FOOD!

Many of you have been asking me about what we typically eat here, so here is the run down.

A typical breakfast consists of bread (they cut off the crusts here) with butter, orange pineapple, or apricot marmalade, or occasionally peanut butter (if we beg). We also either have cream of wheat (Which I have not tried because it looks like vomit), oatmeal (Which I did try and actually, I really enjoyed it!), corn flakes cereal, and once in a great while, eggs. Now, we get bread every day, but we will only get one other option, if we are lucky. Some days we have fabulous fruit juice, and we always have coffee and tea. I love the tea and drink it almost every morning. Most of the time with milk. The milk here comes in a box, and is rarely refrigerated.

Lunch is provided for me at the school. Here is the menu:
Monday ~ Boiled plantains, white rice, beef stew with a red sauce, or a spinach beef mixture
Tuesday ~ Banku (fermented corn dough) and Watch-ey (rice mixed with beans) and fish that sometimes still looks at you
Wednesday ~ Fried Plantains with white rice, beans, and fish
Thursday ~ Spaghetti with rice and red sauce with tender chicken on the bone
Friday ~ Fried rice with a chicken stew in a brown broth

My favorite days are Monday and Wednesday because of fried plantains. Really the only day I don't like is Tuesday. Banku is probably one of the nastiest things I have tasted, but I did try it. The Watch-ey is not bad, but not my favorite.

Dinners consist of some sort of rice (I have never tried so many different kinds of rice) with a meat/vegetable sauce. They love fish here and somehow, I have managed not to eat any of it yet! They also make things rather spicy. There is so much flavor to the food here! I love of the spices. We also have yam balls (a breaded mashed potato with onions) they are actually pretty ok. Peanut soup and rice balls have become a favorite of the group. No one in our group is a real picky eater, so that is nice. We are for sure not going hungry and I think most of us are gaining weight! For dessert, we usually get a fruit of some sort. I must say, I have become a huge pineapple fan! Sometimes, if we are really lucky, someone in the group will bring cookies!

To drink, we typically have bottled water or juice. When we go out, we usually drink orange Fanta, Sprite, or Coke. Also, Alvaro has become a favorite. This is a carbonated pear or pineapple juice. It's so good.

I love the food here so much that I have already looked into buying a West African cook book!!