Chakula

This is one of my favourite photos of some kids of staff that always came to hang out and play games with me :) They are showing me a grasshopper they caught, ripped the back legs off, and intended to eat!?!


I couldn't resist taking a whole series of photos on the cooking of this entire chicken. I had heard stories about my grandmother and great-grandmother slaughtering a chicken, plucking it, and cooking it, but I had never seen it for myself. It was a biology lesson I'll never forget... Here is Mary singing off the remaining feathers... (note the cooking stove- besides an open fire, this is how everyone cooks)


In many households, food is scarce. This woman is the wife of the watchman at ICM. They have ten children together, but don't own any land. Instead they scratch out a living on a plot of rented land. Then they cook, very slowly, food on an inefficient fire made of inferior buring materials... ie corn stalks. I was invited over for lunch one day and was thrilled to share food with them. The culture there is for the children to be away from visitors though, so I only got to eat with the parents. The oldest son is 22 years old and in grade 10. He decided to go back to school after four years away, and is now struggling to find his own school fees as his illiterate parents absolutely can't afford it. If he can complete his education, his family will have much more of a chance at 'making it' in the future than it does now.