Day 17

Today is the third day of our Gambian diet. We have been eating mostly rice. For breakfast, Alex has made a rice flour porridge that is better cold than hot. We have been snacking on carrots and a heavy whole wheat bread that I have been making. The one very tastey meal we have had is the domada (recipe below). With a small amount of beef (probably half of what we would normally have) it is very, very yummy. If we can hold out and really stretch the food we have already bought, I am pretty sure that by the end of two weeks we will have saved $200 in comparison to the two weeks before including when we had eaten out. That's $200 that one family was able to come up with to help out another country in just two weeks! Imagine if we did this more often or made smaller changes, but made them all year. What a difference we could make!

One more thing I just have to mention because I am so ridiculously proud of my kids. Yesterday, Selah, who is four and much too young to really understand what we are doing, woke up and, with a teary little face, asked for normal food. After our rice porridge breakfast, we gave her an apple. We also told the other kids that they could choose for themselves if they wanted an apple without fear of any judgment from the rest. All three of them (6, 9, and 10 years old) said they were sticking to our new diet because they really want to know what it like. They have gulped down more rice porridge than I would have thought they could manage and haven't complained. No one has asked for juice or treats or even fruit. They have been talking about Africa when I am not in the room and the big kids have even been reading to the younger ones about it. I am so grateful to have such a cool little pile of kids.

Mom