If you can't stand the heat...

I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen lately. While Bryan was gone I tended to eat only one full meal a day, and spent the rest of the time just munching on cucumbers and raisins. It's just so hot that my appetite evaporates along with every other vestige of moisture in the air and cooking required more time and energy than I seemed to have. Now that Bryan (who has the metabolism of a race-horse) is back and Dan and Laura are here with him, I have gotten better about having food on the table and they have all been so patient with my experiments. Last week a team of six Americans/South Africans passed through town on their way to work on a project in a neighboring village and they camped out on our compound for a few nights. They were an easy crowd to impress and a loaf of banana bread and pot of stew seemed to go a long way. Even so, the sole woman in the group made a passing comment that was funny to me. Sitting with me in the kitchen as I mixed up the dough for some saltine crackers she said, "Wow. You must really love to cook." And while I certainly don't mind cooking I wanted to laugh out loud. Because it's not that I love cooking. It's that I love eating. Here, if you are at all interested in eating, than you better learn to love cooking (or marry someone who is).
We were vegetarians for the first few months here because I was scared to buy meat at the butcher. Now our iron intake has gone back up and a trip to the butcher is more like a weekly adventure. The bloody cement room plunked in the middle of the market has windows on all sides to which you push your way through the crowd to reach. You shout your order to the man in the bloody apron wielding what might be properly described as a scimitar (the order basically being "red meat" or "regular meat" which includes bone fragments, fat veins and various pieces of unidentifiable organs. I generally opt for "red.") and he hacks off his the preferred amount from the half of a cow hanging from a hook on the ceiling. The whole time he is slicing I am praying the flies swarming the room are not carrying any dreaded diseases this week and that the ash from the cigarette dangling from the butcher's lips doesn't hit my intended supper. He throws it on a scale, tosses it in a plastic sack and hands it out with a friendly smile. I've learned that it's good to have exact change. A ten pound note tends to come back through the window with dark pink fingerprints on it. One time my language lesson failed me and before I could catch myself I asked for "green" meat instead of "red" meat. The sad thing is before I could correct myself I only got a vaguely surprised look from the butcher before he turned to go scrounge some up for me.
We have had a lot more vegetables available lately which is really nice. Carrots and cucumbers have become somewhat regular features in the market and papaya has even graced our breakfast table recently. Bell peppers are also around occasionally, though they tend to be spicy, like chilli peppers. Weird huh? Someone told me it is because they are growing in such a dry climate and not enough water makes them spicy. Does anyone know if that is true?
Tomorrow Laura and I are heading to East Africa for a women's conference. And I have to admit, I am looking forward to a few days out of the kitchen. The thought of milkshakes and hamburgers is almost as enticing as the idea of eating something that I didn't cook. But I know, once our trip is over, I will be glad to get back home and back to experimenting in the kitchen. I've found that there is a certain creative outlet that comes with making new things with new ingredients. I feel a new appreciation for my grandmother's generation not to mention the women all around me here who are doing so much more than I am with so much less. I am so grateful for a lifestyle that makes eating responsibly and simply so much easier than it was in the States.
Even so, I have to admit I'm looking forward to a few days of irresponsible eating of complex food. A few days out of both the heat and the kitchen will do me good.