Mandioca

One of the most common foods slash the most common food in Paraguay is mandioca. Cultural lesson in this post so get ready.  What is mandioca you ask? It's a root kinda similar to a potato except way more bland and just straight up carbs.  There's nothing to like, and nothing not to like.  And I kid you not, they eat it with every meal. It grows really easily and quickly, about a year from planting to harvesting and is extremely cheap.  Basically everyone has a relative that has mandioca plants to bring back for the dinner table.  And the lunch table for that matter.  And everyone here is obsessed with it and if you turn it down one time because maybe you don't want to gain 20 pounds they automatically assume you don't like it and will continue to talk about it forever.  But at the very least its a conversation starter when you had nothing else to talk about... "Did you know we don't eat mandioca in the US?" And that just gets them talking for hours. So as part of this whole integration thing I decided I needed to go to the fields to learn how to harvest the mandioca with two very guapa senoras.  And it was super fun, drop dead gorgeous out there, and good exercise.  Yay health sector!  And here are some pictures of my day.  Cultural update for y'all.