This is my first post since arriving in Rundu. Just after my previous post my counterpart had to leave the programme due to personal reasons, however, I have now been paired with a new one. He goes by AM since his name is far too difficult to pronounce (no doubt spell).
Our host home, which I will talk about in detail in a later post, provides us with a meal every evening - cooked by the women of the house (even the thought of the men cooking in Namibia is laughable). On the first night we were called to eat and we were presented with a plate of 'porridge' - a maize based sludge - and a pot of a beef stew type thing. I was offered a knife and fork but also offered to learn the way of their culture - I opted for the latter no doubt. Hands are used instead of cutlery and our teeth are our 'natural knife' AM assures me. How we should spread butter on bread I don't know.
The technique is to pick at the porridge, squidge it to make it more compact, then dip it into the stew. The dishes the stew and porridge come in are shared by all those eating. Luckily for us this is only AM and me - the children of the house are less fortunate and share between half a dozen or so, all around one pot. To eat the chunks of meat simply take with your hands and rip with your teeth, just like eating KFC (which I have had plenty of practise at). Certainly more fun than UK dining but at the same time more sticky and much less hygenic despite the bowl of water provided to splash your hands in before starting.
I have spent around 9 days in Rundu now and 8 of them I have had porridge with some sort of meat dish. Extrapolating this data shows I will almost definitely never want to see maize again after these three months. Still the meat pot varies and the food is tasty and, most imporantly, present and edible.
One evening I went into their living room and saw dinner before it was cooked. There in a tub on the floor was a cows head and trotters. Here they use all the animal, none goes to waste, something I agree with entirely. The cold water is kept in the fridge with the naked carcasses of many animals.
The only part of their way of dining I am not joining in with is the drinking of water. In one large cup (imagine a large in starbucks) the water is provided, with a smaller cup to drink from. Just one. If you wish to drink you poor the water into the smaller cup, finish it, and return the cup for the next user. I've chosen my flask instead.
So far dinner has been cow, goat, fish (I ate the eyes - apparently it's good for the brain), chicken and other unidentifiable animals.
I will soon post about the home, the climate, the kindergartens in which we work, taxis, and how to pick up women - Namibian style. Hopefully a few of these will go up this coming weekend.
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