Now can we talk about how Ugandans eat?
Yes, we all know Uganda is banana-land. I quite enjoyed this, I love
bananas! So...having banana pancakes and bananas for breakfast was
okay with me. Another thing, I have never eaten matoke in my life
despite the fact that my parents love it and it is prepared every so
often at our house, I finally had some matoke! Some I liked, some I
did not. There are different kinds, depending on mode of preparation
I suppose.
But, back to how Ugandans eat. I am
sure I have already said this to about my whole circle of
friends...and I hope not to offend anyone by my opinion, but ugandans
eat like they're about to head out to a construction site and start
carrying stones.
A typical meal is rice and pasta.
Matoke and rice. I kid you not! At this point, most kenyans must be
thinking, where is the meat?! Yeah, I thought that too. Along
with...why in the world is there a great need for two carbohydrates
in the meal? Is it not just...too much?
Then when we had buffet meals, then it
was quite the treat!
Matoke, rice, chapati AAANNNND Pasta!
Plus one meat and stew and their famous g-nut sauce(ground nut sauce)
Vegetables? I do not recall eating any. With the buffets, I'm sure
the serving staff marked me. I just got fed up at some point and
would skip everything except rice and meat stew. That felt a little
bit like home.
It took me a while before I got it into
my head that I could not just throw in a swahili word or two every
time I was talking to people. Every time I would go to a shop or be
talking to the conductor of a taxi, I would automatically start my
conversation in swahili because that is what I would do at home.
'Sasa, maji unauza pesa ngapi?'(Hi, how
much is a bottle of water?) 'Fare ni ngapi?' (How much is the fare?)
The blank stares that followed my
statements always got me back into reality. Inasmuch as Ugandans look
just like kenyans, they are not. I reckon I got coned once when the
guy placed that I was clearly new in the area.
Another thing that took some getting
used to...was the currency disparity. The exchange rate when I was
there was about 28ush to 1ksh. I remember at the border, when we had
just converted money, one of my friends asked what 200ush could get
her...and she was told...practically nothing.
We would take a taxi(they call matatus
that) for a short distance and then be told that its 1500ush. I was
always so shoked! Like...say what now? Was there wifi in that taxi?
Did my seat recline and give me a massage? Why in the world am I
paying 1500 for that 5 minute ride then? Oh yeah, not in Kenya. I
found that some are so used to the 'thousands' that its not a
necessary part of conversation. I tried to buy samosas somewhere and
asked how much they are. The guy told me 2 shillings. I was so
confused...2?! So I took out 200ush and he was shocked...'two
THOUSAND', he said to me.
Well, he should have just said that in
the first place!
So this guy quickly figured I obviously
was not from around and charged me double for the samosas. Might have
been an oversight, but when I found out, damn right I went back for
my money!
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