Bon Appetit!

You may be curious about the sorts of foods I am eating here. Maybe to your surprise, it is quite tasty. In 2009, the food was one of my favorite parts of Rwanda. Although there are people in the country who may not be able to afford to eat a wide variety of foods, it isn't very expensive for us to eat a wider range of foods. In homes where money is tight, they might only eat rice or kaunga and beans along with whatever fruit they might be able to find from wild trees or from fruit trees on their land.

Fried plantains and potatoes, guacamole and a red sauce.

Fried Fish, Rice and sauce with avocado on the side.

For breakfast we eat foods such as eggs, bread or toast with jam, butter or nutella We also eat fruit such as imineke (small bananas pronounced meneche), passion fruit, or mango. Elena said she occasionally makes crepes as well. We have tea every morning. Occasionally will also have yogurt. Lunch at the center consists of kaunga, rice, beans, and some sort of sauce. The cause is either a red sauce or another sauce with green vegetables (we are unsure of what the green vegetables really are... They call them "green vegetable"). Occasionally we will have fried potatoes or plantains. Dinner is cooked for us by a woman named Clare who works for Rafiki. She makes a variety of foods. So far I've had meals with fried fish, fried plantains, fried potatoes, rice with red onion and a red sauce that has carrots, onions, tomatoes, green vegetables, ground peanut and some spices. She cooks chicken on occasion. We also like to slice up some avocado or mango to go along with the meals. One evening Rafiki brought us some sliced sugar cane. It was quite a tasty treat. You have to chew a slice to get all the sugary juice out, and spit out the rest.

To the right: a bowl of sugar cane. To the left: chewed remains.

That is a rough idea about the kind of food we eat every day. It's pretty tasty and I can't complain yet! Elena said a lot of meals are very similar, but all so tasty!