Fresh

In two words, the produce here is ample and delicious. There are several kinds of banana, sweet potato, mangoes, papayas, watermelon, pumpkin, tomato, ginger and best of all, avocado. The other day we were “up-country” – which I have learned means anywhere outside Kampala, and we stopped at a roadside stand for produce. We bought two large papayas, a watermelon, four mangoes, four big sweet potatoes, a gigantic bunch of huge bananas (about 20 of them), a bagful of tomatoes and three beautiful avocados which all together cost us 7500 Ugandan Shillings or the equivalent of $4.61.

I have had a couple chances to try Ugandan food since I’ve been here. The staples are rice, corn, sweet potato and matoke – like mashed plantains. The matoke is not currently a favorite of mine, it is quite pasty and doesn’t taste like much so you have to drown it in sauce. They have a peanut sauce that is very common here too, and I finally got to try some today at lunch. My verdict is that it’s not quite as nice as Awa Sy’s in Senegal, but it’s still pretty good.

The other nice surprise for me has been the weather. The climate has been more or less perfect since I arrived. I’m not certain about temperatures but it hasn’t been higher than 85 (27C). Who knew living on the equator would be so comfortable?