Written June 20, 2012 in my friends dining room after language tutoring

Posted- hopefully later this afternoon, if I can get online.

Well kids, its been a rough day for some reason.

I think I’m just a bit exhausted from the continuous scheduled lifestyle we have here. It could be because it’s mid-week, and we still have many more things to do this week, it could be that I’m tired, it could be something I ate. Who knows. All I know is that today is kinda a poopy day.

I have had slight frustrations with my host family when it comes to diet, and what is offered for me to eat. I am aware that my family has lives of their own, and I would never want to interfere with that, or ask for special treatment simply because I have my own needs. They have offered me their home, to feed me and put a roof over my head, to teach me things I would never learn on my own here in Moz – and for that I will be eternally grateful.

I think I have just reached a point where I am annoyed at having certain things done for me, not being able to communicate my points fully to those I live with, and just a general exhaustion that many others are feeling. Nothing a good nights sleep wouldn’t cure I’m thinking. But seeing as its only 4pm here, I still have a bit of time until then.

The food situation here is wonderful, there is always a lot of variety in fruits and many veggies available to eat. I have expressed to my family here numerous times that I love fruit and veggies, that I can eat them with every meal. Like for breakfast – rather than just bread, how about some bread and peanut butter with maybe a banana? Or better yet, maybe just a banana and some peanut butter? I’m hardly starving here, so there is no need for the starch overload. (even though the bread here is absolutely amazing)

I am trying to explain to my family the health benefits of having a balanced diet, how many of the dishes they make and eat are very healthy, but the proportions are wrong. Rather than taking a massive amount of xima and a small bit of couve, switch it around! I try to exemplify this every day eating lunch and dinner, but I don’t think its catching on. For example, today for lunch, I was served a salad (yum), rice and homemade french-fries (which are batatas fritas, very common). I took some salad and rice, covering the rice with the hot sauce. My host mother kept insisting that my plate was incomplete without the fries, and I insisted right back that the redundancy of carbohydrates was unnecessary. (of course this was all done in Portuguese, so it was not very convincing on my part I think). I asked for something with some protein, like an egg or possibly some more peanut butter for my banana afterwards. She said the egg would be fine, so I followed her to the kitchen to hard-boil an egg. Something I obviously know how to do, however she insisted on cooking my egg (10year old status) and before I could say anything, cracked it into the sizzling oil. Fried egg for lunch. Yum. . . kinda. I decided to choose my “battle” for the day to be the rice/fries thing, and ate the slimy egg haha.

Its these mini inner-battles that we all face here everyday. I think it comes from many of us not having such a proficiency of the language to communicate our points of view, the perception that we are indeed idiots and cannot fend for ourselves, the idea that we are a “guest” in the house and therefore must be taken care of, or who knows. I don’t mind doing work around the house, in fact I would love to cook for myself, but seeing as I live with a number of people, that is out of the question. I could manage breakfasts I think, and have mentioned this to my homestay mother, but I think it fell on deaf ears. I don’t expect special treatment, and it does make me uncomfortable that I am given a certain plate every meal, and sit at the head of the table etc. I want to be one of the family, but as accepting as the family is here, they also have drawn boundaries that prevent me from doing anything like that. I tried to eat lunch outside with the kids today in the sunshine, but was quickly ushered into the dining room, to eat by myself at the table, because it was the ‘proper’ thing to do, or whatever.

Like I said, today is just a rough day for some reason. Tomorrow will be better.

This morning our technical lesson was incredible. We had sort of an introduction to nutrition – something I am very interested in, project wise. We talked about what we all feel nutrition is (funny that this was the topic of the day, considering my home life situation at the moment). The Moz health/nutrition system is different from the American food pyramid. Here there are 3 main groups. Alimentos Energeticos, Alimentos Protectores and Alimentos Construtores. The first are things that give you energy ie pasta, xima, potatoes (oil and sugar are combined in this too under a sub category Alimentos Energeticos Concentrados). The second are things like your fruits and veggies, and the third are things like meat, cheese, eggs and beans (which can be put into the first category as well).

We chatted briefly about the food availability on a month-to-month basis, the differences between the rainy season and dry season. Food storage ideas (I learned to make a homemade refrigerator) were discussed, and the idea of food availability, accessibility and utilization. Only 20% of the 36million hectacres of fertile land her in Moz are used for agriculture – but if you remember 78% of Moz live in a rural area, and of that 71% live in “absolute poverty” which I think by definition is less than 1 USD per day (broken down over a year timeframe).

We talked about this incredible plant called Moringa, it grows like a tree, and only takes 6-8 months to reach maturity, the idea is to continuously prune it, so it grows in a horizontal manner rather than up. These trees/plants are ideal for surrounding gardens, providing some shade from the relentless African sun. The leaves can be picked and used in a salad, or dried (in a shady area) and ground into a powder that can be sprinkled on cooked food – it packs a punch of vitamin A, C, calcium, protein and iron. Basically it’s a miracle plant.  Its almost impossible to kill, and all parts of it can be used – including the seeds (leave 10 seeds in 25liters of water for 5-6 hours and you have drinkable water). I plan on planting a few of these around my site, hopefully using it both myself, and in my work here in Moz.

There is an excellent website that I encourage you all to check out – www.echo.org it is full of wonderful plant seeds (send me some!!!!) with full directions on how to plant/care for them, and their food/medicinal purposes. Jackpot!!

I want to study more about different plants, what they can provide, how they can help etc. Why buy vitamins, or have people spend money on medication, when you can grow it in your own garden? Sustainability and empowerment right there.

These two years are going to be great (see, I’m already in a better mood).

X’s and O’s

Send me some seeds!!

taytay