Food

I checked my email the other day and realized a couple things: 1) I should really have unsubscribed from some newsletters before I left and 2) those who say the era of cordial emails is over are definitely wrong. I received a variety of questions via e-mail but some of the biggest questions I got are: what do you eat? and what do you do all day? The next two blog posts will answer all those questions.
One of the most widely available things to eat in Burkina Faso is bread. It's not really a loaf of bread and is oddly reminiscent of a french baguette but definitely isn't. There is also something we call village bread which is a lot better than the baguette-esque bread but a lot harder to find in Sapone. I think it's because of our proximity to Ouaga and the Burkinabe think village bread isn't as good as Ouaga-bread. I, on the other hand, disagree- mainly because the village bread is heavier and it feels like you're actually eating something. They also have something they call gateau here which is fried dough that tastes like an old-fashioned donut- it's actually pretty tasty and costs about 10 cents American. I guess my point is that most of the meals I have involve some form of carbohydrate but rather than just listing foods I eat, I think I'll divide it by meal time just cause I can.
Breakfast:
Everymorning for breakfast I get an egg (kinda scrambled but without milk in it) with peppers and onion that is (somewhat sadly) overcooked. Sometimes if I time it right, I can get dressed super fast and then they pull it off the fire sooner but our host families have been told that we have sensitive stomachs and that we can't handle the microbes that might be in food so it should always be cooked longer than it has to. It's nice to see that my family has taken that to heart and that they're concerned about my well-being. The egg is usually pretty salty but I still miss ketchup. I also get a baguette type thing for breakfast and I can put peanut butter (pad d'arrachide), margarine (blue band), or nothing (rien) on it but, I'm allowed to do that myself. I really like the peanut butter here- it's super filling and it's all organic so it's like eating Trader Joe's or Whole Foods Peanut butter. Occasionally I get bananas for breakfast and to be honest, I prefer bananas and peanut butter over the eggs but eggs are harder to find for lunch than peanut butter and bananas so it's no big deal. There is also a lot of fruit here (in the right season) so hopefully I will be able to find mangos, apples, papaya, oranges, etc when the time is right. Gateau is also a popular breakfast food that I used to get but don't anymore- other people get it though. I don't mind not getting it, it's just good to vary carbs sometimes.
Mid-Morning Snack:
A woman comes to our training center and sells yogurt everyday- she must make a killing. It's very good and it's cold- and it's dairy so naturally, we love it.
Lunch:
Given that there are only 3 sitdown places to eat for lunch there we do pretty well for ourselves. My favorite lunch is called Benga (it's a moore word- the french word is arricohe- but it's really beans and rice mixed together). Occasionally I get it with cru d'etais- vegetables on the side- usually cucumbers, tomates, and a dressing of vinegar, mustard, and a touch of mayo. You can also get rice with sauce (riz sauce). It's white rice with a type of peanut sauce and there are usually vegetables mixed in with it like cabbage, etc. Not one of my favorite lunches because I get it quite often for dinner- but with the right amount of sauce it  does taste pretty good. For me the key is not too much sauce- and not too much cabbage. You can also get spagetthi with tomato sauce (and bread) for lunch. It is also pretty salty- lot's of things are served here with a lot of salt- I'm not really sure why. I would hazard to guess that the salt they use is iodized and that iodine deficiences are a problem here but I don't know if that's really the reason or if there is a reason at all. Maybe Burkinabe like really salty foods. Regardless, I keep thinking of ways i could potentially get meatballs and have spagetthi and meatballs but I haven't figured that out yet- that might have to wait until I get to my site in a month. The last lunch option is something like a buffet: you can go to the marche and grab bread, peanut butter, and bananas and make a sandwich type thing out of it. Of course, no lunch is complete without desert so I usually buy a small pack of biscuits after lunch. It's two cookies with a little bit of chocolate-ish frosting in the middle. Lunch usually costs me $1.
Post- class hangout:
There is a restaurant that serves french fries and occasionally people go and eat fries after class. I don't order fries but I have tried them and they are good.
Dinner:
My dinner is actually a rotating schedule. One night is riz sauce, the next is spagetthi, followed by macaroni, followed by riz sauce again, follwed by couscous. Not a bad rotation but it's kind of funny to be able to guess. One night this week I got the spagetthi sauce on rice and that was a great change and quite delicious. But, spagetthi nights are my favorite. I'm pretty sure the sauce is tomato based but there isn't a lot of it- so it doesn't overpower the spagetthi. Another trainee just got spagetthi (no sauce at all) for dinner one night, and I'm glad my family doesn't do that. I'm also glad my family doesn't serve me to everynight (pronounced toe). It's made of pounded maize and some other things as well, and is served with a type of dipping sauce. It's not bad but it might get old after a few nights.
It's hard to say I have a favorite- I mainly eat here just so I can continue to function everyday, and I because it's expected of me. The Burkinabe don't really have favorite foods either- they like whatever they get because sometimes they don't get to eat three meals a day, it depends on the season and the amount of food they have stockpiled.
I think that once I start cooking for myself I'll be able to incorporate more vegetables into my diet and I'll also be able find a "favorite food" here in Burkina.