I had intended to keep a weekly food diary to let you know what the food is that we are getting out here. I did keep the diary but never made time to write it up, but you've probably picked up on the references to goat by now. In truth, we aren't 100% sure it is goat but it doesn't look or taste like beef and it certainly isn't pork or lamb...
However, what used to be a plentiful if a bland, unimaginative, repetitive repertoire of food has become markedly depleted over the past couple of weeks (in portion size as well as content). We get dinner free every night, which is a main course and pudding. I eat the lunch there on operating days - which also normally has pudding although this was bananas pretty much every day for the first 6 weeks.
The first thing to go was jelly. (Yes, we loved getting jelly 3x a week, it was like going to a child's birthday party all the time, ahem). Then the custard mysteriously stopped, so the rather dry cake became somewhat inedible. I think to placate us they hit on the bright idea of serving it with hot milk. The first night no one touched the milk but tonight it all went! We are getting somewhat desperate.
Inadequacies in the puddings can be coped with as long as the main course is fine. However we appear to be suffering from a major chicken shortage. It started on Friday a week ago. Friday is a chicken night but there was goat again. We grumbled - this isn't fair! We put up with the goat because we normally then get lots of chicken to make it all right.
But it's OK, Sunday is always roast chicken night. We piled in eagerly to find 3 small chickens to feed 19 people... the grumbling got a lot louder. Portions had to be re-divided to stop fighting breaking out. We decided we would really complain if they didn't give us rice pudding. Miraculously (perhaps they heard us), rice pudding was forthcoming. The riot was averted.
There was no chicken all week and it became clear that they are running short of lots of other basic ingredients too so the goat stew became the daily staple. At day 4 some people just walked straight back out of the Mess. Even the chips (first time in 2 months) on Wednesday lunchtime didn't placate the students much.
Thankfully, for Nat's birthday today, we had cheeseburgers and chips for lunch followed by the chocolate cake that Geoff and I made secretly yesterday. One of the students told us to expect chicken for dinner - we hoped that normal service had resumed. We bundled in together (there are now 21 of us) to see 2 small chickens.... um... 'there's also some beef'. Nice beef? Nope, about as tough as shoe leather.
This isn't funny because we have almost no alternative. Tonight for example, the power was off from 6.30pm until 9pm and we only have electric ovens. Also, it's really difficult to get the ingredients that you need. Really you have to go to Chipata, which is ruinously expensive if you don't have a car. We discovered last week that we can get meat in Katete (and none of us died) but you have to trust it's been kept frozen since processing and with all the recent power cuts that's not really feasible. None of us has the skills to buy a live chicken and turn it into diced chicken... even though we could have a chicken for 30pin (c.£3.50).
Although, now I've cooked in the Mess kitchen, I do wonder if I shouldn't be seeking an alternative. I'm not sure what I think is the worst of the following points but, as far as I could see, there's no soap, there are ants and flies on everything, there's a hideous stench of rotting meat coming from somewhere and they are clearly comfortable with rats. When we said there was a rat in the dining area last night (second night in a row we'd seen it) the guy came out and said 'Oh, it's only a small one'!?!? Yes, my friend, it is small but it's still a RAT. He then came out with a broom to kill it. Unfortunately it escaped but it was amusing when he shouted in rather broken English 'Oh!! I missed it!'.
Not that this is the point. Doctors contracts include the provision of food (which we assume is funded in the same way as salaries - with money direct from England) and the students are paying £8 per day for their food and board (which is much more than they cost the hospital) so there is no excuse for the food running out. So my question is - where did my dinner money go?
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