I have had many “shocks to my system” since I have been in
Ethiopia; different ways of life that I’ve had to adapt to that have made me
step into the uncomfortable but that have also brought much needed change to my
life.
There is a term, mainly used in the youth culture in South
Auckland that says “Changes” – like it’s a bad thing. The thing is that, most of the time, change
is a good thing – if it’s change for the better or change that comes with
growth. People use it because they are
uncomfortable with other people changing, but people need to change in order to
grow, to find their place in this world and to be able to move into their
purpose in life.
Anyway, back to my point…I have had to change in many ways
here. One of the “shock to the systems”
for me, was realizing that I had to cook three meals a day for my family. This has come because of the lack of cereals available
for breakfast (the only really affordable breakfast meal here is Oats-so
porridge is our main breakfast), the culture of having cooked food for lunch
(which means sandwiches and bread are usually exclusive as breakfast meals-and
also lack of sandwich fillings available also) and cooking dinner probably
became more intense when we had visitors stay with us for 6 weeks.
This has meant that my sleep in time while Asaua gets the
kids ready for school (which I am ashamed to say has happened for quite some
time) has slowly evaporated into thin air.
It took a while…I would ask Jamal to cook breakfast and I would get up
in time to cook lunch…I would make the kids pack their own lunch and I think
even for a period, Asaua was cooking breakfast because he was getting up early
to go for runs – I mean, who does that??
Me. I have started
now getting up early to go for runs. It
was really hard at first and at the same time I was doing the Daniel fast so
energy levels weren’t so good-especially when I cut out the coffee! But now it’s become a habit, and it gives me
time to compose myself in the morning so I’m not drooling over the breakfast
pot or trying to see through my sleep as I cut onions.
Food here is something you have to get used to. A trip to Kenya to stock up on spices and
dairy is not a bad idea either. There
are limits to what you can buy, but there is also an abundance of really good
vegetables and now fruit! Plums, mangoes,
bananas and strawberries are now in season and
they are all so cheap and taste soooo good!
You can also get fresh juices, that at the moment are
avocado (yes, avocado), pineapple, mango and guava all mixed together. Oh, these are so good. Fresh vegetables to make salads are also
available. I just finished a 21 day
Daniel fast which eliminates sugar, yeast, meat, dairy, and processed foods
from your diet. I thought that doing the
Daniel fast here would be so hard, but it was actually easier than I have found
it in New Zealand. There are so many
natural foods here that are prepared, and fasting these types of foods are done
by Orthodox Christians twice a week, so there are alternative options available
at every café and restaurant. There are
peanuts, fresh chickpeas, barley, injera (which is made from Tef), lentils and
beans which are all locally grown and are so fresh. I can see your mouth drooling right now lol.
See that Beet(root) ^ it's not out of a can- who knew!? |
Another shock to the system I experienced here was more than
literal. Earlier here, I had eaten some
Ethiopian food and immediately started feeling nauseous, which lead to sweaty,
which lead to my head down the toilet numerous times in a period of 24
hours. Not long after, I had the same
experience and concluded that I was allergic to Ethiopian food. I have since narrowed down exactly what I am
allergic to and haven’t had any such bad experiences since.
So I am back to eating Ethiopian food- loving it actually
and thinking that if I keep the Ethiopian diet up, that maybe I will have an
Ethiopian figure haha-or even just a healthy heart-as long as I limit the
amount of oil that I use in the cooking.
Other minor/non-food adjustments we have had to make are as
follows:
Having a daily skin Vaseline bathing routine (to keep the
kids skin from drying out due to the cold mornings and hot days)
Not having instant coffee, but rather having coffee that
takes a good hour to prepare and consume.
Sporadic power and water outages =T.I.A
Squatting toilets at the most unconvenient times
Not having washing machine (for more info on this, check out
my friend Jonnett's blog here
Shoes and clothes shops not having my size –more importantly
in the shoes
Not driving myself or family around for the last 5 months
(sometimes very frustrating)
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