Eating Rice and Beans with the Haaks

This is a reprint of a post from last week at the Haaks blog. They've graciously agreed to let us repost it here. Visit them at their blog to see how their journey continues.

So we decided to join in the Eat Beans and Rice for a Month challenge, and tonight was the first night. Having 4 children makes it a bit more complicated in the taste bud arena. I'll get to that in a moment.

We are joining for several reasons,

1. We support in prayer the Schilperoorts (sp?). We have a passion for Africa and for the work they are doing there.

2. We want to educate our children about other countries and cultures and expose them to different ways of life.

3.We want to join our brothers and sisters in Jesus and eat like them for a month.

4. It'll save a lot of money and we want to donate it to Lahash International.

You can view the main blog at http://www.eatriceandbeans.com/

Everyone did better than expected. We started out by showing the kids a map of Africa and then showed them several other countries where rice and beans are a main staple. I asked them what animals are found in Africa. I got everything from giraffes, to bulls, to scorpions, to lions and so on. I was surprised at what they acctually knew.

Then I dropped "the bomb." "They even eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner!" Jaws dropped, and the look of incredulation was hilarious. You'd have thought I'd told them they eat slugs 3 times a day.

I was proud of them though. Everyone but Good Lookin' ate everything in their bowl. Nater Mater of course liked it. He loves rice and beans. Then again, he'll eat just about anything...including bugs off the floor.

I also served cheese quesedillas with their meal (except Mr. Smiley who can't have cheese. He ate a half a pbj). I figured they couldn't go completely hungry and the only rule was they had to take at least one bite. A rule at our house is, "try it before you don't like it." What got Precious Jewel and Mr. Smiley to eat all theirs was a promise of a piece of Valentine's candy after their meal. A little bribery goes a long way.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of the month goes.

Day 2 brought more complaints. Dear Precious Jewel asked if God could make everyone else in the world rich like us so that we could stop having to know what it was like for them. I told her that God doesnt' work that way. He gives us opportunities to share in each other's suffering. Eating rice and beans for supper for a month isnt true suffering. But on her little scale, it's apparently intense suffering. I promised they could each make a sandwich if they ate what was in their bowl.