Food

Before I came I thought that we would eat beans and rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was quite mistaken! Beans are actually rather expensive, although rice is quite prevalent.

“Ugali” is one of the other main foods. It is made from maize flour is a thick, gooey dough. Usually you put some kind of sauce on top, like tomatoes and “sakumawiki” -- a spinach-like plant.

The Sisters have a beautiful “shamba” (garden) where they grow bananas and tons of vegetables. They harvest various things year round, although things come in seasons.

Right now it is avocado season. Big avocados cost the equivalent of 13 cents! Trying to use up all the avocado is what is difficult. People try to “trick you” into eating avocados, not unlike wrapping zucchini in a baby blanket and leaving it on someone’s doorstep. I am holding out for when the mangoes become ripe.

The volunteer who was here before me, Kate, used to make banana cake, and assuming (they think all Americans are the same) I also knew how they asked if I would make some also. Of course I said I would. I took the old bananas from the dining area, enough for at triple batch of banana bread and was halfway through making the cake when one of the aspirants brought me about 25 more bananas! One can only have so much banana cake, so I made a version of banana pudding and a recipe for baked banana “pudding.” The next time I made the banana cake there were enough bananas for a quintuple batch… Here there are big bananas, small bananas, bananas for roasting, bananas for cooking (there is a dish called “methoke“ that is bananas and potatoes cooked together), bananas for eating etc.

The children at school are provided lunch, and they are given “githere,” a mixture of beans and maize.

In general Kenyans have a fairly healthy diet. Few things are processed, and I was more shocked than I expected to see the roosters being slaughtered (I just prefer not to have seen my food alive). Milk is delivered every morning, and then poured through a strainer and boiled. I asked one of the aspirants why they strain and boil the milk, and she said “it has only been milk since today.” One of the sisters in the northern part of Kenya had bought an ostrich egg to cook the next morning for breakfast. When she got up the next day, she heard a strange sound coming from the kitchen. The egg had hatched overnight and she had a baby ostrich!!!

Also in the north they eat lot of goat. For our lunch one day there we had a “suferia” of rice and goat -- a big plate that everyone shares from. There was no silverware, however, and I sincerely enjoyed being able to eat with my hands (although my parents may have thought differently).

For breakfast, one of the aspirants makes me toast (yum!) and there is peanut butter, jelly, blueband (like ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter’ and used with everything) and a sesame seed paste, all of which are very good. I look forward to breakfast every night at bedtime J Also taken three times a day is tea. The tea is mixed with milk and sugar and is actually quite good. I have to be careful about having too much caffeine, however.

Lunch and dinner consist of some of the dishes mentioned above. They drink hot or room temperature water with meals and find it very funny that I like to put mine in the fridge.

Almost everything I like, and it did not seem too different from home until one night I made macaroni and cheese. I could not believe how happy it made me! I also prepared some “pasta in a bag” (the kind that all you do is boil milk and water and mix it in and it has all the spices etc.) and everyone was saying “oh this is so nice, it must have been very hard to make, etc. Again, food does not usually come packaged.

I will come back with many recipes, but here is an easy one for a type of jelly. Puree one part pears and one part green tomato, and ½ part sugar and boil. It is surprisingly good.

On a side note, the drought is affecting many people. Where there are no sources of water it has to be hauled in, and this water is generally not sanitary leading to outbreaks of cholera. Children are especially at risk, and thousands of herd animals such as cattle have died. Rain is hopefully expected in October, but there are a lot of people struggling right now. In Makuyu there is enough water for drinking, bathing etc., but because the hydroelectric plant does not have enough water flow electricity is rationed. For people who work in factories they are only able to work three days a week since they need light etc. for their jobs, and are only getting paid for three days a week. Please pray for them!