Creative Food

Well we have eaten small dried fish, fish eyes, caterpillars but this weekend was the worst – we ate cow hooves. There is no meaty inner bit, it is literally the outside hard bit boiled and boiled and boiled until it resembles tough rubber. It’s not like it’s got a terrible flavour, it’s just the thought of what you are eating that makes your stomach churn.

It’s actually really great to see these healthy and creative village recipes being kept alive in some homes. In most places in Zambia (as in the rest of the world) there is a rush towards highly processed convenience food. One drink, AppleMax, that is popular in schools because it is cheap, actually made my head spin when I drank it. I dread to think what it is doing to the kids. Whilst the convenience is food of choice across the world, I fear standards here are much lower as consumers don’t question the cheapness and governing consumer standards are weak. Consumers are choosing to westernise, and go for the cheapest (which is often the nastiest or weakest option). This is why cheap foreign imports, especially Chinese goods are doing so well here, despite the fact that they break frequently. It’s not that trade should not happen, but people need to build some reliance on local goods and foods for the sake of creativity, sustainability and health.

Polly makes her Masters

Today Polly received her dissertation results… and confirmation that she has passed her Masters course in Education for Sustainability. She hasn’t just passed, but has done so with flying colours, coming in at 80% – and her dissertation examiner commented on it being one of the best they had ever read! Congratulations Polly Msc!

July 07 Newsletter

We have just sent out our latest newsletter – if you’d like to get a copy and are not on our mailing list then just let us know. Our big latest news is that we have decided to return to the UK in October – for a number of reasons it seems the right time to be leaving Zambia – the newsletter explains things in more detail.