as a prop, you shovel the small ball of rice, fish and sauce into your mouth. Viola. So easy.

This is every meal here. Spaghetti is really fun and takes a bit more skill, wrapping the long noodles into your palm. It is so fun to learn to live without using so many things. In the western world, we have things to do everything for us. A broom to sweep the floor; a contraption that cleans the broom which sweeps the floor. A table to place food on and then chairs to go with it. And so many dishes- a separate plate and utensils and cups for everyone. A machine to wash the dishes and endless brands of detergents in different forms to clean them.

I’m happy that we’ve come so far as to have so many inventions which help keep our spaces more  ‘civilized’, faster, cleaner, etc. but I am so thankful for the opportunity to experience life in its raw form. Simply humans providing food and then consuming it and sharing everything. It’s not only refreshing, but it makes people more dependent on one another, more closely connected to people around them.

And the bathroom experience? Well, I won’t go into too much detail, but let’s say you walk into a bathroom to discover the toilets won’t flush paper and there are no trash cans in sight... when in Rome, I say, when in Rome.