Food

I was reading my comments and saw Bill's question about the food here. That's one thing that I had no idea about before we came. Meat is very scarce and expensive. When meat is used in a meal, it's almost always chicken or a kind of stew meat. I cooked dinner for the team last night, and had to go to a special meat store to buy beef, there was only three containers to choose from. I learned from cooking last night that African beef is very tough, even if cut in small strips. I love the food here, I'm not a big meat eater anyway, I think Ottie, our new friend that is here also, is suffering a bit, ha. He's very large and was a professional basketball player in the U.K.. There are many vegetables, they are in abundance right now. Many bananas, people sell vegetables all through the streets. Rice is a very staple dish here, cooked in coconut milk, so very good. Avocados are abundant, and everywhere. Very good. We went to a very ethnic restaurant in the heart of downtown. On our plates were rice and meat dish, cucumbers and tomatoes, a small portion of watered down ground meat side, and french fries cooked inside an omelet. That was a very real dining experience. There were chickens running around. One thing a person does NOT want to do in Africa, use the restroom unless it's an unusually nice place away from home. For dessert, they brought us an avocado pudding, I ate the whole thing, it had fruit at the bottom. Our table was filled with food, and was only 18 shillings for all six of us, which is around 15 dollars.

The Massai Tribe's food was rice and meat dish, an amazingly good hot slaw mix, cut cucumbers on a plate, and wonderful avocados. It's so humbling to have others share so much when we know it's such a sacrifice for them. They also had cokes for us, which was also a sacrifice. Very loving and giving. Pastor Issac, he's part of the Massai's but became a Christian in Mary's ministry and has now moved back to the tribe and is their pastor. Very sweet man. He was so happy to show us his hut, made of mud but felt almost like cement. A thatched roof. Two very small rooms, one on the right with a baby sheep, and the one on the left with a small table that we ate around. We loved the experience.

I stopped taking Malarone yesterday, a preventative for Malaria. It's the cool season, 72 for the highs, misquitos are at their lowest. It has side effects of mouth sores, which are worse than the disease it prevents. Malaria is so treatable here.