I read several blogs from expat ladies all over Africa - missionaries, wives of government workers, doctors, etc. I find them fascinating because even though Africa is such a large place (I've shown you
this graphic before, right?), there are many similarities that we find from country to country. Grocery shopping is one such trial that seems to be common across the continent for us Americans living away from home.
This morning, as I perused through a cookbook entitled
Wild Boar on the Kitchen Floor (linked to from another blog I read based in Senegal), I realized that much has changed for us here in Botswana, just compared to the first trip we took here in 2009.
Back then, we had two main grocery stores in town and countless little corner shops. Now we have three main groceries and even more little corner shops. Even better, now we have been around long enough to know where we need to go to look for certain items... I think that, more than anything, has made all the difference.
For instance, when we officially moved here in 2010, I began looking for dog treats. Now where would you look for dog treats? The grocery store, perhaps? How about the hardware store, the security store, the farm supply store, the animal feed store, the pet store, the veterinary clinic, the home goods store, the plant nursery, the dog breeder? All of these are viable options and a good place to look for said dog treats when the grocery store doesn't have them. However, *finding* these stores proved to be a challenge - even finding out if they existed in Francistown! There are no yellow pages, no business directory, and even though there is the Industrial side of town, there is no guarantee that all such stores will be located there. Many are in residential areas or the most unlikely of places. Now you can see why it is just easier to make your own, because such a search could take days and days with no guarantee you will find what you are looking for. ;) I'm happy to report that our grocery store now sells dog treats! But multiply that by whole lists of things we needed to find when we first moved here, and you can see how overwhelming such a task can be.
Back then (the first trip in 2009), the biggest store where we did most of our shopping had a cheese section that boasted 4 items - blocks of mozzarella, blocks of cheddar, slices of processed cheese, and containers of cream cheese spread (a good substitute in baking, but not at all like the real thing). You weren't guaranteed that they would have any of these things - often they would go out of stock for weeks at a time. Now the grocery down the road has a whole four-foot section of their refrigerator dedicated to the cheeses. You can buy such a great variety of cheeses, and yet it seems that the one you are looking for will always be the one they don't have. One thing we tell ourselves often, "If you see something you want, buy two of it now because you never know when you'll see it again!"
So in perusing through the
Wild Boar cookbook, I saw lots of tricks that I already knew (draining yogurt to make 'sour cream') and saw lots of tricks that I want to try. Cream seems to be one thing that we very rarely find here, and when we do find it, particularly in the long-life boxes, we buy a lot of it to stock up! (I will note that when our Alaska friends were here, coffee snobs that they are ;), I was shocked that there was always cream on hand for their coffee. They must have been praying for it and then stopped once they left, because as soon as they were gone, we didn't see it for months!) Once again, we are out of cream as are all the grocery stores, so I'm looking for some good substitutions to try.
But the cookbook also made me so thankful that we do have the availability that we have here and that things are improving by the month! New stores opening up, greater selection in items and produce, Francistown is growing and changing! I know there are many places in Africa that still have trouble just getting refrigeration, so we are definitely blessed that we can either get or make just about everything we need or want AND that we have a refrigerator, freezer, and canning capabilities to help preserve our supplies as long as possible.
It is amazing how your perspective changes over time, however. I remember in the States when we used to joke about "every time we go to Walmart, they're always out of something that you need". And now that happens to us every time we go
anywhere. The times where we've gone to the store with a list and found every single item on that list?... well, those have been rare times indeed. Maybe three times in the last two years? :)
