Food & Sustenance

Our son Rod gave us some blog ideas. I picked up on the food idea pretty quickly. Dennis can tell you that when I get bored or need a distraction, cooking is going to take place.

Let me say from the outset that we appreciate so much all the support that has been given to us to allow us to have a nice home & kitchen to cook in. We are so blessed!!!

When we first came to Uganda I was concerned that things would not be sterile enough resulting in us getting sick, or that I would not be able to find enough food to eat since the shopping here is so different from the U.S. Well, God has been faithful & He has taken care of all that. I’m now confident that we will survive in Africa!!!

Home Cooking:

I have learned to cook some of the African dishes, but mainly cook what I did at home with variations. I have a stove with a gas cooktop & an electric oven. And we have a refrigerator. We’ve had guests over a few times for pizza, fried chicken dinner, etc. I’ve made salsa & guacamole for the mission teams. (The avocados are bigger than my fist & guacamole will keep for a few days here. The going rate is 500 shillings – about 20¢). Fresh fruit is our dessert of choice, but I have made a few Texas Sheath Cakes & Dutch Apple Pies. I’ve been given the responsibility for most of the birthday cakes at Calo Me Lare, the orphanage where we serve (48 kids & 6 house moms). Thanks to people at Discovery Bible Fellowship for sending cake mixes & cans of frosting – makes my life much easier!!!

The fruit that looks like a big green strawberry is jackfruit. It is pretty tasty & rare. A staff member shared it with us. See the size of the avocado in comparison to the bananas? The pineapple is extra-large. Now you know why fresh fruit is the dessert of choice. Pineapples are 3000 shillings, about $1.25, bananas are 200 shillings, less than 10 cents each.

Orphanage Cooking:

The moms at Calo Me Lare have a kitchen very different from mine. They have cabinets with concrete counter-tops & no refrigeration. They cook very much like other people in Africa…on a charcoal burner. This is a picture of hauling charcoal on a bicycle. The bags are very heavy.

Our Head Mother, Tino Joy is cooking outside the home she shares with 8 girls. Joy plans the menu for each week. Meals are prepared in individual homes but they are exactly like the meals in the other homes.

A charcoal burner looks like this.

Charcoal is transported on bicycles in huge bags weighing over 100 lbs.

This is Akello Molly, taken in the kitchen of the home she shares with 8 boys. Each mom prepares a balanced diet for the children in her house, 3 meals a day. The children are given much better food than most children in Uganda.

The moms also prepare breakfast & lunch for the entire staff at CML on a rotating basis, along with cooking for their own home.  Let me tell you, their beans & rice are the absolute best! For lunch the children usually have beans with rice or posho. The evening meal might include carrots, green vegetables, a starchy vegetable, meat, or eggs. Everything is made from scratch…and everything is fresh. There are no frozen or packaged items to be used in cooking. Milk is purchased at a local dairy & the moms boil it as soon as it arrives.

Starches include cassava (a large root vegetable - see below), white maize flour, cooked in a paste form slightly resembling grits (posho) or used in porridge, fresh maize (boiled or roasted on the cob), Irish (potatoes) & white sweet potatoes.

This is Dennis' attempt at roasting maize.

Moms use onions, green peppers, tomatoes & peppers to spice things up. Besides this they use Royco, a beef-flavored seasoning which is quite good & thickens the broth in beans, soups & sauces.

Street Cooking:
Dennis & I have been on a Mission Trip to Uganda in the past for short stints, so we thought we knew something about eating out in Lira…we thought there were only a couple of “safe” restaurants…but we were wrong. Almost any restaurant is safe; even the street vendors are OK to buy from (with discretion - avoid the beef on a stick).

A local favorite is chapati, which is an unleavened flatbread. There are chapati vendors stationed all over Lira. They use a wheel rim, put it on a stand & fill the center with homemade charcoal. They use a small metal plate – like a griddle – to cook on. Next to this they have a table with round balls of prepared dough. They use a lot of oil to bake what looks like a huge, thick pancake. It is really good. They also make Rolexes at some of the stands by making something similar to an omelet on the same griddle & rolling it up together – Yum!

Roasted or boiled maize is plentiful everywhere you go (tastes like silage, if you know what that is). Ladies walk several miles with maize boiled in the husk balanced in a tray on their heads to sell at the local market.

Gnuts (peanuts) are in season now. They are usually roasted or made into a sauce to serve over sweet potatoes or whatever you like.  Sometimes the sauce is mixed with Simsim (sesame seeds). (We have discovered this is great over homemade pancakes with bananas & syrup). A team favorite in season is Simsim balls, made with Simsim & melted sugar.

Street cooking also includes Mandazi, a pouch-shaped donut.

Conclusion: We are all so spoiled & so blessed.

We thank God for each one of you & know you are praying for us. Some prayer requests this week:

• Teachers are on break this week, so pray for creativity in interacting with the kids...& energy for it.
• PTL! Several children prayed to receive Christ today in Children's Church. Pray for us as we follow up with them. Pray that the children will all come to understand who Jesus is.
• Last night a thunderstorm took out our microwave. Our oven needs repair...not a result of the storm. Pray it can all be fixed.

Blessings,
Dennis & Margie