Day Five - Dumpster Diving?!

I knew today would be tough on the kids, but I had no idea it would be as tough as it was. Friday is our homeschool co-op day. It is also the day everyone orders out for lunch. Knowing my kids would be passing on take-out today, I brought a special treat; Nutella & banana on chipati bread.

Before anyone cries foul, let me explain. In my research on African foods, I discovered that chocolate nut butters are a Kenyan treat. I knew that "ground nuts", aka peanuts, were grown in Kenya and I knew Africa was a leading manufacturer of peanut butter, but I had never heard of chocolate nut butter. My friend Tracy had and she turned me on to Nutella. YUM! I confess, I have used it sparingly this week to get over some sugar withdrawal "humps". Today was one of those humps we were trying to clear so I put together what I'm calling chipati-dogs (banana wrapped in a Nutella coated chipati bread).

I teach some classes at co-op and today, my kids started eating lunch while I was still cleaning up after my second class. The next thing I know, kids are coming to tell me how Eli was eating out of the trash. I didn't believe them, but later on Eli confirmed the rumor. It was true! He had pulled a leftover sandwich out of the garbage and was eating it! Yuck, yet very African.

Because while it's true that we are trying to eat like an African for a month, we are consuming a higher quantity of food than the average African. Yes, there are metropolitan cities in Kenya where you can find pretty much anything you want just like any other city, but the average Kenyan is not wealthy enough to eat 3 square meals a day.

I'm more familiar with the village areas and only vaguely familiar at that. What I saw were people gleaning sugar cane from the fields or sharing a piece of jack fruit for breakfast. While my gracious host provided friendly foods to the Muzungus, I saw students being offered slices of white bread and a bottled soda for lunch. I saw children picking up grains of rice out of the dirt to eat them and yes, there are people gleaning nourishment from the garbage. Do a google search on the Kibera slum of Nairobi and see for yourself. Not that every African is eating garbage, but many of them do only eat one main meal a day.

I suppose Eli was only trying to be "authentic" when he rescued that sandwich from the trash. At the very least, he provided me with a bloggable moment. Hmm...it's only day 5, isn't it?

Hope you have a great weekend!

- Julie