I’ve just wrapped up my second day of In Country Orientation (ICO) at the Asia Plateau. The morning sun shines through the clouds with the deceptive brightness of an eclipse. Clouds fill the sky yet they seem to only magnify the suns rays. I’ve already managed to terrify my team leaders with my odd diet choices. In front of our lodging there is a beautiful tree with hard, bright green, hanging bean pods. I saw a monkey breaking one open to get to the beans inside on my first morning so, monkey see monkey do. After picking a few of the long stiff pods off the tree and carefully breaking them apart to harvest the beans within I realized that they tasted like sweet edamame, delicious. I have since picked many pods and eaten dozens of these delicious treats, passing them out to my entire cohort. I enthusiastically offered some of my magic “tree beans” to our Indian team leaders who looked at me as though I had gone completely mad. Apparently no one in India has ever thought to try “tree beans” and randomly sampling the Indian flora is not the best idea I’ve ever had. I’ve developed no debilitating illness as of yet and I’m about 8 dozen beans in so I doubt they’re poisonous. Apparently what I’ve done is the equivalent of someone coming to America and eating acorns, they’re not poisonous but it’s just a really weird thing to do. My team leaders declined my gift and asked that I stop eating random plants.
