Taking the team to Sams

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So we are now in last few days of our time in Kampala and we celebrated with the hope for life Katanga team with a meal in a local restaurant called Sams. It was a meal to mark a good 3 months of friendship and teamwork.



Before I talk any more about our evening I will give you an insight into our time in Uganda regarding food. For those who have read previous blogs, you will understand that food is a big part of my life.



We came to Uganda for 2 weeks with a group including doctors, Reverends and married people, all things that Ugandans love. Because of this we were treated to full buffets of food almost every lunch and dinner. They heavily indulged our plates with food, specifically a steamed banana called matooke. Rice, beans, g-nuts, soup, meat, posho and irish were all part of the buffet every meal.



This was my first time in a very different culture, so I thought not to upset anyone that I needed to take everything… not a good idea. The Ugandans were quite persistent that their guests had enough food. After 2 solid weeks of this food I had gotten sick of it, so vowed not to eat any more again. The doctors and Reverends had gone home so we were left to find English food and not be overloaded with carbs. This was a success and found various English restaurants and English supermarkets we could buy from.



So back to last night’s meal. It was great. It served very English food, a good roast, a good English breakfast and had a menu of Indian food too. What I didn’t realise, however, is that the Ugandans that came almost never ate anything other than rice, beans, g-nuts, soup, meat, posho, irish and especially matooke. So after I saw their puzzled faces looking at the menu that’s when I realised this is food that they never eat and completely new words that they had never seen before, biryani, fish and chips, sausage and mash, curry etc etc.



After a bit of hilarious discussion we decided that a biryani would be best as it was the closest thing to ‘meat and rice’ what they normally have. They were sure to make sure it wasn’t spicy though, it’s almost like the more bland and flavourless the food the better for some of them.



After Megan and my previous encounter with a whole tilapia (see previous blog) I decided to go for proper fish and chips. To differentiate between whole tilapia and battered fish they used the term ‘English style’, which our friend Moses couldn’t get enough of, which persuaded him to get that. The evening, from then on, was filled with sentences finishing ‘…English style’.



The food came out and it all looked good but not according to the faces of those round the table, who pocked at it with a fork with inquisitiveness. A friend Joshua, who had an Indian dish, asked if the tomato Ketchup could be passed over; I was horrified. ‘You’re not going to put that on your food are you’, I asked. He replied saying, ‘of course I am’. Our friend Afisha then followed suit and started pouring Ketchup all over the biryani, (see Facebook for the picture) to my dissatisfaction.



It was a great evening filled with humour, good conversations, good food (For those who were English) and a great way to finish our time in Uganda specifically Kampala with the hope for life Katanga team.

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