Family and friends have been asking, "What are you eating?" That's a good freaking question!!! What am I eating?!?!??! You never really know how creative you are until you are HANGRY!
But before we get into that, I must mention this... If you follow me on Facebook, maybe two weeks ago you read a post about my neighbor's daughter running to give me a big hug after I had been cooped in the house recovering from a cold for some days. Unfortunately, that same weekend, our relationship took some steps back, and this is why...Sunday morning, I'm doing my usual Sunday nothingness and I look up to see her climbing my fence, which is a little over 5 feet tall! I immediately yell out the window, "BABY GET DOWN!" She jumps down and runs to hide. I go out, hair bonnet and flip flops, to open the gate, where she has left her little brother, maybe 1 year and some change, as a sacrifice. As I stand there I see her and her sister peeping out from behind their kitchen. I go over there and order them to come out of the kitchen. If my Kinyarwanda was advanced enough, I would have summoned everyone's grandma, to say, "If you break my fence, Imma break you," I would have. But I think me coming to find them scared them enough. She hasn't spoken to me since, but I think there's still hope for the relationship, just stay off my fence. So back to what I'm ingesting and trying to digest. Some days it's really good and I'm in the kitchen like I'm "whippin' a brick." Other days, I'm cooking like, "Father, let this cup pass me by if it's not Your Will." Breakfast: Grits or oatmeal mixed with igikoma (porridge). Always. Hasn't changed. Probably won't change until something faster comes along. If I have bananas I'll eat one or two...or three. Oh, I usually put a scoop or two of peanut butter and jelly in my oatmeal! And what's oatmeal without sugar and cinnamon? Recently, however, they stopped importing oatmeal. So now I just have porridge. Lunch: What is lunch?!?! No, if I have eggs I make some scrambled eggs. I'll most likely fry some green peppers, onions, and tomatoes in them, also. My dad sent me some Spam...yes people, Spam. Now see, I've NEVER EVER eaten Spam! I'm from the Vienna Sausage generation...not that they are any better, but I really use to have my mom buy them. My dad asked, "Do you eat spam, Trelle?" I'm like, "I don't know, but I'm gonna find out when I fry it into some eggs!" For the record, Spam is GROSS, but it got the job done. I put ketchup on my eggs anyway so it kind of masked the Spam. Eggs...eggs from Rwandan chickens are sooooooooo small! I have to eat like five! Eggs are expensive, 100RWF a piece! You do the math. However, in my friend's village, about an hour away, there's a shop that sells "regular" sized eggs from a Belgium chicken, they're like 160RWF. Eggs are hit or miss. When you get a partially fertilized egg...it's definitely a miss. Pancakes are another thing I might whip up for lunch. If I'm feeling really fancy, I might chop up an apple and put it in the batter, but apples are 250RWF a piece and are smaller than my fist. For a while, I was eating peanut butter and jelly, or Nutella and peanut butter, or peanut butter and honey, or honey and Nutella sandwiches, but that bread started to linger in my thighs. Dinner: This is where things get interesting!!! First, I have to wash all the dishes from cooking breakfast and lunch because I only have two pots, and one frying pan. The vegetables available to me are as follows: carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, green beans, onions, green peppers. Wait, I lied. Those vegetables are only available sometimes. We've been in a food drought, so my local market is dryer than a Foley catheter in a patient with end stage renal disease. To get a variety a vegetables I must travel to a market about an hour and a half away. Then depending on what season it is, some things might not be available. When I first got to site, I was stripping green beans, peeling carrots, slicing onions. Then green beans disappeared for a minute. Ok, now I'm chopping cabbage. But I'm tired of eating cabbage! And rice! Whatever vegetable I cook I'm probably going to cook rice as well unless I have potatoes. Ah! Potatoes!! Maaaaaan, before potatoes disappeared I was making garlic butter mashed potatoes!!! The Spirit told me to pack my potato masher so, I followed suit! And I packed gravy packages, also! Yes, yes! Speaking of packages, I also packed spaghetti sauce packages, but really I can make sauce from scratch. Spaghetti, another go-to meal as if I was in college! The great part about spaghetti is I always have enough to share with Yvonne, my compound mate, that thinks my spaghetti is the best thing since Jesus's Resurrection! My dad sent me some packaged salami that I fry up and put in the sauce, that really has Yvonne like, "Teach me your ways!" Sometimes I just have rice and