#17 – Food: you are what you eat, and you eat what you can get

From Lynne:

Some have asked me about food. The first day I ate 2 peanut butter sandwiches and half an avocado. The fruit here is great. Right now we are getting pineapple, papaya, avocado, tomato, bananas.

I also love the beans and rice, green peas, ground nuts, potatoes (white and sweet), a root called casaba and green beans.

Meat is another story. I previously sent pictures of a goat that met its end a few feet from our door, and with no refrigeration, pigs, chickens, goats, beef are slaughtered and handled under conditions we find unsanitary. And very few people can afford them anyway.

We eat eggs, some canned tuna and other meats and a type of ground meat they call mincemeat. Fresh meats, and occasionally fish, are served at the archbishop’s table and the homes of others, and our folks here eat modest portions of these things if well done. A chicken here is not like a chicken at home, and JoAnn had eaten it several times without recognizing it. There is a brown heavy spongy bread made from millet, which local people love and eat at every meal, but it is very hard to eat. Fried flat bread made in homes are bought at stands are very tasty. We can get good wheat bread, yogurt and packaged foods people send. Cheese is available once in a great while. So, when in doubt, I rely on the ubiquitous peanut butter.