12th October 2011 1st day of the second month 2004 - Ethiopian date.
It was always a plan, when we decided to seek a placement with VSO, that we would try to do without the indulgencies of western ‘civilisation’ and live a simpler life, but sometimes it’s really tough. The main problem is refridgeration. Of course we could always go out and buy a fridge, but that would defeat the object of the exercise. Food obviously doesn’t keep for more than a day in this heat. Gone is the old home style of making a big pot of stew to last a few days. Everything has to be made fresh and then we must ensure there is no wastage caused by overproduction (Nutts never were good at throwing away food).
This job of feeding ourselves is compounded by the limited availability and variety of fresh goods. Bananas and oranges are available in every other tiny street shop, and we eat them every day. But if you want more variety then papaya and guavas are bought from the juice shop, and these are supplemented with grapefruit and limes from the Saturday market. Vegetables are another difficulty; if you miss the Saturday market, then you’re restricted to red onions, avocados from the juice shop (60p per kilo), potatoes (only one variety), white cabbage and tomatoes(again only one variety); sometimes one of the local roadside stalls will get a sack of lettuce – a loose leaf type sold on the root. On that day we always have salad! We try to get to the market on Saturday though (an experience in itself). There we can find carrots, beetroot, leaf beet, and garlic. That’s it; only one variety of each vegetable; no cherry toms, no watercress or mixed leaves or cos, no spinach, no apples, no plums, no olives, no cucumber, no ... variety.
Of course meat doesn’t appear in our kitchen, but beef and goat and, to a lesser extent, mutton is sold in small butchers’ shops, but naturally it isn’t hung to tenderize the meat in this climate, so it is killed and eaten immediately – either raw, in chunks eaten at the butcher’s or cut into tiny pieces and quick cooked; then it’s called ‘tibs’ and traditionally served with raw green chilli and onion and injera. You buy chicken of course- it comes fresh - very fresh - and you take it home and kill it yourself!
