I decided to create some extra work for myself and put up an extra post for these last ten days of some of my favorite things here. These are the things that I am most going to miss when I leave next week. Can it really be next week? It is. So I’m just soaking it all up for 10 more days.
#10 – Bananas
We eat bananas all the time. I love roasted or sweet bananas for breakfast. Banana stew and banana ugali are favorites for lunch and dinner. They also have these other little deep fried sweet banana treats that we are blessed with for tea once and a while.
As I’ve written before, the banana trees also provide the most beautiful backdrop for life in this place. They are a very important part of the diet here, the economy, and they are practically another character in chagga tradition. I love taking walks through the village and admiring the massive leaves and the ripening fruit. I have always said that nature provides the very best color palate; the banana trees prove this to be true, even when they are dying.
Here is a banana pod, just as its opening up to start producing its fruit. This red bulb type thing grows off the end providing nutrients for the fruit, eventually it drops to the ground altogether.
Off to market.
(I'm really bummed this picture is blurry, but you get the point.)
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