Faith, a 4th grader in Denise Waters’ class at Norman Rockwell Elementary, says, “I would like to know more about his food source.”
Faith, that is a good question. The short answer is, “I eat whatever food I can get, wherever I can get it.”
About 45% of my meals come from restaurants. I don’t eat fancy. For example, the other day I had a delicious lunch of fresh green beans stewed with potatoes in tomato sauce, rice, salad, and bread, all for about $3.50.
About 25% of my meals come from gas station markets, which usually means a bag of potato chips and some chocolate chip cookies. I don’t enjoy these meals a whole lot — they don’t nourish my spirit quite like a good meal should. However, when there isn’t a restaurant for miles, sometimes gas station junk food is the only game in town.
About 20% of my meals come from “gift food.” Most of the time this means a platter of food someone brings to me when I’m camping at a mosque garden or in a public park. Sometimes, however, it means something else. For example, while I was walking yesterday someone gave me a package of marshmallow cookies, then someone else gave me a watermelon, then someone else gave me some tomatoes, then someone else gave me some walnuts, and then someone else gave me some grapes. I didn’t eat much in the way of meals yesterday, I just basically walked along the road eating all day.
About 10% of my food comes from hotel breakfast buffets. I stay in budget hotels about two nights per week, and it’s pretty standard for hotels in Turkey, expensive or not, to provide a breakfast buffet.