tomatoes...and if you haven't eaten tomato rice before...nevermind, you're not missing anything. My dad sent me MREs!!!!! These are the BEST!!! They are packed with nutrients. Y'all, I ate one and it totaled like 50 grams of protein! They are complete meals with a snack, a main dish, like chicken fajitas, and a dessert! One had a fudge brownie in it!!! I cried the night I ate that!! But I can't eat MREs every night so I save them for extreme lazy days or extreme workout days. My dad also sent some packaged tuna and salmon (as you can see, my Daddy is the greatest of all time)! The tuna and salmon are flavored also! So if I pair the tuna or salmon with rice and cabbage, I feel like I have a pretty decent meal! Mix some barbecue tuna in your rice one day...let me know how that goes! LOL! One day I made some beans and rice, but I realized a had a cheese sauce package left over from a MRE! I mixed that cheese sauce in my rice and beans and BAM, Mexican food! You can't knock these things, not until you're starving, and try them. But only try them when you're starving, or else, they won't taste good. Seasoning: Yes, I packed "Slap ya Mama" in my bag! I slipped up and didn't pack Old Bay seasoning. However, Slap ya Mama, Seasoning Salt, Garlic Powder, Black Pepper are a few of the best things I put in my bag!! Snacks: Rwandan culture is not a snacking culture. In fact, it's bad culture to walk down the street eating or drinking. The only acceptable "walking food" is popcorn and corn on the cob, both which are sold on the street, mostly after dark. But I'm American, and I like snacks! How am I suppose to adequately binge watch "A Different World" without snacks?!?! I can find Pringles in Kigali or larger towns for a nice expensive price. Sour cream and onion is my favorite. My Care Package Angels have been amazing!! Kit Kats, M&Ms, Oreos, Animal Crackers, Olives, Tasty Cakes, KIND Bars. I left a Sam's size box of Rice Krispie Treats and Cheez-Its at my moms, but I'm pretty sure my family has demolished them. Hopefully, I can get some of those soon. *cough cough* Some days, I'm lucky to get out of cooking all together and just eat what Yvonne has cooked, she doesn't mind feeding me at all! She'll even cook me certain things if I ask for them! Like insombe, my favorite Rwandan dish thus far! Sometimes we put our dishes together! I'll spare you all the pictures of some of these meals, they don't look as appetizing as they sound! Well, they don't really sound that appetizing either. Unfortunately, I think Rwanda has turned me into a binge eater! If I'm invited to a coworkers house or if I'm in Kigali, I'm eating EVERYTHING!! My friends and I went to a restaurant in Kigali and ordered, chicken wings, corn fritters, fried rice, and pancakes! We ate pretty much all of it! Meredith and I were invited to a wedding and there was buffet, we ate so much food, people were probably looking at us like, "Why are the Americans eating so much, have some class." We wouldn't have noticed because we were too busy stuffing our faces! I was once at a family's house and they had chicken and beef on the dinner table!!!! I ate until all I could do is roll into bed!! Yup, my friends and I are definitely binge eaters. I know it's a blessing when we get a meal of great substance! Honestly, when we leaving Kigali we start planning the restaurants we are going to eat at the next time we are in town, and budget for them. As I post this, I'm in the process of being grateful for the wonderful Thanksgiving I was invited to. At the election event I went to (post coming soon), I met wonderful people, and amazing black queens. One Queen in particular, Ms. Pam, did not hesitate to offer me a seat at the table shortly after learning my name. American Expats around the world are often away from their families during the holidays, so it was indeed a blessing to, not only eat all the foods I miss from home, but to be sureounded by family away from home! I met more amazing and welcoming people, all of them away from their immediate families, but communed as one big family. It reminded me a lot of our time as a military family, and all the random people that we called family, and I was too young to understand why. The atmosphere was a much needed mental break! My psyche appreciated indulging in home-cooked, love food, but my stomach was like, "You eat rice and beans everyday, what is the deliciousness?!" Don't worry, you ungrateful stomach, we'll be back to Curtrelle's Creations, in no time. Happy Holidays Season, Enjoy your families, and as always...Until Next Time, Live in Love Words From The Wise: "'Stacy you lack the necessary qualities required to be in my space.' *Walk Away*" -Anthony, when discussing professional ways to tell people to remove their BS from your presence so you won't be reported as the "Mean Black Person."
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