The Food

My initial goal being here was to loose weight because "hey its africa, the food is gonna be nasty"  and actually a lot of it was nasty but the stuff that was good was not what I would call healthy, most of it is cheap calories that fill people up. Carbo-Load EVERY night.  Long story short I ate a lot of things that were no exactly appetizing and when we went out to get tasty food, we ate a lot of it.  So the outcome is sort of the opposite of my loosing weight goal, all of the exchange students have started to call it the Botswana Belly. And for better or for worse, I have it.

These are Mopane Worms, they are a traditional dried and flavored caterpillar and everyones favorite snack.  I don't like them.  It took me a good minute to finally stick it in my mouth and then, hey I can taste legs and grass and salt and rough something and pokey something and GAG (2xs).

Travel meals were tough, they usually consisted of cold porridge in water, wayyyyy too much peanut butter, bread with tuna fish, cucumber and if we were lucky tomatoes and avocado,  packaged and dried soy mince, rice, beans, pasta... good variety. 

There were however, some really tasty and interesting fruit like mangos the size of my head, lichees, kiwi, pineapple, oranges, bananas, coconut...mmmmm.

Can you say Frappe?  I can. Every week. So tasty.

Fat cakes and papatas.  Fat cakes are literally extra large and dense scones deep friend in oil.  Papatas are the same dough but instead of deep frying it, it goes in the oven for a bit and becomes much like an oversized english muffin.  These papatas were especially tasty with egg and cheese.

Some of the weird traditional food was gross.  I really am not a big meat person anyways and when I do eat it, I like skinless, fatless, boneless chicken. (unless its a burger or tacos- then I like beef) but eating chicken feet and livers and heads and necks and insides...no. No I don't like it.

Staple Breakfast EVERY day.  Apple and peanut butter- can't go wrong.

My lunch at least 2-3 times a week consisted of a chicken pie from Shoppers (the little convenience store on campus)  Pretty much like a chicken pot pie only "on the go" style and way tasty.  Generally I tried to balance it out with something healthy like yogurt which I have grown strangely fond of since being here.

This is Curry Pot (the school cafeteria) dinner every single night.  You have the choice of rice, pop, or noodles then either beef or chicken with the same curry/tomato sause and a small scoop of veggies which is generally green salad, cabbage or squash.

Lunch on a good day!  Classic Burger and fries from Equitorial, Linga Longa, Embassy, Fego's...tasty out to eat places from heaven.

Another normal day lunch- special day with crackers too, the classic and daily pie and yogurt.

Curry Pot-sometimes when I got tired of the same thing every night, I would go for sides and put them together, in this case a tortilla and fried rice.

Curry Pot- noodles and green salad and chicken..same chicken, same salad and same sause as always!  Every dinner comes with a cup of juice and that night I was spoiled because I had a grapefruit for dessert.

HEAVEN in a coffee shop.  Mug n' Bean is the greatest South African invention since Nelson Mandela probably because they have extra large warm and melty muffins and overly tasty chocolate hazelnut frappe-chinos.  This was our favorite stop for studying and stuffing our faces almost weekly. 

Bottomless Pizza Night!  You pay one fee of 60 Pula (less then 10 USD) and they bring about 15 different pizzas around that you get to eat. Its an all you can eat kind of deal and sadly I did a bad job- I think I ate about 1/2 of eight different flavors and pooped out.  Claire and Hunter did a really great job, I think they both cleared about 12 pieces.