GUTEKA- to cook!

I feel in one of my earlier blog entires I was a bit negative on the food issue. I would like to tell you the wonderful foods that have been derived from the ingredients we have been able to find in Rwanda. But first a little about Rwandan cooking. There are 5 standard dishes and thats it. Rwandans never branch out and try different concoctions, its always the same. Plantins (a cross between a potato and a bananna; Ibishyimbo na umuceri (rice and beans); mashed potatos; ifiritis (french fries); dodo (greens similar to spinish); carrots, peas and green beans; umugati (cassava flour bread, very bland, hearthy taste but not bad); especial (omlette). As americans though we discovered with a little effort that many american dishes can be made here. 1: Hmaburgers, i did little in the preperation of this but my house mates spent hours grinding the meat with a terrible meat grinder. Then the ground beef was formed into hot dog shaped burgers since that is the shape of the buns here and cooked over a coal fire. They were delicious. we added avocado and tomatoes and cheese to them. Then with the French fries i learned a cool new trick and that is to always double fri. The following weekend we made macaroni and cheese starting with a rue of butter and flour then adding cheese. It was also incredible the garlic was an amazing touch to that dish. It funny because I have a roommate who can find anything in this country. Snickers and kit kats have recently been discovered, not sure if they were specially ordered from Kigali because of the group of 36 muzungu's staying in the area or not. Anyway she saw a white man and followed him and what did she find, she found French baguettes. so now on numerous occasions we have had grilled cheese on real French baguettes. To make it a little better, avocado and tomatoes are a great touch. Guacamole is another favorite especially since we don't need to spend an hour prepping a fire in order to make it. Avocado's are huge here and you can get 1 for 10 cents. Interestingly enough guacamole is not a Rwandan dish and Rwandans don't really know about it. It is definitely popular with the peace corps volunteers though. So I think i can safely say I will not be wasting away of starvation any time soon. (of course packages with american food are definitely still wanted :)

Peace Corps Talent Show

Peace Corps Rwanda had a talent show for the trainiee’s a few weeks ago. It was just like being at summer camp again which was really fun. I found out there is lots of talent in our group. Sadly I have no talents for a talent show but that did not stop me from participating, and partially because it was required everuone be involved. So a few of my friends and I re-wrote a famous song, It’s Miley Cyrus’s Party in the U.S.A.
It goes like this:
Hopped of the Plane at KGL
With our chocos and our 80 pounds
Welcome to the land of a thousand hills
Not gonna fit in
I hopped on the volcano express for the first time
Looked to my right and i see the condom sign
This is all so crazy, i guess i’m not that lazy
My tommy’s turning and i’m feeling kinda homesick
Too much pressure and i’m nervous
Thats when the driver man turned up the radio
And the yawe song was on (X3)

Chourus
So i put my hands up their playing my song
And the butterflies fly away
Nodding my head like yego
Moving my hips like yego
So i put myhands up their playing my song and i know its gonna be ok
Yeah yeah there’s a party in Rwanda

Went to the blue bar the buy a primus
Everybody’s looking at me now
Like who’s the chick thats rockin crocs
She’s gotta be from outta town
Its not hard with my firends all around me
Everyday is like a peace corps party
All i see are bright fabrics
I guess we all got the memo
My tommy’s turning and i’m feeling kinda homesick
Too much pressure and i’m nervous
Thats when the driver man turned up the radio
And the yawe song was on (X3)
(Chorus)

I feel like hopping on a flight
Bakc to my hometown tonight
Mupemba stops me everytime
And the DJ plays my song and I feel alright

(mupemba is our training director here in Rwanda)