The Deviled Eggs

Ive been informed that my last post was too depressing so allow me to share a funny story. :)


     After a long day at school, I came home to my house craving something to eat. My sandwich had run out in my stomach so I began searching through my kitchen to find something to eat. I discovered rather quickly that if I was going to eat something, I was going to probably have to get creative and cook something.
     Just then, I turned and looked out my window and saw that the little Tanzanian lady across the street was selling eggs. Gosh! Deviled Eggs, which is one of my favorites to eat at home, suddenly sounded really good. How hard could it be?! All I had to do was boil some eggs! Right?! So I threw on my shoes and ran across the street to the lady. About halfway across the street, I remembered that the lady across the street only speaks Swahili.
     Uh-Oh. This could get interesting.
     After 10 minutes of hand gestures, broken swahili from me, broken english from her, and lots of laughter, I returned victorious to my house with half a dozen eggs. I was so excited that I ran to the kitchen and started pulling out the necessary pots and pans.
     Then I remembered that I can't cook with the water from the tap here because it is extremely contaminated with disease. I would have to use water from our water filter jug. Not a problem right? That's what I thought too. However, I discovered that the water filter jug was empty. It takes about an hour to filter a new jug of tap water to make it clean enough to drink and cook with. I didn't have an hour. I was hungry. Therefore, like the spoiled American that I am, I ran back across the street and asked the lady for some bottled water for 1000 shillings (about 75 cents). She was confused because I had sad some word wrong, of course, so she gave me a HUGE jug of water and wanted 10,000 shillings for it (about 7-8 dollars). No time to argue, I was hungry! I gave her the money and returned to my kitchen.
     I poured my water into the pot, placed my eggs in the pot, and then realized something.... my stove was gas operated and I had never started it by myself. Hmmm... how do you start a gas stove? I found some matches sitting next to the stove and figured that had something to do with it so I set to work for another 10 minutes trying to turn the stove on. I felt SERIOUSLY proud of myself for having gotten this far in the process.
My hungry stomach was not impressed at all.
      So I boiled the eggs, pulled them out and removed the shells. Sliced them in half to get out the yolk and... uhoh, why is the yolk on the inside this white color? Shouldn't it be yellow? Is it only yellow in the states? Do Americans eat yellow yolk and Africans eat white? Why is it different? Am I going to get sick eating white yolk? If I get sick, I'll be miserable, miss school, and get behind in my student teaching so that's not an option! I know I let the eggs boil long enough! O the stress!! I called a roommate to ask them if I was going to get sick from eating the white yolk of boiled eggs in Africa. She laughed and told me I was being hilarious and I should survive just fine. What a relief.... lol.
     Then, I went to the fridge and found mustard and "american" mayonnaise. Once again, I looked at these two products, wondered if they were edible, said a small prayer, and proceeded to make my snack.

    FINALLY, after about an hour and a half later.... I ate my deviled eggs and committed to not try this again for awhile.

Just thought you'd like a small snapshot of an afternoon with Amanda in Africa. Always an adventure. lol.