One of the things I love most about being at my site is the edible freedom. By edible freedom, I mean that I can essentially eat what I want when I want. If I am not hungry, I do not have to force feed myself in order to be polite to my host family. And the most exciting part is that I can enjoy an abundance of fruits and vegetables! No longer must I endure the carb heavy meals that I received from my host family. I have loved cooking for myself. I am lucky enough to have both a refrigerator and gas stove, so I have been cooking up a storm. After training I made a big decision that will greatly impact my Peace Corps experience over the next two years. I am now a vegetarian….again!
I spent four years of the past seven years my life as a vegetarian and am excited to switch back. Although I began eating meat again three years ago, it was mostly poultry and fish. I was never able to truly embrace red meat or pork, and it was a STRUGGLE for me to eat it in Tanzania. The animals here are free range. They are not as fat as they are in America, so the meat is less tender. Since the animals have more muscle here, the meat is tougher and harder to chew. While I was not a fan of the taste or texture, the real reason I had to change my diet was because it did not agree with my stomach. Perhaps this was partially because I did not eat red meat enough in America and maybe over time my intestines would adjust to the diet here. But I made a promise to my digestive track that after homestay I would not force myself to eat meat. And it has been working out great so far!
The other big reason why I decided to become a vegetarian is because I enjoy being detached from the animals I eat. I miss going to the grocery store and buying my boneless, skinless, chicken breasts already packaged and cleaned for me. I do not need to see the animals that I am going to eat in their living form. In my village, there are goats, cows, and chickens all around my house. If I don’t see one the next day and my neighbors are eating meat, I know exactly what happened! God forbid I form an attachment to some of these animals, especially the adorable baby goats. If I were to eat meat here, I would have to go to the butchery and see the bloody animal parts hanging. No thank you! One perk of not cooking meat is that I can save money and spend it on luxury items like chocolate.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Tanzanians think I am really weird. They already think I’m strange, but since I don’t eat meat they think I am really odd. There are not many vegetarians here (I have not actually met a Tanzanian vegetarian yet) and meat is a big part of the culture. I had a conversation with one of my fellow teachers who is Muslim and was fasting for Ramadan. He told me, “It would be easy for you to fast because you don’t like to eat food.” When I asked for clarification, he claimed that since I did not eat meat, I must not like the taste of food. Clearly I only ate for basic nourishment because only a fool would deprive themselves of meat. Maybe one day he will understand that I do not just eat to live. It’s actually the other way around. A life without good food would be depressing. No matter how hard I try to explain myself, Tanzanians do not understand my dietary preferences. I think the only vegetarians in Tanzania are people who cannot afford to eat meat.
My neighbor, the Second Master at our school, is Masai and he was explaining how important meat is in his tribe. The Masai even drink the blood of an animal after it has been killed. Picture the dead cow on the ground and people gathered around it drinking the blood (un-boiled blood). I have been invited to visit my Second Master’s village and learn about the Masai people and I am excited to experience another way of life; however, it would take a serious act of God for me to participate in the cultural practice of blood drinking.
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