Give it up for...The Plate!

My Kerosene Cooker

I've just been playing in the kitchen and thought it was worthy of note.

When Hannah - another volunteer (the one who fed me chocolate when I was down) - left, she donated her double electric hob to me! It's been a point of some contention. We were told that if we took in our kerosene burners, they'd exchange them for electric hobs. Electric is a bit cleaner and easier to use for those of us who have electricity. I found out about this from Hannah, as she walked out of the VSO office with her double-plated hob a few months back. Wow, good deal, thought I. So, I took my kerosene burner in...to be given a single electric hob. I was quite miffed about this and asked why. I was told that everyone should only be issued with a single hob, but two other volunteers received doubles. I was really annoyed. I mean, what can you do with a single hotplate? It takes hours to make a meal with rice or pasta because you have to wait and do it after you've cooked the first dish, by which time you have to re-heat your dinner.

So, you can see why I was so excited about the double hob :) I've just hooked it up tonight and it is truly fantastic. Don't think it'll cost me that much more in electricity, either. We'll see.

Earlier, I went to VSO and cashed in my prescriptions. My pockets are now lined with francs again. It involved hanging about for a bit, so I also booked myself in for lunch: cassava, rice, meat sauce and veg (carrots and green beans). Most delicious. It occurred to me that it was the best meal I'd eaten since Chez Lando with Martine. Yesterday, I survived off juice and a bag of bite-sized honey teddy bear biscuits.

Time to get serious about food again. I headed over to Ndoli's and bought a basket load of veg: green pepper, aubergine, courgette, green beans, ginger, tomato puree, chilli, carrots and, the jewel in the crown... couscous. I've wanted it ever since I saw it, but at FRW 2,800 (sometimes 3,000) a box I've always denied myself for a special occasion. Well, tonight was the night! I spent a total of FRW 8,000 (£8) - which is stunningly expensive really. If I'd gone to the market I could probably have got it for half that, but the thing about convenience stores... they're convenient.

I came home and made ratatouille: onion, ginger, garlic, tomato puree, black pepper, green beans, carrot, green pepper and aubergine. To accompany it, I made couscous, a boiled egg, and, for the first time ever attempted at home... ibitoke! Which is basically a huge, savoury banana that you boil. It tastes like very bland Irish potato (as they call them here). You never see Irish potatoes in the shops. It's put me off cooking a bit because I rely on potatoes in stews and things. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to peel ibitoke first. I did, with a knife, like peeling a potato. It is incredibly bland, but does bulk things up a bit. Plus I was curious. I'm sure I can think of uses for it.

For afters, I indulged in a mango :) Very nice and ripe by the feel. Oddly not a fruit that's over abundant here.

The weather is still absolutely miserable. Thought I was going to get frostbite last night. Looked out of the gate and the whole street was misted up. I asked Ruth at VSO why it's so cold. It's supposed to be the start of the hot season now. She said it's global warming, you can't predict the weather anymore. I'm going to request someone posts me a hot water bottle.

D came back the other night. Haven't seen much of him - which is a good thing, as I'm highly antisocial when I'm ill. Actually, most of the time. He came running in this evening as he's been to the airport to take photos of P-Square, who flew into the country this morning. He's gone back now for some Ugandan stars who are passing through. More article material, I guess.

I'm still feeling pretty poo, so I'm going to wrap myself up and get an early night.