Food!

Hello Cornelia!

I hope the first month of school has gone well for you and you are getting used to being back in class!

I want to use this post to tell you a little bit about the differences in the food that students eat here and what you are used to eating in Minnesota.

The schools that I teach at are called boarding schools. Boarding schools are schools where students come from all over the country and live in rooms at the school for the whole school year. During their breaks is the only time they get to go back home and see their families. As a result, the schools here have to give the students three meals each day. This is a little different from the one meal that you eat at Cornelia for lunch.

Each morning the students are provided breakfast. Everyday their breakfast is the exact same, in fact, the students eat the same thing for lunch and dinner everyday too! For breakfast they are given bread, porridge, and tea. The students only have 20 minutes to eat their breakfasts before class starts at 7:00am.

Once 2:00pm roles around the students are pretty hungry and it’s time for lunch. Now, at the schools here there aren’t any menus to be read off each morning so the students can decide what they want to have to eat. They don’t have chicken nuggets, pizza, hamburgers, or Fun on the Run! All they have for the students to eat is Ugali, beans, and bananas. Now, I’m sure a lot of you are wondering what is Ugali? I sure didn’t know what is was before I came here, but I have learned that it is the most common food eaten in Tanzania. Ugali is a type of porridge that has very little taste. It is not very expensive to make and it is filling so it works out well for many of the schools and villagers who don’t have a lot of money. It is made from maize that is ground into flour and then boiled in water. This meal of Ugali, beans, and bananas is the same meal the students eat everyday for lunch.

Come 7:00pm after a long day of school, studying, working, and playing sports the students are ready to eat dinner. Once again, however, the students here don’t have a choice in what they get to eat. And, once again, they are served Ugali, beans, and bananas! Every once in awhile students are provided spinach to go along with their Ugali.

This type of menu of Ugali and beans is very common in schools and in villages where families don’t have enough money to buy other types of food. For families that are able to buy other types of food they will often eat food that includes rice, ugali, a type of meat (goat, cow, pig, chicken, or fish), spinach, beans, potatoes, and bananas.

So next time you aren’t too happy with what the choices are for lunch, just remember that you are luck to have a choice on what to eat!

Until next time,
Derek