Food Tensions

Having a stomach bug here has been difficult to deal with, not because of the frequently clogging toilets and perpetual lack of toilet paper….but because not eating huge portions at meal times is very flustering to my host family. I have been trying to rest my stomach, and stick to rice, bananas, and water, but I am under constant watch and pressure to eat more and expand my palate. Explaining my problem allows some room for compromise, but I almost always end up overdoing it in the name of keeping the peace. After one meal of sticking to my guns and eating about a half a cup of rice, one banana, and a glass of water, they told me they were concerned I might waste away, and will take me to the hospital if I keep eating like this. The problem is, the more I eat, the longer I stay sick, the longer the food tensions persist. Not quite sure how this one is going to work out….