The Internal Anquish

Friends and Family,

It seems that every time I sit down, I have so much to blog about, everyday is full of fun adventures and new experiences. I am going to keep this blog short, and to the point, since I am not feeling well; which is what I am going to blog about.

I remember before arriving here, I was very curious about the food in Nigeria. Unable to find much information about it I decided to just figuring it out when I got here . . . well within the first week I had arrive, I had not had any Nigerian food and I was very disappoint. I had eaten a great deal of wonderful American food, but I had yet to try any Nigerian food . . . how disappointing. Well, I have now been here long enough to try Nigerian food!

I will begin with the basics . . . um . . . well spicy, pretty much sums it up. "Peppa" as they call it seems to be the only spice they have here, so EVERYTHING, including spaghetti noodles (with beans), which I wrongly assumed would be bland were spicy! No joke! Besides the peppa, pretty much meals are rice and beans . . . or twuo. Now twuo is an experience . . . it is rice pounded into a paste that resembles mashed potatoes. The twuo is served with a sauce, there are several different sauces that you dip the twuo in with your hands. It is a messy meal and funny to watch people eat. These are the basic meals for lunch and dinner . . . breakfast is mostly a called tombran. It is similar in consistency to cream of wheat, but tombran is brown and made from peanuts among other things, the kids love it, sadly I do not.

So these are the basic foods eaten here, there are a few more rice stews that I have not mentioned, but these are the ones most often eaten in Gyero . . . now last night I experienced a whole new type of Nigerian food . . . called moi moi (I have no idea if I am spelling any of these correctly, but I'm trying). Moi moi, is basically beans in a bag . . . Now, I had brought food with me last night and I was planning on not eating with the girls, but Mama told me she made me special food with out peppa for me, which I was very thankful for, but sadly it didn't sit too well with me.

I am feeling better this evening, thankfully. I greatly appreciate all of the work that Mama put into making the meal, so I'm disappointed that it make me sick because I would love to eat with the girls, but I also don't want to be sick. :(

Thank you for all of your notes of encouragement and prayers! You are all in my prayers and I am constantly in awe what a gift it is to watch the body of Christ work around the World. Thank you for being a part of it!