Simplicity

 

This is a small duka (store) and a hoteli (restaurant) that is owned by one of the Mamas in my neighborhood. In my community, there are many small, family owned shops along the Site Estate road (shown below) that provide the most common house hold items for the convenience of the nearest residents. Common item include mafuta (cooking oil), maziwa (milk), and Royco seasoning for meat, among a few other things. 

The BEST part about living in this small community is that, along with the little dukas that sell household items, there are also little stands that sell fresh fruit and vegetables. It is very uncommon for people to buy vegetables and fruits from the supermarket in town because they are more expensive, and also less convenient. This fresh food comes straight from local farmers with no processing or preservatives. I tell you, my body has never felt so good!

Back home it is more convenient to go to the store and buy the processed and pesticide covered food that makes your body do funky stuff. It is also cheaper than the organic fruits and vegetables that often cost an arm and a leg (at least for a poor college student they do). Here it is the opposite. The fresh, organic vegetables are the cheapest and easiest to get. In my host home we often only keep in our house what we are going to eat for that day, and nothing more. The next day Mary goes out to buy fresh vegetables for lunch and dinner.

Mary watching one of the babies that lives in our compound

The same goes for the meat. If we plan to have meat for lunch or dinner that day, Mary goes in the morning to the butchery right down the road, next to the other dukas, and we have fresh meat for that day.

Although I try not to think too often of what life will be like when I return home (because I want to be fully present in my time here!), I can already tell that this is something I am going to miss. Not having to go to the grocery store every week, always having fresh food available just a 2 minute walk from the house, and being content with the food available. Life is just so much easier when it is simple!

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

-1 Thessalonians 5:16-18