Food

I know you all are dying to know what I eat on a daily basis. It’s actually been one of the hardest things for me to adapt to since I’ve been here. Sometimes I have dreams about eating a Chipotle chicken taco or just having a plain old peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Rumor has it there building a Chipotle in my village just behind the corn field. Sike. Lol.

The diet here is primarily composed of starches. There is an abundance of rice, manioc (like potato), potato, pasta, fonio, couscous and other various types of rice/grain. In terms of meat, I’ve generally eaten fish (in every form) and some beef. The other day I tried heart. My sister didn’t specify whose heart it was but I’m going to assume it was the heart of a cow. If you’ve ever eaten liver before, it tastes just like that. My sister loves it but unfortunately I’m not a big fan of either.

A couple of weeks ago I watched the preparation of my chicken from the beginning to end. Meat doesn’t exist pre-packaged here because it can’t be preserved, so the only option to get meat is to go to market and buy it from the butcher, and if you want chicken you buy the chicken (alive.) So one Sunday my sister and I went to the market like we usually do, bought all of the ingredients for the meal, and then picked up the chicken. She went back and forth between the three chickens available trying to decide which was best. From what I gathered the best is the plumpest of the chickens. When she couldn’t decide she asked my opinion, so I gave my usual clueless response of a smile, head nod and a “c’est bon.” After the decision was made the vendeur trapped the squawking chicken and tied it by the legs. He handed the chicken to my sister who then preceded to hand it to me. (The moment she did I was thinking to myself, this woman has lost it, there is no way I can carry this thing home. I played it cool though, like I carry chickens back home all the time. I also realized that if I wanted to eat, I’d better stop being a punk and just carry the chicken. lol.) It was slightly awkward at first because his little legs were still warm and he wouldn’t stop moving. Then after hanging upside down for a while he started drooling. (eww!) I didn’t know how the chicken carrying process was supposed to work but for whatever reason I was really worried about him. I found myself checking up on him every few minutes to see if he was okay. (I don’t know why, because in about 2 hours he was going to be my dinner.) My sister, along with everyone else in the market just giggled every time I did it. Anyway, we finally made it home after a few hours and my sister got things prepared for the cooking…this where the fun part begins. The chicken has to be killed first, so I watched in shock as my sister grabbed him by the neck and chopped his head off with one swift motion of her butcher knife. It was amazing. There’s a certain way that it has to be done so that the blood doesn’t drain into the meat too much. After the beheading, she put the chicken into a pot of boiling hot water for a few minutes to make it a little easier to de feather it. The de feathering was actually pretty interesting to watch; the decapitation….not so much. From this point it was just a matter of cutting cleaning and cooking the good pieces of chicken. After about 2 hours the feast was ready and it was delicious. I have to admit that although the process was a little gruesome it was a sort of exciting and interesting at the same time.

Anyway, back to the food groups. I don’t eat a lot of vegetables here. I’ve just eaten cucumber, corn, and eggplant. (Others might exist but I just haven’t eaten them yet.) But he fruit in Guinea is to die for! When we first arrived it was the tail end of pineapple season. Oh my God! It was like eating a piece of heaven every day! Lol. Then when I went on my site visit about a month ago they still had mangos. Lord have mercy! Those have to be the juiciest, sweetest mangos on earth! Mmm mmm.

Back to reality, although the fruit was amazing some days it just wasn’t enough. My first week here I was eating great. My sister was cooking everything for me, rice and sauce, spaghetti, chicken, salad. It was great! Then by my second week this 3 week phase started where I was eating nothing but avocado, onion, cucumber and mayonnaise salad every single day for every single solitary meal. Some days I would make up something so that I wouldn’t have to eat it all, thinking that I would be getting out of it, but then she’d just serve it to me for breakfast in the morning. I started to pray everyday before I went home in hopes that she would give me something different. It got old fast, and I had reached the point where I felt miserable at the thought of eating another salad and it became a chore for me to eat (can you imagine.)

Clearly I could have just ended the misery by just opening my mouth and saying something but for whatever reason I thought I would offend her if I did. Of course the moment I talked to her about it she was more than happy to give me something else. Since then I haven’t had the mayonnaise salad. Phew!

Just a quick story. About the 3rd week here during my salad phase with my family, one of the current volunteers prepared mini care packages for all the trainees. And in each one was a luscious Snickers bar. I don’t know if any of the other trainees felt this way, but I was truly elated! I almost cried. (I’m not joking.) And then that same afternoon I drank a cold orange soda. I swear it felt like one of the greatest days of my life. Lol. Clearly I was having a bad day, but it’s amazing how such a little thing can turn your day around. Lol.

I have to say that within the past 2- 3 weeks the food situation has gotten ten times better along with the adjustment process.