The internet is filled with photos of people’s meals. To contribute to the global table I’m adding 5 (technically 6, if you include the top photo of bananas) photos of things I ate in Uganda while visiting the Small Business Fund groups there last summer!
Amaranth – Amaranth is a grain that is fighting malnutrition in Uganda. It is high in protein and also has essential fatty acids and micronutrients. We had it ground together with peanuts to make a tasty peanut sauce. Peanuts are called “groundnuts” in Uganda, Kenya, and Malawi. These amaranth seeds were growing in one of the kitchen gardens we visited.
Bread & Chickens – The Yuba family shows us that they have enough food – good bread and chicken – from their pottery and kiosk business successes. We ate the chicken for dinner and had the bread with jam and butter in the mornings and with tea in the evenings. I grew up with chickens in the backyard and so luckily I knew how to hold a chicken when it was given to me!
Corn & Groundnuts – The local savings and loans group in Kasozi generously gave us bags of red beans and corn (maize). The corn was ground and cooked into ugali, which is one of the staple foods and is like a denser polenta. The other Small Business Fund (SBF) Coordinators took the groundnuts (peanuts) home to share with their families or SBF groups in their communities. In the photo below, SBF Coordinator from Kasozi, Godfrey Matovu, receives the gift.
Coffee – Did you know that coffee grows on trees? One of the Small Business Fund families we visited in Kasozi, Uganda also grew coffee trees. Boyd – the coffee lover in our family – was excited to see them growing. However, we only had black tea and instant coffee for our tea times; the coffee all gets shipped elsewhere.
Samosas – also called Sambusas don’t fit in the theme of food starting with the letters A, B, or C; it was something we ate though! The bean-filled samosas were prepared by a mother and son. He rolled out the dough nice and thin and then she filled them and fried them in a pan of hot oil. Tasty!
