Food

At the end of my last blog I brought up food, which beckons me to offer some more insight to the food here in Uganda. I might have shared a bit earlier but have a few other interesting things I think you might be interested in. (Also, my friend Caroline wanted to hear about the food, so this one's for her!)

First, I'd like to talk about storage in general. Here, they keep their eggs in the pantry, not in the fridge, they also have storage containers for the eggs that you take with you to the grocer/market, no recycled cardboard here. And then milk comes in bags and are kept in the freezer until the night before they are used when the cook puts the two bags she needs for the next morning in some water overnight. The unripened plantains (matoke) are left outside (I previously posted a photo on FB of a man on a bicycle with a bunch, that's how many we buy weekly), also outside are buckets. One is full of rice, two are full of sweet potatoes and others are full of charcoal brickets (I'll get to cooking next). Then the pumpkin, Irish (which are red potatoes), watermelon, pompom (Papuya) and greens are put under the kitchen prep tables. Oranges here are actually green, which is soo disconcerting, I have yet to eat one, but they are stored on a basket next to the prep tables, along with ginger roots and onions. Bananas and avocadoes are stored on the dining table in large baskets and often are covered in fruit flies. (Disgustingly enough I moved the kitchen prep tables the other day so Uncle Godfrey could sweep, clearly he hadn't swept there for some time, the rotting plantains were gag-worthy).

So we actually have a gas stove/oven which is hooked up to a propane tank, but only certain things are cooked indoors. Rice and the meat, along with the greens are prepared indoors, but most other things are cooked outside over charcoal brickets which are placed in a little metal bucket. Our clean drinking water is boiled on the charcoal, as is beans and posho. The cook, Auntie Monica, also cooks the plantains and sweet potatoes outside wrapped inside of banana leaves, I need to get a photo of this for you to really understand (I owe you one).

A couple other random items of note...I've tried the African tea, and just can't get past the smell of it. Posho and beans are for lunch every day, when we go on outreach days though we have PB&J. not sure when I get home if I'll ever want PB&J or posho again. The meat often has bones on/in it and the kids practically eat the bones as they clean them off and leave not a trace of meat. I eat less than the tiniest child, unfortunately since the food is very carb-heavy I have yet to lose much weight.

I tried to cook for the kids one night, bought black beans (instead of kidney beans), corn, and a mexican seasoning, along with some chillies, and diced up tomatoes and peppers to make a nice Mexican style meal over rice. That was the last time I do that, first of all I didn't add salt, I never cook with salt, but these kids can't live without it, so right off the bat it was bad. Then the chillies were more than they could handle, I think only 2 children actually got a bite of the chillies. Brenda was one of the two poor things that got a hot pepper; she was forced to finish the meal (not by me) and when she came to thank me for the meal (again, something they do culturally), she had tears streaming down her face. I'm not sure if it was because of the heat or because she was forced to finish her food. Poor baby. The fried plaintains and chapati were good though! Needless to say I'm staying out of the kitchen for the remainder of my time here, well, maybe I'll be a sous chef, but definitely never the head cook!