NOURRITURE or FOOD









I have had lots of questions about the food here so I will try
to tell you a little about it.  There are lots of small stores like
these which line the streets.  These are in a modern area - the
vodacom is a cell phone store and the technology store is
modern.  Almost all the stores have plastic chairs out front
and you see little money change stands everywhere.




This is a large open market near our apartment where all the locals
shop.  You go down this alleyway and there are lots of stands
covered with plastic.  Every day we see people carrying loads
into the market and we see people carrying large bags out of the
market.  They buy big bags of rice, beans, flour, potataoes etc.
This picture doesn't show how huge this market is. 




Another view of the same market


A


Our church has a kasava plant where they make flour from the
kasava root.  This plant provides food for many people here.
This is the staple diet for the locals.  They cook it many different
ways but one of the favorite ways is to make it into foufou which
is a ball of wet dough and they eat it with their fingers from a bowl
with each perxon eating from one area of the bowl.  After picking the
roots the first step is to wash them well.




Next they coarse grind the roots in a machine.




Next they soak it in large tubs of water for 3 days to remove the
arsenic.  That is pretty appetizing, isn't it?





This is the finished product - kasava flour.  Ready to make
foufou.

This is one of the 4 stores which caters to Europeans and Americans.  This store is quite new and modern but is very small.  We usually have to go to 3 of the 4 stores each week to find what we need because the inventory is small.  We always buy our meat here.  The prices are high in the European stores but we are certainly thankful they
are here.  Each week the food issue becomes easier.  Now that it is the rainy season the quality of vegetables has gone way up.  The quantity is still very limited.  We can get great avocados, pineapples, mangos, oranges, and apples.  Life is good.