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| A vegetable stand was a short walk from our home in Diani Beach, Kenya, in 2013. The produce was delivered by motorcycle each day! Notice the motorcycle. |
Note; Yesterday, in my haste to get the post uploaded, I accidentally included the historical post’s photos from September 9, 2013. Subsequently, due to my error, I am adding photos today from our post from September 8, 2013. Tomorrow, I’ll be back on track. Sorry for the confusion. Here’s the link to that post.
Hello, readers/friends! We hope our friends in the USA had a pleasant and safe Labor Day weekend. We thought of you, wishing you were having a great time while maintaining safety measures to avoid contracting COVID-19.
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| We exited the main guarded gate to our area, to the main road, on a mission to locate the vegetable standwe’dd heard was nearby. |
On that topic, India has now moved into the #2 position globally for the most number of cases. Here are the comparative stats as of yesterday’s tally:
| # | Country, Other |
Total Cases |
New Cases |
Total Deaths |
|---|
| 1 | USA | 6,514,231 | +28,561 | 194,032 | +498 |
| 2 | India | 4,367,436 | +89,852 | 73,923 | +1,107Here’ss the link for these stats for WorldOmeter.com. |
These numbers are very discouraging, giving us little hope of being able to leave India anytime soon. Nor, based on the worst-case scenario, would we be inspired to return to the USA to wait this out. We’re a lot better off stuck here in this hotel if avoiding the virus is our priority and, it is, at all costs or inconveniences.
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| This was Gabriel, the vegetable guy who runs the vegetable stand, a mere two-minute walk after exiting the main gate to our gated community. He said he would order produce for us at any time, arriving the next day, fresh from the fields. |
It is possible, soon, that India will top the US numbers. But, everything is relative. The population in the USA is 328 million and India’s 1,353 billion, over four times higher. It’s no wonder India’s numbers are high. Indian officials are in somewhat panic about their numbers as they keep a close eye on keeping foreigners out of their country who may bring in more cases. I don’t blame them.
I’m experiencing here in the hotel with limited protein sources yesterday’s post discussing the food issue. Last night, I ordered the following:
- Two small chicken breasts (I prefer dark meat for it added fat and taste)
- Two hard-boiled eggs
- A small dish with plain yellow mustard for dipping the dry chicken
- A small plate of cheese
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| Without pesticides and chemicals, the produce can wilt quickly and may be infested with bugs. These tomatoes had just arrived, actually looking quite good. Notice the molding cauliflower and the brown lettuce. Gabriel told us his fresh deliveries come each day around 11 am by the guy on the motorcycle in this photo. |
The chicken breasts were so tough I could hardly cut them with the butter knife and ended up tearing off pieces with my hands to dip into the mustard. The hard-boiled eggs were OK, as was the little plate of cheese I consumed as a dessert. I had asked them to leave out any vegetables since those they served contained high carbohydrate counts, which only added to my current condition of returning pain due to excess carbohydrates.
I don’t think I can eat those chicken breasts one more time. Tonight, I will remind them to leave out the vegetables and if they have any lamb, chicken livers, or dark chicken meat that I could have in place of the chicken breasts. They say they have no dark meat, but I wonder what they’re doing with the rest of the whole chickens they are cooking.
No doubt, they want to please us. They are kind and caring people dedicated to customer service. But, the language barrier makes ordering items not included in their menu difficult for them to understand. I may end up ordering the salmon every night, hoping that eating salmon daily is not a problem due to mercury and other toxins found in the sea. I have no idea if their salmon is wild-caught or farmed.
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| This batch of vegetables was KES (Kenya Shillings) $150, US $1.72. The more we travel, the more we are amazed by, the lower cost of food in other countries compared to the US. |
Under normal circumstances, I only eat fresh-caught fish. Under these circumstances, I can’t be so picky. Hopefully, in months to come, we’ll be living in a location where we can cook our meals after carefully shopping for ingredients. My mouth waters, thinking about a big salad with prawns and avocados. I love celery and haven’t had a morsel in the past eight months since I last prepared a meal in Arizona before leaving for India. The same with beef, pork, and wine. I miss them all. So does Tom (not the wine but his Sprite Zero and Courvoisier with lots of ice).
Of course, we’ll eat chicken when we can cook again. At this point, a chicken” flattie” (a whole chicken cut in such a way to lay flat on the grill) would even be a treat, cooked to perfection on the braai (the grill) in South Africa, along with a fresh green salad with homemade dressing, and sauteed buttered green beans, with garlic and bacon bits.
I need to stop talking and thinking about food and wine. Speaking of drinks with ice, wehaven’tt had any ice in six months.It’ss too much trouble to get it here especially whenit’ss delivered in a teenie, tiny ice bucket with 10 ice cubes.It’ss not worth the bother. Tom keeps his Crystal Lite Iced Tea in the little fridge and drinks it without ice. (We have our ice cube trays but the fridge isn’tt cold enough to freeze the water)
OK, enough whinging. I’m now heading back out for another walk in the shortened corridor with the hotel guests still here. (Oops, more whinging!) I can’t think about any of this now. I’ll think about it tomorrow.
Happy day!
Photo from one year ago today, September 9, 2019:
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| On Friday, this is the sign we spotted on our way to the property, asking our property owners if they’d recommend purchasing meat at this location. They enthusiastically explained they buy all their meat at Button Butchers in Tredarupp, Cornwall, England, and it was well worth a visit. For more photos, please click here. |