Blog entry from Debi June 2016 Produce

I have a new motto:  NO POWER. NO SHOWER, NO MORE! That means we know how to monitor the temperature of the water in our little bathroom tank. When we have power, we turn on the heat so we have a reservoir of warm water. Then if we need a shower and there is no power we fill several containers from the sink and pour that over ourselves. I was even able to wash my hair with Don's help. We need the electricity to activate the water pump in order to get water out of the shower but we have gravity flow for the sink. This is a big help!
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> The lack of electricity is worse than we expected. We have it only about half the time! I can cook with propane so that is no problem and we have some lights on our battery. After buying a rice cooker and borrowing a crock pot, I now understand why electric gadgets are not very popular here. The worst part about no power is the unpredictability. If we KNEW we would only have power half the time but we knew WHEN, we could work around it rather nicely.
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> Tuesday, June 7:  We are still borrowing the church Land Rover. We have had to take it to the shop twice. Last night Don spent 4 hours from the time he finished clinic until he got home. Logistics are so inefficient!  By the time the mechanic calls him and he calls a taxi and he pays, hours have passed!  I find this frustrating enough that I am in no hurry to add work to my present schedule. I WANT to like it here and it is easier to be good natured when there is less stress. Don was happy to come home to a ready made meal.
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> The cooking is an entirely new experience. Actually the produce is fantastic. The tomatoes and carrots are better than we get at home.  People are selling their garden surplus everywhere. I am sure it is picked at the peak of ripeness. At first I was buying too much at once because without a car I would stock up. Bad idea. My frig is not reliable and things would spoil. Now I leave a lot of produce out of the frig on straw holders. There are several cookbooks that I can use...church cookbooks and missionary cookbooks and African cookbooks. The recipes tend to be highly flavored with spices. Also whatever Linda or Bernice make is always fabulous!  I copy them. Onions and tomatoes and garlic form the basis for many sauces. Vegetables that are plentiful include: tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, carrots, eggplant, zucchini, cabbage, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes and sweet potatoes, bell peppers in every color, and butternut squash. Fruit includes: bananas galore, pineapple, mango (familiar varieties and new ones), lemon and lime, oranges, apples (imported?  Small and tasty). Meat is mostly sold frozen which is OK because a shopping trip is so long that I worry about it when it is fresh. Typically a whole chicken is very small, Not much bigger than a Cornish hen. I cooked a whole chicken in the crockpot yesterday snd got about two cups of meat off the bones.

 One meat shop is like Paradise. I love going in there!  You can get stir fry style beef, chicken or pork, minced (ground) meat, steaks, huge chicken breasts and thighs with or without the bone! I love it!  I have also been cooking with a lot of beans and lentils and split peas. It is amazing what is available!