March 16 - Corn

I am sick of corn.
I’m sick of eating it, looking at it lying around in all of it’s forms, in husks, without husks lying in the sun, off the cob, spread out to further dry, in sacks everywhere waiting to go to the mill and retuning as flour to be cooked into the nsima. Ever tried to clean a crusty cream of wheat pan cooked on an open fire with your fingers?

Everyone here is obsessed by corn. They LOVE to eat it. Nsima is like eating mashed potatoes or porridge – it’s a warm soft comfort food which you eat with your fingers. You fill your belly with it 2ce a day, it’s really filling and I’ve begun to look forward to it. Digesting it is another problem. A nice meal with start with boiled green corn on the cob – which is really chewy and tough. The next course is nsima – the hard cooked porridge which you roll into balls in your hands and dip it in ‘relish’ which is often a very small amount of kidney beans and ochre. If it’s a fancy meal , it’s then followed by another ear of corn cooked on the fire.

Kids wander around with corn in their hands all day long. It’s more than food. It’s their main interest, favorite hobby, a comfort, consumes all their days and they don’t want to even think about changing that. They identify themselves with corn somehow. I cooked pasta the other night with lots of vegetables and sausages. We ate in the dark and slowly I could see all the pasta bowls full and they were sneaking nsima instead. Caroline thought it was ok and so did Krisi and Spencer but the rest wanted the usual. Their diet is seriously lacking in protein and you can see it in all the kids’ huge bellies. But what to do???? They don’t have a choice but to eat corn. There’s no cash to buy anything different and nothing for sale. Then there’s the issue of them wanting to change their diets and they clearly don’t want it. I brought lots of vegetables on Saturday and they are not popular and cost a fortune.

Wow! That was an unloading.....sorry about that!

I hope you're well and happy and have a variety of food in your bellies! Eat some meat and veg for me!