My Very First Meal in My Very First House

Who knew that my very first house (yes, mine) would be in Rwanda!! I have always wanted a cute little house to decorate and make fancy...and although I knew I would have my own living space here, I never would have guessed it would be a cute little duplex.  I expected a compound (one-level apartment) type thing, but I'm certainly not complaining.  On my second night here, I made my very first meal in Rwanda all by myself!  Go mee!!  The pots and pans here aren't the greatest, and without all of the fancy gadgets and gizmos that you would find in a modern American kitchen, the cooking process isn't the easiest, but I was still able to whip up a yummy meal in a little over an hour.  What was on the menu you ask??  Spaghetti!  Here are the ingredients I put together to create my pot of yumminess:

                        Spaghetti noodles

                        6 tomatoes (peeled and chopped)

                        1 onion (chopped)

                        ~1 tablespoon of oil

                        1 can of tomato paste

                        3/4 cup - 1 cup of water (I think)

                        Salt, pepper, oregano, and mixed seasoning (to taste)

                        Stale Bread :(

The process:  I started by boiling some water for my noodles...it took forever for the water to actually boil (as I figured it would); as the water was heating, I poured the oil into a pan.  Once the oil was hot, I added in the onions and tomatoes (just as my host mom always did for every meal) and let them cook a bit until they made a yummy sauce.  Next, I added in the tomato paste (which was no easy feat; I had to open the can with a knife).  Next I stirred to mix the paste in with the onion and tomatoes and then added in the water.  Next, I added the salt, pepper, oregano, and mixed seasoning until I thought it tasted just right!  I proceeded to let the sauce simmer while I cooked the spaghetti noodles; just before the noodles were finished, I mixed them in with the sauce and let them finish cooking with the sauce so that they could soak up some of the yummy flavor.  Once finished, I put my spaghetti in one of my cheap little bowls and complemented it with a piece of hard white bread.  The end result you ask?? Delicious! (Aside from the bread, that is).  I'm no stranger to the kitchen, but I'm definitely not used to having to make things from scratch (especially not with things like Ragu and Prego around in America).  I think I did a pretty darned good job for my first try and without a recipe, but then again, it was only spaghetti...how hard could it really have been, right??  We'll see how my next few meals go.  I'll be sure to keep you all updated on any mishaps and successes!

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea

P.S. I purchased a small two-eye hot plate before coming to site so that I wouldn't have to deal with the charcoal stoves that every woman here has mastered.  I placed the hot plate on a short bench inside my house and this was my 'stove'.  There are rolling power outages here and so I was lucky to have been able to complete my meal without the electricity going out.  I have a kerosene stove for backup, however I don't have any kerosene, and I don't exactly know how to use the kerosene stove just yet...let's hope I don't burn the house down when the time comes that I finally have to figure it out!