There is no fast food in Kibuye

By Michelle

Hello Everyone! I thought I’d give you a glimpse into what life is like here on a daily basis when it comes to food preparation. Julie wrote a great post on this topic (Kibuye Kitchens) but I'll touch on some different elements. 

Food shopping:

There are no supermarkets in Burundi and the only “store” closest to us is in Gitega. While our food choices are limited, we are thankful to have food and to eat on a daily basis. Sadly, with many of those in our community this is not the case. 

Each week we place a produce / food order that looks like this:

I have found that meal planning is a must when one is limited to getting food once a week. If you run out of something midweek, you usually can borrow from your neighbor. But on the plus side, this gives us women a chance to communicate on a daily basis. 

The food arrives in a basket like this. 

There is a market behind the hospital that has a few options such as eggs, tomatoes, avocados, onions, pineapple, and carrots.

Gardening: 

The food options here are seasonal. If something is not in season, then you wait until it is. The last few months we had lettuce in the garden: 

But now that it’s been used up we need to wait until more grows before eating salads again. It definitely teaches you to be patient and to be thankful for what you have!

Extras:

Milk is delivered a few times a week: When it arrives you need to cook it for a period of time, then let it cool and strain it before putting it in the refrigerator. The availability of fresh cow milk is a recent luxury for which we are very thankful. 

In Gitega we can can buy bags of flour, sugar, and rice. If you want any kind of bread product, you or your house helper needs to make it from scratch. There's nothing like freshly made bread!

The cheese we can buy comes in wheels and is made in Congo. It's not always the best quality but we are thankful to have cheese! 

It is very difficult to buy meat other than goat meat in our area. There is a butchery in the capital that has more options so we have found that if one has the freezer space it's best to stock up and eat sparingly.

Our team has put together a cookbook that uses mostly the limited ingredients we are able to get. Check it out! There are some gems in there!

Kibuye Cookbook

Speciality meals: For Christmas, Carlan and I made a lasagna with cheese we had made from scratch, freshly made pasta noodles, sauce from scratch, and herbs grown in our garden. It took a lot a work but it was worth it!

Kibuye gourmet: Fried Termites. For those with a strong stomach there is always something new to try.

Conclusion: Each time we buy food, we are thankful for the hard work of many that had to grow, pick and transport this product by manual labor: