I like food, it's no secret! I like cooking it, baking it, and most of all, eating it! Cooking and eating here in Rwanda is quite a bit different from my down on the farm, meats and potatoes, full of butter, Lancaster County roots!
When I first came to Rwanda, the food was good and there were only a few things that I would say I did not enjoy. And honestly, after over three years of eating Rwandan food, I can honestly say that I like it. I eat everything that Rwandans eat and our daily diet is very Rwandan. I do enjoy occasionally cooking up something "American" like pasta or pizza, but we eat pretty simple for the most part.
A typical meal in Rwanda has a base of some type of starch. Potatoes, plantains, sweet potatoes, rice, kaunga, or ubugali (there really is not word for those last two in English). Then on top of the starch you put some kind of beans or veggie with a sauce. Sounds good right? It is good, but the hard part for me sometimes is the lack of variety. We literally eat beans every day, most times, twice a day! We rarely have meat, typically once or twice a month. One, it is expensive and two, I am not a huge fan of the butchery that we have available in our little town. Case in point, recently when I went to buy some meat, after telling the man with the big knife what I wanted, I glanced down at my feet, only to find a cow's head looking up at me. Yup, the whole cow's head, eyes and all. The meat literally just hangs on a big hook in a non-refrigerated room with flies sitting on it until you come to buy it, at which point they take a large knife and hack away at whatever part you want and then, with their bare hands, put it in a paper bag and with the same bare hands, take your money. It's a lovely experience. So when we do have meat, we cook it for several hours. One, because it is so tough you can barely chew it, and two just to be sure to kill "everything!" So with our lack of meat, beans are a logical source of protein and on top of that, they are cheap!
So while I certainly get tired of eating the same food every day, I am thankful that we have enough to eat because I know so many right outside our gate, who don't have enough. And it makes me extra thankful when we have a little extra and I can by special things like cheese or ground beef!
I can't write a post about food without raving about the freshness of food here! Everything we cook is from scratch. We eat very little processed foods and practically nothing comes out of a can. The fresh tomatoes, green peppers, garlic, and onions make delicious sauces and the fruit is delicious! The pineapples, bananas, and papaya are family favorites and are so much sweeter the what is available in America. Since we have several avocado trees, we also enjoy our fill of the best tasting avocados!Alas, I hear the clanging of dishes which means my children are home for their lunch break from school and though I would kill for a hamburger, I am going to eat my beans and kaunga with a grateful heart. Blessing all!
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