Everyone was fasting…well, that is, everyone except me

Islam’s month-long fasting period started the middle of August (the day before my 1-year-in-country mark, to be exact) and lasted until mid-September, so that means everyone (all the healthy, adult Muslims, anyway, which seems like everyone to me) is fasting from about 6am to 7:30pm everyday – they neither eat nor drink (not even water!). Since only the younger kids eat lunch, it consists of very basic rice dishes, which, seeing as I’m already sick of eating rice every day, I opted out of and, therefore, was forced – or rather, got the opportunity – to cook for myself in my hut! This is somewhat challenging because of my limited access to food and other cooking supplies/utensils, but I have learned to make the most of it. Here are a few of the things I cooked (as meals or snacks):

Zucchini (from the Talibe garden I help out with) with onions, and tomato paste, stir-fried with garlic, mustard, and vinegar, and eaten on bread (I kept the leftovers in my aunt’s freezer, which acts more like a fridge because of the regular power cuts, and ate the rest of it the next day):

Scrambled eggs with onions, in/with bread sometimes.

Blueberry pancakes, made from the blueberry muffin mix my aunt sent me:

Oatmeal with quinoa, cinnamon, and honey.

Oatmeal and chocolate chunk “bake”:

Here’s what everyone else who wasn’t fasting (i.e., the kids) ate for lunch that day: rice with pepper/hot pepper/spices mix and bissap leaf sauce, with oil drizzled on top...I carefully just ate the bissap leaf sauce.

Here’s what I made after eating the bissap sauce: macaroni and cheese with quinoa, lentils, cabbage, and Moringa leaves.

Chocolate pudding, and vanilla pudding with graham crackers.