Breakfast - normally at the Convent.
This would normally comprise of bread (this so called bread was really just white cardboard) and butter. The bread was so bad Rhea, Leo and I decided to spend £7 on a jar of Marmite to disguise the taste, £7 is a lot of a jar of Marmite but I think the girls would agree, it was well worth it. There was tea and coffee for the people who like that sort of thing, made with powered milk. Not one person mastered how to make a cuppa without the milk going lumpy! Sometimes, very exciting times, pancakes were served - hoooooray!!
 |
| Eating at the Convent with Rhea, Leo, Abby and Judith |
At Chai there was chai and freshly made fruit juice to drink. There was always a hard boiled egg each and a mundarzi (? I have no idea how to spell this word so I've spelt it phonetically). Mundarzi is like doughnuts, the Vocational class used to make them for us and to sell to the other students. We ate them dipped in sugar- very healthy! The children received bread and chai, some bought food from outside of the school grounds, sometimes this was their first meal of the day.
 |
| Mundarzi |
Lunch normally was fruit salad, much to the hate of Rhea and Leo. One day, when I had taken my malaria tablet before I went to bed the night before, I felt really sick. So sick I had to leave the Nursery for fear of being ill over a small, innocent child. I mentioned this to Matilda, the Mama who looks after us, and she insisted on getting me chips. They did the trick- honestly chips are good for you! For a few days after we had chips everyday until we decided that if I ever wanted to fit into the bridesmaid dress eating chips was not the way forward so we returned to fruit.
Dinner (At the Convent)
Dinner always had rice, meat which varied and included the skinniest chicken in the world, something we think was beef but could have been goat, fish or liver. There was a vegetable, grown by the Nuns, we mainly had delicious minty peas or cabbage and a sauce. It was all really tasty and ample food. For pudding there was often fruit or, sometimes, pancakes. We learn that the African people tend not to separate their meals so would eat the fruit or pancakes the same time as their main course. They all thought we were mad eating pancakes on their own covered in sugar. We went to one of the teacher's house a couple of times for dinner that was very similar.
 |
| Typical food, including water melon with the meal. The chip looking things is fried banana. |
The children's lunch and evening meal was the same everyday. They had rice/ ugarli and beans in a sauce. Ugarli (again not sure on the spelling) is difficult to describe, it's tasteless a bit like rice, looks like really white mashed potato but is stiffer so you can pick it up and scoop the beans. The children ate in the dining hall or outside and some had to share plates and cups. I actually enjoyed ugarli and beans but couldn't eat it everyday but, compared to some children, they are very lucky to be eating three times a day.
 |
| Eating ugarli and beans with the girls (I always sat with the girls, they loved asking me about Mary Hare- the deaf school in England) I was lucky to be able to sit at one of the six tables- the other children ate sat on the floor. |
was kindly made for me by one of the teachers.
 |
| The School Kitchen |
 |
| Our Chef! |
 |
| One of my leaving dinners |
