I think its high time that rather than go over what I do and my life I would touch on some of the many exotic things about living in South Africa and the people here.

The first question for many people I guess would be: what is the food like?

Personally, I cook for myself and the food that I can buy at the supermarket is not very much different than what I can get in the U.S. just with lower variety. On the other hand “exotic” fruit here is cheap and plentiful: guava, avocado, mangoes, papaya, litchis, marula, prickly pear, kwiwis, as well as plenty of apples, oranges and peaches. The one thing you cannot get is berries, forget blueberries, strawberries, and cherries. But  despite the fact that “American food” is invading, people here do have a different diet and there is definitely a South African cuisine. The different groups all have their own foods, Afrikaaners (white South Africans that speak Afrikaans as a first language) love to braai (what we call barbeque) and a specialty for them is boervors a spicy, fatty sausage that one must cook forever and a day to cook through, another specialty is their dried meat or biltong which is extremely popular here, ostritch biltong is fantastic. Indian South Africans have their own cuisine of curries and other Indian foods like naan unfortunately for my stomach (but fortunately for my wallet) there is no Indian restaurant in my area, but when I travel I almost invariably get Indian if I eat out.

Black South Africans meanwhile, have a diet that I have decidedly mixed feelings about, its largely shaped by the poverty of the area, people often cannot afford to eat healthy food. The big “staple” is mealie cob which is cheap corn that is either grown in the villages or bought ground at the supermarket. It is used to make a hard porridge, called pap in Afrikaans and vuswa in Xitsonga. One eats pap with chicken, stewed greens (not good I am afraid), squash, and/or beans, generally with one's right hand (washed before eating of course) using pieces of the porridge as a sort of edible utensil to absorb gravy or pick up meat. The pap  itself has no real taste, nor nutritional value, it’s pure empty carbs, but it fills the stomach and its cheap or free; corn needs little water and rain is not plentiful. It’s such a big part of people’s diets here that they have a very hard time understanding that I never ate it in America, and when I cook I eat potatoes, rice, or bread. They will eat all those things but cannot imagine a day without eating pap, even for those people who can afford more expensive foods. The lack of nutrients from the pap diet causes many health issues here and diabetes is rampant with older people. Still it is not bad and when you are at someone’s house, an event, or with coworkers it is what will be on the plate. Compensating for that is that a lot of times you’ll get fresh chicken. Chicken that’s just been killed is extremely savory and much better than beef that’s just been killed, or fresh pork, which most people consider treats for special occassions. Also pap mixed with squash is sweet and quite decent, I would make it occasionally if pap didn’t require constant pounding and stirring to prepare. Beans and peanuts are a big part of the diet and are a definite plus. Poaching is illegal here but there is a wink-wink attitude towards it if you don’t kill animals in the nature reserves, there’s no shortage of duikers, just like in America there’s no shortage of deer, rabbit, is gamy but tasty. There are also foods that are alien to an American, grasshoppers and termites are considered food in the villages. I personally rather like mopani worms which are little caterpillars that are found in large numbers around Christmas on Mopani trees. They can be pretty succulent little beasties, good with salt or a decent sauce once one gets past the unavoidable fact that one is eating an insect (thinking about their high protein value can help reassure the faint of heart.) Kind of an acquired taste but I rather like them. Maybe something about music next time I write an entry like this.