When Mari recently visited Zulufadder, she was reminded of how huge differences there are from Norway to South Africa.
Occasionally, I struggle to vary the dinner at home for the family. I am not a good cook. I always cook the same dishes and use the same ingredients, about 5 dishes. “One has to think about the nutritional value in the diet,” the experts are pointing out. There are vitamins and minerals and tralala.
When I visited the lovely, happy, but poor Zulu women this summer, I was a bit ashamed. I realized once again the GREAT difference between what they and I have access to. When they do not have anything else, they eat PHUTU, which is porridge made from corn flour and water. If they are lucky, they can cook the few vegetables they have grown themselves.
A favorite dinner is chicken. When we visited a sponsor child, the mother cooked something most people in Norway would have been amazed to see: Chicken heads and feet. I looked down in the pot on the pink, half-cooked heads and on the feet and was happy to give them beans and rice as well. But that luxury she would save for Sunday dinner!
– Mari