Trip Log Day 09

I thought I would take a minute to describe the food here. In Addis there is so much variety, we had Mexican (yeah, good Mexican, too) on the day we left town. But out here in the country side food has become a daily remembrance to be thankful for what the Lord has provided for us and the hands that prepared our meals. In short, we have three meals a day of virtually the same thing. I have come to call the dishes Red, Green and Yellow; I think we were told the correct name but I can’t remember. We eat separately from everyone else so there isn’t really a way to tell if we are eating fancy or more frequently than the others but we all suspect that we are. We have to remember that the staff here is truly blessing us.

Injera: This is the sour bread I was writing about earlier. It’s rolled fermented sour bread (almost pancake-like) that is used as a utensil to scoop up food. I ate this the first few days but towards the end here I haven’t touched it. The sour starts to get to you.

Red: Red bean spicy chili with lots of oil and sometimes tiny (we’re talking flakes) of meat. This is served at every meal.

Green: This one is spinach that has been chopped up finely and has the same flakes of beef (or some meat…) in it once and a while. This one also is served at every meal.

Yellow: Cabbage is marinated in curry (making it yellow) and about twice this also has potatoes in it.

Loafs of white bread: Praise the Lord for white bread loafs! They taste completely western and freshly baked. I love them. The loaves served at every meal along side the injera and are getting to be the only thing I am willing to stomach for at least two of the three meals a day.

Also making select appearances:

Purple: I don’t touch this one. It’s beets in some sort of water soup.

Red CHICKEN!: This made one appearance on a very happy afternoon. There was one less chicken in the yard. According to Jonathan (or local expert) this dish is only served at special holiday celebrations. It was so yummy!

Spaghetti: This is kinda an odd one. Twice it has been breakfast. Be we are not in a position to complain so it gets eaten pretty fast because it resembles Western food. The sauce is Red.

Potatoes: Plain fried potatoes, oh how I love thee! This dish was served once at dinner. Two small thinly sliced potatoes around a team of 8 people is eaten really quickly. I think that French fries might be the anti-Ethiopian food. Leana and I are totally craving them lately.

Steve keeps threatening to fake illness or fast. He was done with all this food days before any of the rest of us were. Makes you wonder how he has survived years of team leading. Fasting here means eating only vegetarian, though and illness means that you are going to be prayed over and get people all worried, so he has to eat. And so do the rest of us. Again, praise the Lord God in heaven for white loaves of bread!

Lastly, the coffee here is amazing. It’s so dark that you can’t see the spoon if you scoop some up and it is so rich that it tastes like the earth (it seems as if you could describe the coffee like I would wine: earthy with a strong aroma). Leana hates coffee under normal circumstances but here – coffee is amazing! It is freshly pounded then roasted then brewed every day, three times a day for us. There is even a whole elaborate coffee ceremony that we were treated to three times here. The whole process takes about two hours and I can’t believe they are willing to make it so often for us, but again, we are very blessed by our hosts.

The women put out a grass mat and grass clippings on the floor to sit on and the ceremony begins. It starts out with roasting the green beans over a small fire pot. You have to move the around continually to keep them from burning, we were each allowed a turn, it was very stressful. Then the women pound the beans into a fine powder in a hollowed stump with a large trunk like staff. After that the beans get brewed with hot water in a clay pot over the small fire. Another job we got to try was fanning the flame with a piece of cardboard. The coffee is portioned out into small cups and passed around and re-filled till you can’t drink any more. So yummy.

Pictures of the coffee ceremony, food and more of the adventure can be found here.

Bon Appetit,
Cindy