Whats for dinner?

Today I would like to tell you about food and eating in Senegal. Here the family generally eats out of a single bowl set in the center of a circle of people who are seated on the ground. Most of the family members will eat with their hands. Children who are very messy eat with a spoon in my host family. My father and grandmother are given separate bowls or plates to show respect. I often as a guest share a plate with Grandma when she is here. She has been in Dakar visiting family for a week or so. In some families the men eat in separate rooms, but my family all eat outside together.

            Currently, it is Ramadan. My family does not eat breakfast or lunch with me because they are fasting. I am excited to see what it will be like when this long religious holiday is over. My grandma and I are the only ones in my family who eat breakfast now. Breakfast is usually an 8 inch piece of French bread with either butter or last night’s leftover breaking fast food. This could be vermicelli or macaroni. I was getting served coffee which was literally half sugar and milk. I began to refuse it and now am served hot powdered milk with an excess of sugar. It’s not as bad as the coffee though I don’t understand why anyone would want to drink something hot when the weather is so humid.

            Lunch is usually grandma, the kids, and me. We eat either fondae, a rice or millet porridge, it can be very good to very bad. Sometimes we have yassa, a rice dish with onion sauce, veggies, and meatballs. Not sure what kind of meat it is and it gives me stomach issues every time, but I am so deprived of protein that I always eat it. Occasionally we will have ceeb u jen, spiced rice with veggies and fish. This is the national dish of Senegal. We usually eat lunch indoors because it is so hot outside in the afternoon.

            During Ramadan we break fast around 7pm. This includes more hot milk and everyone sitting outside eating bread with butter, mayonnaise, macaroni, or vermicelli. I have brought them dates which most families eat to break the fast but I don’t know what they did with them.

            For dinner we frequently have ceeb u jen. The first night I was here we had macaroni and chicken. I have not seen chicken since. One night we had beans in with our rice. My family is relatively poor and these protein items other than fish are apparently too pricey. Maybe they don’t like them but I think its more that they can’t afford them.

            The Senegalese love oil. All of the rice is made with excessive amount of oil. I can feel it on my hands and face after every meal. So with the almost entirely carbohydrate diet and excess of sugar and oil, I have gained at least 5 pounds. I was also been deprived of exercise initially as we could not leave the training center and now my daily activities are controlled by my families norms. If I were to go jogging they would think it very strange. I have begun to do some gardening which includes a small amount of exercise and a lot of sweating also I do crunches in my room. My final site will be a better place to create an exercise routine because I will have more vocabulary to explain my nutritional and health needs, as well as the fact that I will not want to spend two years being in an unhealthy state. I will purchase a gas stove and cook one or two meals a day for myself to include more of the food pyramid. So that’s food and nutrition in Senegal.