I’ve been a bit of a slacker lately… If I had been really organized, I would have arranged for my posts to be completed and set to post on preset dates while we were away in Africa… Alas, I didn’t, and here I am back home adjusting to an 11 hour time change and trying to get my post out for today.
Yesterday, our first day back, I was up at 4 a.m. making vegetable broth, kale salad dressing and doing laundry. By 1 p.m. I was making my version of Irio, a Kenyan mashed potato dish that we had enjoyed at the ME to WE Bogani camp during our stay in the Masai Mara. Irio is an interesting combo of mashed potatoes, onion, corn and peas. Let me tell you, Kenyans should eat more of this dish in my opinion! I was determined to share a healthy African recipe from our trip. Unfortunately, my photos are not that great, but oh well, it is what it is. I also decided to put the entire dish into my Vitamix, instead of mashing the potatoes, so it looks more like baby food than mashed potatoes!
We had a truly life changing time in Africa. Our family had a chance to spend time with local Masai families and see how they live. We toured their homes, schools and medical clinics. Some were primitive and some had been transformed by the communities and by the WE Charity. We walked to get water with the Mamas, learned how the Maasai boys become warriors and heard heart wrenching stories from young women who lived through the culture of child marriages, circumcision and the heavy responsibilities of everyday life. It was a very emotional trip that will forever make us grateful for our freedoms.
During the trip, I was very interested in learning about the diet of the Masai. We learned that the large majority of what the Masai people consume is milk from their cows. In fact, when we visited a rural school, we were told that most children only bring a jug of milk to school as their source of food for the day. This milk would be at room temperature all day! So different from our North American standards. When we were in the Mara, we would frequently see the “butcher shops” where meat hung in the window of the non-refrigerated buildings. Our guide told us it generally would hang there for about 3 days before becoming unsafe to sell. Yikes, meat is bad enough but meat hanging with flies in the heat, interesting… 
Because the Masai have historically been nomadic, their culture does not include vegetable gardens. Imagine my horror! 😉 We were told that due to economic situations and their culture, they are mostly sustained by maize flour with which they make ugali (maize flour and water mixed), and milk. They eat meat only about once a week and very few fruits and vegetables.
Above is a photo from a local market in the Mara. These were the only vegetables that seemed to be sold in that region. The soil appeared to be quite fertile so it was odd to me that more vegetables were not grown there.
We are looking at joining up with both Me to We and the Land and Life Foundation to help set up gardening education at the schools in the Mara. One of the Elewana Elephant Pepper Camp managers we met was looking to start up gardens in a local school. He wants to have each class grow a crop and get the local youth involved at a grass roots level to effect change in their own health. I believe it is so vital that these skills be taught in order to help these communities be more healthy and sustainable.
Above is a photo of the garden at Elephant Pepper Camp, fenced to keep out water buffalo and monkeys! In the foreground is Sukuma-Wiki – African Kale. I may have snuck a few seeds back to dry and plant here…
I hope you try out this Irio recipe. It is very simple and can be made oil free. Having just returned from the screening of Eating You Alive at Casorso School, I am reminded of the fact that no fat is good and that it is hard on your endothelial lining. Fat in the diet can lead to clogging of arteries, diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes, it makes you fat and it ages you… Whole foods for breakfast tomorrow!
One of my favourite photos of the trip.
Ingredients
Instructions
