The next two days were really busy!
After Carl & I unpacked and had a shower at Nyoka Guest House. I marinated the steaks for dinner. This is my mothers signature dish. I tried to plan a menu with items I could find in Zambia. Here is the menu we had for the next 3 days all cooked on two round BBQ’s that Carl & the boys put together that I had brought from Canada.
Menu for Kalabo
L- packed lunch from Kilimanjaro Lodge in Lusaka for Frederick, Carl & I. If I remember correctly we arrived around 8pm after driving since 6am.
D-We arrived late so they all ate in a neighbouring restaurant of which I believe there is only one.
Last night after we opened the gifts I made everyone a peanut butter & banana sandwich as a snack.
Sun B-The family had eggs and buns served by the Community Guest House
L-Burgers, fried onions and BBQ sauce
D-soya sauce, garlic, brown sugar marinated steak, potatoes & onions in tin foil, spinach salad with Canned peaches.( the syrup served as the salad dressing). They had never tried peaches before. Snack- avocado, corn salsa, on bread
Monday- B-pancakes, streaky bacon, maple syrup, of course from, Canada.
L- Chili Con Carne with peppers, carrots, onions, kidney beans.
D-curried rice with nuts & raisins, BBQ chicken
Snack-peanut butter banana, jam or honey wraps
Tuesday- B scrambled eggs with cheese
This menu is very different from their regular diet of Buhobe’ which is ground white corn whipped with water and looks like mashed potatoes and on the side, what they call relish, which is greens, like Sinambi, and some times if available chicken, beef or fish. I am happy they were all willing to try what we cooked.
Mualuka ( our interpretor) wanted to take us to the river and show us how the local people cross. They use a pole to push the canoe across the water. There is also a pontoon boat for vehicles that need to get to the Liuwa Plains National Park to go on Safari. We used this pontoon in 2011 on my first trip to Barotseland.
The boys played soccer with the ball we brought while we waited for Dominic ( Njamba’s father) to return from a visit to a friend’s wife who was in the local health clinic.
I was so happy to meet Mualuka’s wife and youngest daughter. He has a set of triplets who are about 4 years old and I thought they had three girls so I brought 3 little dresses, 3 red hoodies and some colouring books & crayons.
It turns out the triplets were two girls and a boy. I felt so bad but Mualuka, in his ever gracious way said” That’s OK.
Don’t worry, I can give the other dress to the youngest girl”. I said maybe Njamba would have some thing he could give to your son.
I tried to start cooking dinner early as it gets dark around 6pm and we didn’t have time for lunch. I think they only eat breakfast and dinner there as it takes so long for them to prepare food. They have to light the charcoal, pick the greens, grind the corn, get the water etc. Remember they live in a grass hut and don’t have electricity, let alone a fridge. We were so busy I didn’t have time to make anything for lunch. Stay tuned for our unexpected guest for dinner.
This trip has so many side stories one of which I will tell it in the next adventure so see you in a couple of weeks!
