One of my favorite meals here is peas and carrots in tomato sauce over rice. Vanessa Paolella photo

Tell me, what do you think about rice?

More specifically, how would you feel about eating rice every day, breakfast, lunch and dinner, for the rest of your life?

Not enthused? I’m not surprised. I wouldn’t be either.

And yet, for most families here in Madagascar, that’s exactly what they eat. Plain white rice, three times a day.

I’m not talking about a small scoop on the side. When meal time rolls around, plates are piled high with heaps of plain white rice.

Saying Malagasy people love rice isn’t enough to capture its importance here. Much of people’s day-to-day lives revolves around growing rice, preparing rice or making money to buy rice.

I feel a deep satisfaction whenever I can share meat, fish or other good food with my host family. But a while back, I realized that my host sister feels the same satisfaction when she serves me a big plate of rice.

Folks here believe that, more than just filling stomachs, eating lots of rice will make you strong. And thus, Malagasy people eat a ton of rice. Some sources even say the people here eat more rice per capita than any other country in the world.

Which is all to say that if there was an Olympic event for eating rice, my bet would be on Madagascar taking gold every single time.

During lean times, rice is all a family may eat. But often, families here cook some kind of side dish to accompany the rice.

Ravitoto, with cow peas over rice, is by far my favorite Malagasy dish. Vanessa Paolella photo

The most common side dishes in my community are boiled green leaves. People eat all kinds of greens here, including squash leaves, zucchini leaves, potatoes leaves (which contain small traces of cyanide), and others I have no name for in English.

I was never a fan of sauteed spinach or other greens back in the states. So it was a huge surprise for me to find that my favorite Malagasy dish is made from boiled cassava leaves.

Called ravitoto, the traditional dish is often made with oil, diced garlic, and either crushed peanuts or pork. I love ravitoto so much that whenever I travel, I specifically search for restaurants that serve it.

Folks here also eat a lot of beans, tomatoes, cassava, bitter tomatoes, hot peppers and potatoes. With no electricity, boiling food over charcoal or kindling is the most common cooking method here. Fresh fruits and vegetables are plentiful, too, while milk, meat and fresh fish are hard to come by in my area.

One of my fellow volunteers recently described our region as the “California of Madagascar,” and I have to agree. I’ve yet to find a fruit or vegetable that can’t be grown here.

Mangos begin appearing in December, along with a glut of lychee. Then comes, peaches, lemons, pineapples, avocados, papaya, guava and oranges. It’s glorious, and I’m only realizing how good I had it now that it’s all out of season.

Tomatoes are available here year-round, and depending on the season, I can also find carrots, green beans, green peppers, cauliflower, zucchini, peas and squash.

Really, with all things considered, I eat far better here in rural Madagascar than I ever did at home, with a few caveats, of course.

With very little access to processed and packaged foods, I’ve learned to appreciate fresh fruits, vegetables and beans in a way I never did in the U.S. Before, I would hardly touch green beans, peas or zucchini. Now they’re some of my favorite foods.

I’ve also learned how to eat meat that doesn’t come from plastic packaging and cook fish that still have eyes, bones, scales and guts.

My host sister’s son Faneva and I stop for a photo while removing the feathers from the first chicken I killed last month. Photo courtesy of Vanessa Paolella

My proudest personal achievement here, however, is learning to kill and dismember chickens.

Living in Madagascar has made me intimately aware of how divorced most Americans are from our food systems. We buy all of our food in nice, clean packaging in grocery stores, never really knowing what it took to get it there.

From my perspective, this is true for meat more so than anything else. Many Americans love eating meat, but very few have actually been involved in the killing and processing of livestock. Instead, we turn a blind eye to a system that mass produces cheap meat with little concern for the basic welfare of those animals or the cost to our environment.

This is something I’m deeply passionate about. So, I decided that I would learn to kill and process my own chickens while I’m here.

In the past month, I’ve killed two chickens with the help of my host sister. Both times, we slit their throats.

Once, the idea of killing anything left me anxious. Now I’m dreaming about starting my own little egg and poultry farm to offset my modest journalist paycheck.

To my joy, I’ve also learned how to make some of our favorite staples from scratch.

Ready-made peanut butter is only available in the large cities here, so when I want to eat it, I have to make it myself. I roast the peanuts, remove the skin, and then pound them into a paste. The result is crunchy and delicious.

My pizza, made entirely from scratch including homemade cheese, was absolutely delicious. Vanessa Paolella photo

Milk isn’t easy to find in my area, but when I get my hands on some, the first thing I do is make a soft cheese with vinegar and salt. I use the remaining whey to make banana pancakes.

A couple times now, I’ve even made pizza entirely from scratch. Making the cheese, tomato sauce and dough, then putting it all together, takes the whole afternoon, but it’s a small price to pay for some cheesy goodness.

My dogs and I are lucky enough to be able to eat so well because Peace Corps gives me money each month. Yet, families here don’t have the same kind of resources to purchase food as I do.

Even though most families eat some kind of side dish with their rice each meal, the portion size is often very small, in part because the families here are so big. Many families choose from a small rotation of greens, too, contributing to widespread malnutrition.

Protein and calcium are the two biggest deficiencies in my area, although others are certainly present. As a result, many people here have stunted growth, and dental health is very poor.

Malnutrition is a problem my fellow volunteers and I are working hard to improve. Only time will tell whether our work has any impact.

A reader asked:

Why did you do it? What has been the most unexpected part of the experience? — Jessica Corbett, currently through-hiking the Appalachian Trail

Learning to kill chickens is a really great example of what I personally hoped to gain from joining the Peace Corps. I wanted to be pushed to do things I never would have the opportunity or guts to do in the U.S. So far, it’s paying off. The most unexpected part of the experience has been realizing just how connected the world is. People here in Madagascar wear the same clothes we do in the U.S., mainly because much of it is second-hand clothing from the U.S. Smartphones are slowly starting to emerge in rural Madagascar, and with it access to Facebook, YouTube and other global platforms. And personally, I never expected it to be so easy to contact friends and family back in the U.S. I often have better cell service here in my village than I did driving around Maine!

Have a question? Send it to van.paolella@gmail.com or by snail mail to the Sun Journal at 64 Lisbon St., Suite 201, Lewiston, ME 04240.

For reasons unknown to me, Nihoha decided to observe some of the sign-up event at my local elementary school from the window. Malagasy dogs are crazy! Vanessa Paolella photo

On a personal note: 

Chrissy the puppy is now 14 weeks old and nearly 20 pounds! I can’t believe how fast she’s grown. Shortly after writing last month’s column, her mother, Nihoha, made it clear she intended to adopt me. So while I only intended to keep Chrissy, I’ve come to accept that she and Nihoha are a package deal. Lucky me! Now, both sleep with me on my bed and go everywhere with me. Life is pretty good. All five of Chrissy’s siblings made it to the capital as planned, but unfortunately two died at the shelter after contracting some serious parasites. Thankfully, the other three have already found families. Last week, Chrissy, Nihoha and I walked for miles to visit each of my community’s 14 villages and tell parents about Anjiro Initiative’s new scholarship program at the elementary school. Our hard work paid off, and we saw a huge turnout at the informational meeting and sign-up event last week. Eighty-eight parents indicated they would like to receive the scholarship, some with children who have never attended school. Right now we have enough funds to help around 50 of those parents, so my hunt for funds continues!

Vanessa Paolella is a Peace Corps volunteer in Madagascar, as well as a former award-winning staff writer for the Sun Journal and a Bates College graduate. The views expressed in this column are hers alone and do not reflect the views of the U.S. government, the Peace Corps, or the Madagascar government.