Here you can see a picture of a Bali street dog eating some trash. I made it really small so that you would be spared the utter horrificness (I realize that horificness is not a word) of seeing an actual Bali street dog close up. They are very ratty, disgusting creatures. They eat trash, rocks, etc. They often have diseases and even more often look like they are on the verge of death.
Many Balinese people believe that evil spirits (roh jahat) are inside of dogs. This is partly due to the fact that the dogs eat the offerings that are placed on the ground for evil spirits. I like to believe that it is because the dogs just look plain evil most of the time.
I say all that to say that I had to eat my second plate of dog meat several days ago. It's not that I wanted to, but when you live in a new culture and are offered things, it's always a polite thing to accept it. It wasn't that bad, except this time I was there when they butchered the poor dog. They threw in the liver because they say it's good for asthma. I almost lost it when I started to realize that my plate was mostly a bunch of liver. It was one of the worst things I have ever tasted...
On my way home from that, another neighbor asked me to stop in for a special snack his grandmother had sent him from Sumatra. It was a big hunk of fried spiciness, and they gave me a big portion.
The combination of those two things in that short of time was too much for my stomach to handle. The rest of the night was rough...
