Week one

Earlier this evening I had my first of what I expect to be many “unique” encounters with the local cuisine…

I had originally ordered some Irish dish which consisted of beef, vegetables, and rice…but they were out of  it.  So I just said, “I’ll just have what he’s having.”  Referring to my roommates selection.  The meal arrived and the waitress placed it in front of him first and he politely offered it to me and said he’d wait for the second of the two meals to come.  This should have been my first hint.  The current volunteers who have been here for a while told me that I had to grab the ugali and try to form a ball with it.  Ugali just looks and tastes like stale mashed potatoes.  I was also told to eat with my right hand, because it is rude to eat with your left hand since that is your hand you use to  “wipe yourself” in the bathroom.  Anyways, I had a nice little ball of Ugali going and I was told to grab some of what I assume to be a meat of some sort and eat them together.  The whole time I noticed that my meal smelled like something out of a barn, almost like manure…I don’t know how else to describe it, it just downright stunk.  Boom, second hint.

So I proceeded to eat a few more handfuls and Paul got out his camera and started videotaping me.  I had just assumed that he wanted to videotape me because I was eating with my hands.  It did not taste very good… I was cracking jokes about eating with my “wiping hand” and I had the whole table laughing.  Little did I know that the real reason they were laughing was because I was eating Matumbo with Ugali…

Goat intestines.  And I’m sure you can figure out why it smelled so bad…because its freaking goat intestines.

So yeah, that was a “cultural experience” in itself but I’m pretty sure the experience isn’t quite over yet.

FYI: I wrote this the other night on my laptop and didn’t get a chance to post it until today.  I’m sure this is something I will be doing often so be prepared for multiple posts at once, many of which may have been written in the days prior to the actually posting, such as this one.  Internet access is very poor here and when I do find the time to get to an internet cafe, the speed is painfully slow.  Unfortunately, I still have not figured out the best way to post pictures so I apologize for that.  Hopefully I’ll get a few up soon.  So enjoy the La Crosse pictures for now!

Also, the Peace Corps does have certain restrictions and guidelines when it comes to having a blog or website.  We are not allowed to use specifics such as names and locations especially when disclosing names of other volunteers and their locations.