A few weeks ago, Ali, Hannah and I sat down and made a bucket list of things we wanted to do before we leave Uganda. This blog is about three of the things on that list.
Bucket list item number 1: Learn how to cook Ugandan food.
So I miss a lot of American food. In fact I have come to realize that I have professed my longing for cheese a bit too much. So, sorry for that. The love of a girl and pasturized dairy products is not to be messed with.
However, I am going to miss a lot of Ugandan food too, so I employed my friend Erin, and our Kenyan friends Brian and Henry to come over and teach me how to cook omuceere (rice), emboga (cabbage), ebijanjalo (beans), and chapati. So now I am an expert Ugandan chef, and I have decided that I am having a study abroad potluck when I get home, so if you want to try Ugandan food you are invited. And if you are currently studying abroad, you must come and cook food from where you're studying. That is the deal.
Bucket list item number 2: Learn how to cook Ethiopian food.
Who knew so many of my bucket list items would have to do with food?? My friends and I have taken to frequenting this Ethiopian restaurant.... though I fear that restaurant is not quite the right term, as this place is the epitome of hole in the wall. You wind your way through the crowded streets near Old Park (the subject of my next post), enter a guest house through an alleyway, climb up several flights of stairs, walk into a small kitchen and call "hello madam?" Then, a lovely Ethiopian woman will come into the kitchen, take your order, and will eventually serve you in her living room.
Ali, Alena, Hannah, and Madam on the balcony outside her house/restaurant
View of the guest house courtyard. Many other Ethiopians live here.The food is delicious! And super cheap for bounteous quantities of food. Though there is a strict leave nothing on your plate rule, which has resulted in Injera snuck out in purses on many occasions.
One time we were there, Madam offered to teach us how to cook the food, so last Sunday, Hannah, Ali, and I went for a lesson. We learned how to make the traditional Ethiopian salad, and the vegetarian dish shown below:
Madam measuring out the all important Ethiopian spices
The aforementioned dish, bubbling away on the stove.Yes friends, after 20 plus years of life as a nerd, I have become a bad ass. I know. You're shocked. But it's true, and I have the bruises and sun burns to prove it.
The day after thanksgiving, ten of the SIT crew took to the Nile river for a day of Class 5 rapids. It was so much fun: totally crazy and terrifying, but I always felt safe and just had an awesome time. I thought I was so legitimate having rafted a couple times in Colorado.... but lets just say that the class 3s and 4s on the Colorado river are nothing compared to the class 5s on the Nile. Here's a little taste of what we did.
After a long day of rafting, we got to spend the night at the lodge of the rafting company we used, which could not be more beautiful. I will let the pictures do it justice:
The sunset view from our lodge... yeah, this doesn't suck.
Drinking Nile... on the Nile!!I have a couple more items on my bucket list, and I will be sure to tell you about them as I check them off. I look forward to completing them and adding to the unbelievably long list of incredible memories I will take with me from Uganda.
Also, tonight is the first night of Chanukah!! I made some latkes, which of course didn't taste nearly as good as Mom's, but a gal can try, right? I hope those of you who celebrate had a wonderful first night!!
Perhaps it's the 13 year old boy in me, but I kind of loved 0:48 in that movie where the guide says, "No here's the G-spot. If you hit the G-Spot you're going to get very, very wet." But I've probably already exposed that part of my character to you, see the title of our place in Ludwell.
ReplyDeleteHappy Hannukah !