A Tourist’s Prayer
O Lord, I don’t want to be a spectator
A tour passenger looking out on the real world
An audience to poverty and want and homelessness.
Lord, involve me, call me, implicate me, commit me.
And, Lord, help me to step off the bus.
Freda Rajotte, World Council of Churches
New Delights, New Adventures
While you are traveling and on the field, your taste buds will be treated to a new delight every meal. You can try fried grasshoppers if you would like, but we do not normally eat things really strange like zebu hump, cow stomach or tail, goat head, or anything that moves on the plate. However, we do eat a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables in season, grains, noodles, milk, beef, fish, and eggs in African, French, and American recipes. Good chicken is a little harder to come by. French baguette bread loaves are almost always available. Imported foods such as cheese and ham are very expensive. Rarely would one find a Diet Coke or Mt Dew.
Preferences and Allergies
Daily shopping and food preparation take a great amount of time and effort to make sure that you have something healthy to eat at every meal and a balanced diet throughout the week. So, be adventurous and try at least a spoonful of everything without complaining. You will not be served cheese with your "whines". We will be willing to alter menus for serious food allergies, such as nuts (hives or anaphylactic shock), but not for food preferences. The noted exception: If you are required medically to be on a certain diet (we’re not talking here fad diets or preferences) you will need to contact us and tell us about it; you will probably need to bring your food with you and / or plan on preparing your own meals.
Meal Plans and Costs
Your daily costs have been based on a pre-arranged eating plan fashioned around your work and travel schedule. Usually breakfast will be a fix-it-yourself-on-the-way-out-the-door kind of thing. Noon meals could be a sack lunch eaten in the bush or a prepared in-house, light lunch. Evening meals are prepared in-house or eaten out at a restaurant. Some teams will be doing some of their own meal preparation. Filtered water is provided in missionary homes and at the guesthouse; bottled water is available for about one dollar / bottle at personal expense. Again, we will not serve you food we will not eat ourselves.
Restaurants/ Little Tables and Trays
While traveling through most West African capital cities, good restaurants are available. In Niamey, Ouagadougou, Bamako, and Timbuktu prices range from three to twenty dollars per meal, dress is casual to classy. We will not take you to a place where we think you will become sick.
You may want to be adventurous and sample the local cuisine from little tables on the street or from trays on people’s heads. Beware! Sample only when the food comes straight from the fire and put into a clean plastic, disposable bag. Ask us for recommendations before you dig in.
Picnics
Perhaps your team members have been asked to bring their own breakfasts or other meals that will be eaten out of the house. There are no fast foods, nor can we consistently find single-serving foods in Niamey. This is a good opportunity to pick and choose exactly what you like to eat; bring some of your favorite lunch box treats. Perhaps you can even work out a few swaps from your roommate. Just a stroll down the aisles of your local grocery store or Wal-Mart will help you find all sorts of possibilities of packable, lunch box/ single serving/ snack-sized goodies. Bring a balance of salty and sweet. Choose pop-top containers rather than needing a can opener. Put each meal in a zip-lock bag, with a napkin and plastic utensils; this will help to contain in-flight spills, allow you to see what you are actually bringing per meal, and provide a ready made trash sack.
Suggestions from previous teams:
Breakfast: individual instant oatmeal packages, cereal, pop-tarts, power bars, granola bars, instant grits, dried fruit, powdered juice, instant coffee, powdered milk (much better cold…just add an ice cube after mixing)
Lunch: single serving meals of any type – tuna salad, chicken salad, peanut butter, Vienna sausages… crackers, Eat-a-snacks, dried fruit, nuts, trail mix, granola bars, fruit cups (pop them in the freezer when you arrive), pudding cups
Please note that you will need to pack your food in your checked luggage as canned items contain liquid and peanut butter is considered a paste. They will be confiscated by security at the airport.
Do Not Waste Food
Your mother always told you about the starving children in Africa; everything she told you was true. She was right all along! While you are here you will meet some of these starving children face-to-face. They beg on every corner. They are rummaging through the trash heap as you leave the restaurant. They are watching you eat in the village; they will eagerly eat what you thoughtlessly threw down in the sand and drink the last swallow of coke in your can after you discard it. So, do not waste food, especially in front of them.
Hospitality is a Virtue
Hospitality is a virtue in Songhai culture, as is the receiving of this hospitality. They are probably offering you the very best they have in the very best container, and they will seat you in their best, perhaps only chair. The invitation to dinner in a Songhai home is, “Come put your feet on the mat!” Slurp your tea very loudly to express your thanks. Burping and spitting out bones on the floor are habits acceptable in Songhai homes only. When you are offered food or drink in someone’s home and you do not care for anything, keep a smile on your face and graciously say “No, thank you, I am not thirsty/ hungry.”
When your food comes straight out of the fire, it is ok to eat. Do not ask what it is, you might not want to know. The dish you are offered will often be the entire meal for the whole family. The guest will get to dig in first. So, eat a small amount from the side of the plate nearest to you, leaving most for the rest of the family. Eat ONLY with your right hand and DO NOT lick your fingers. “A ma ye ni gunda ra!” It literally means, “May it cool in your stomach.” You will recognize its French equivalent, “Bon appétit!”
Saying Grace Around the World
“Food is a medium of communication, but it is more; in a mysterious way, it is part of the message, as Jesus so vividly portrayed in the breaking of bread and distribution of the cup.”
anonymous
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You are always with us, Lord,
You are water in the desert,
The fruit of life in the garden,
Light at evening time,
In that way you are with us, Lord.
You are always with us, Lord.
You are the face reflected in the mirror,
The wine of joy at the celebration meal,
The sharing between friends.
In that way you are with us, Lord.
You are always with us, Lord.
You are the pilot in the boat,
The healer of the injured,
The parent in the home,
In that way you are with us, Lord.
Father Pierre-Etienne
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You have come from afar
And waited long and are wearied.
Let us sit side by side
Sharing the same bread
Drawn from the same source
To quiet the same hunger that makes us weak.
Then let us stand together.
Let us share the same spirit
The same thoughts
That once again draw us together in friendship and unity and peace.
Canadian Indian Liturgical Text
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Creator Lord,
Through whom everything in this earth grows—
Sweet bananas, fat plantains, sour oranges, dry yams, rice, corn, and peanuts from whom this soup is squeezed—who let the sharp red peppers grow that keep us healthy and burn stomachs clean; who let fresh water burst from the ground, good fresh water….
Bless for us this meal, Our loving God and Father.
Prayer of a young Ghanaian Christian
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“Lord, we know that you’ll be coming through the line today. So, Lord, help us to treat you well. Help us to treat you well.”
an African-American woman working a Foodline near the White House
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Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth,
We humbly pray that your gracious care may give and preserve the seeds which we plant in our farms that they may bring forth fruit in good measure. That we who constantly receive from your goodness may always give thanks to you, the giver of all good things, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.
Prayer used during planting in Cameroon
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God is great, God is good;
Let us thank Him for our food.
By His hands we all are fed, thank you Lord for daily bread.
Traditional American children’s meal time prayer
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“White People Have to Eat, Too!” (pdf document)
“Eating Around the Bowl in Senegal” (pdf document)
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