Three Lunches

So today I received three different lunches. My family’s toh and baobab leaf sauce (a portion big enough for two in their opinion, 4 in my opinion), Yusuf’s family’s toh and baobob sauce (a portion big enough for 1 in their opnion and 2 in mine), and Binta’s family’s beans (a huge bowl suitable for at least 4 people if that is all they were eating). I was like, holy shit. Luckily Yagari, my language trainer, agreed to eat with me so we got through most of Yusuf’s family’s toh. I gave some of my family’s toh to my cat and to the dog because if I didn’t make ANY of it disappear they would be offended. And then I ate like three bites of beans but I was STUFFED so I just gave the bowl to Hawa and it didn’t look like I’d made a dent in it at all so hopefully the family will eat some before sending it back over to Binta.

I mean, I do appreciate all the food gifts people send me but it is a truly delicate balance figuring out what to eat and how much so as not to offend people and I don’t want to just take some and throw it away (or give it to the dog) because, as you probably know, there are children starving in Africa!! However you wouldn’t know it here because whenever I try to get a child to help me eat some of these things they tell me they are full.

I wish I knew a hungry family that lived close by to me but the only really visibly hungry family I have seen so far is all the way across the village and I don’t know if I’d even be able to figure out which compound was theirs again, anyway. The kids looked like all the kids: skinny arms and legs, old man faces and big bloated bellies, but the way I knew they were hungry was that the mom and dad were SO skinny. I mean, nothing but muscle and bone. The mom’s ankles were like sticks. Also, the guy only had one wife which here means one of three things: you are very young, you are Christian, or you are poor. He was not very young, I very highly doubt he was Christian, and I’m pretty sure this is one of the families who do not even have a latrine so have to do their business out in the field. So my money is on category #3.

Anyway. I wish they lived closer because then I’d give them my leftovers.

It’s just more of a shame because I HAVE food. I have 3 US Postal Service Flat Rate boxes stuffed with food, plus a bunch of cans, packages and other things in my kitchen hutch, plus more than half a pallet of eggs. And a kilo of flour, 2 kilos of potatoes, and tomatoes and onions. And cucumbers! I mean, I HAVE FOOD. It’s like our celebrity culture in the States. When you can afford to buy a Dior dress, you get it for free. And people who can’t afford it go without. Kind of a messed up system. But as I am proving, it seems more universal than cultural.