Oatmeal and Peanut Butter, or ‘American Nshima’

I just heard the most amazing thing…after friends and supporters read our blog post a full three months ago now, about people here in Zambia eating the same meal at every meal- a cornmeal finely ground, and cooked only with water, they decided to eat the same breakfast every day and the same lunch every day, as close as they could come to our Zambian equivalent.  I don’t understand how this is possible, but their kids haven’t complained at all!!!  I think it is harder to have something good, or just plain old variety,  and lose it, than to never have had that good thing.  And, these kids have always eaten very well.  Their Zambian counterparts have only known nshima (cooked just a bit thicker than porridge, and eaten with your fingers scooped up off the plate with the ndiyo on top.  Ndiyo could be just cooked greens, tomatoes, and onions, which is the most common, or could be beans, or if you are really having a special meal, it could be small fish called kapenta (and I do mean small, very small, and you eat the whole fish!), or large caterpillars!  We promise to make that specialty for anyone that comes to visit us….

So, this isn’t a challenge, and it isn’t a plug to make you feel guilty, but it is a call to thankfulness, and to generosity with what you’ve been given.  Most of us, me included, eat different foods at every meal, and think that is normal, and forget to be thankful because it is normal to us.  Let’s try, (me included!) to be thankful that God has given us another meal, and that we aren’t hungry.  Let’s try (me included) to be generous with what we have, even when there isn’t much in your kitchen, or mine.  Like the loaves and the fishes, let’s trust God to do and to be all that HE is and all that HE has promised.  To be grateful people, would really be light in this world.