Food!

First and foremost, thank you for the comments, they're greatly appreciated! It feels good to have "followers" to my blog, makes me feel less cut off from the world. Thanks for toasting me Sondra, and thanks Diane and Lisa!

So i decided to dedicate one blog entry to food, since that has been a subject many people have asked questions about. Rwanda is a beautiful country with a lot of greenery. It seems like good soil for a large variety of vegetables, but for some reason, there is very little variance. If we want to go out to eat without spending a lot of money or waiting 3 hours for food (yes, it sometimes takes that long)then we go out to resteraunts and use the buffet. Most resteraunts in Rwanda have buffets, and every place I have been to in and out of Butare has had the exact same items for the buffet: French fries, plantain, rice, kassava leaves, spaghetti, kassava bread, goat meat, beans, and tomato sauce. The price varies from about 800 to 2,000 RWF (Rwandan Fracs).

The food is not spicy, but people sometimes add some "pili" ( yellow pepper sauce) which is quite strong. I've had it a few times, but i usually just mix food items together then add salt. The food we are given at the compound is fairly good by comparison to what I have had elsewhere in Rwanda, so I feel lucky. One of my favorite days here, however, was the night the kitchen staff allowed some PCVs to cook dinner! I helped shop for some items, but I stayed out of the kitchen. We had delicious pizza (that actually tasted like pizza!), and one volunteer made mass amounts of guacamole. By far the best meal I've had since I've been here, and I really want to thank all the PCVs who've helped make food here-- your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Only a few days later, we had a "Rwandan cooking" day. We were split up into groups and assigned two trainers to accompany us to the market and bargain for food. It was fun, and I learned some new vocabulary. It was also a little depressing, seeing some very sick babies next to their mothers who were selling fruit.

When I say we cooked Rwandan style, I mean we really cooked Rwandan style. We got 4 live chickens which we had to slaughter. I didn't partake in the killing of the chickens, but I watched and took pictures. It bothered quite a few of the volunteers- both the ones who partook and the ones who watched. Maybe I'm just heartless, but watching the chickens get decapitated didn't bother me. I'd never seen anything like it. First they would step on the chicken to hold it still, pluck its feathers around the neck, then cut the neck as quickly as possible. There is quite a bit of blood, and like I thought, the chicken still moves around for quite a while after its head is cut off. The knife we were given to cut the chicken's neck was dull, so it took longer than it should to perform "the duty". What happened that day would have made PETA declare world war. When a volunteer was killing the last chicken, she said "i can't do this", then suddenly let go in the middle of the act. The chicken's neck was halfway cutoff at that point, and it went flying all over the place with it's head half on. It was a pretty terrible (but entertaining) scene. People freaked out and ran when the chicken came near them-- I mean, that thing looked like one bloody airborne ball. Even one of the male teachers freaked out and ran behind the wall. After about 30 seconds or so of this, one predictable male teacher grabbed the flying chicken, took it back to the grass, and swiftly cut off the neck without flinching. Needless to say, it was an intersting day! Hopefully I haven't made my vegetarian friends throw up with this story.