Conversation Partners #5

     Ever since Deo and I started meeting, I have always meant to ask him about about food in Rwanda and what he thought about American food.  I finally got the perfect opportunity to do so in our meeting yesterday.  Deo called me and asked if we could meet at the BLUU because he was very hungry.  It took a while to find Deo because on the phone, he just kept telling me that he "was at the restaurant."  So thinking he was at the "restaurant," I first went to Chickfila.  After waiting there for a while, I called Deo back and realized at the BLUU.  In his defense, I guess the BLUU is in fact a restaurant, I have just never thought of it like that.

     I had already eaten lunch, so I grabbed a cup of water and followed Deo around as he got his food.  When my friends and I eat at the BLUU, we grab our plates, go to one specific line, and get some food.  The first observation that I made about Deo was that he did not do this.  He would start at the vegetarian line and walk through all of the lines and really think about what he wanted.  After he got all of his food, we sat down and began our conversation.

     Of course, the first thing I wanted to ask Deo was how long it took him to get accustomed to American food; his answer was quite amusing.  He told me that he still isn't used to the food here and that he really doesn't like it.  He said that in Rwanda, most of the food is baked and almost no oil is used in their cooking while in America, everything is cooked and covered in oil.

     We continued talking about this for a while until Deo realized that he really liked the rice that they were serving today, so he got up to get more.  At first, he took his plate which still had food on it with him to go get more.  I stopped him and told him that at restaurants like this, we have to go get a second, clean plate to go get more food.  He didn't quite understand why and thought it was wasteful, but he did it anyway.  Even I thought that this social norm was a little weird and wasteful when I learned about it as a kid.  Why do I have to go dirty another clean plate just to go get another piece of pizza?  I know it has to do with germs, but I still think it is a little silly. 

     Anyway, I got to finally learn what Deo thought about food here, and we had a great conversation about it.  I am looking forward to our last meeting later today!