Gizzards

Ok, I knew that the food would be "different" here in Kenya. In general, I have been pleasantly surprised by whatI've been served. Food is generously being provided for us everywhere, and I truly believe that beggars shouldn't be too choosey.

I will say that I'm not a fan of goat...actually, I hate goat. For me, goat is like eating dirty shoe leather. The beef is typically a bit fatty for me, but it tastes like beef. Chicken and fish have proven safe and predictable. Well, most of the chicken. Yesterday, lunch was technically chicken, just not a part of the chicken normally served in the US.

The nice young lady set the spoonful of food on the plate. It looked like a mushroom sauce, almost like stroganoff. It didn't have much smell, to it and I honestly didn't hear her tell me what it was. It was served with samosas that turned out to be filled with a cross between a chili pepper and the surface of the sun. I tried the samosa first. The top layers of skin in my mouth immediately liquified and dribbled out of the side of my mouth. I attempted to cool the inferno with water, but decided that liquid nitrogen would have been more effective. Once I could feel my tongue again, I turned my attention to the meat. I still didn't know exactly what it was, but as a gentleman adventurer (that one's for you Strat), nothing is beyond trying.

I popped the little blob of something-er-other into my mouth and quickly determined that this was not a good thing to have in my mouth. Waves of nausea swept over me, my eyes began tearing, I literally felt the color drain from my face and the blob was rapidly extricated just before my stomach completely turned inside out sending the molten samosa back out towards the light!

I was sitting next to a nurse manager from the hospital we are training at, and a participant in the program I am running. She clearly caught the near seizure unfolding next to her. To her credit, she did not laugh at me. The ensuing conversation went something like this:

Nurse: "Did you like the gizzard?"
Seth: "The what?"
Nurse: "The gizzard?"
Seth: "The what?"
Nurse: "It's chicken gizzards. Did you like them?"
Seth: (turning green now that he knows what he just had in his mouth) "No, I didn't like it."
Nurse: (matter of factly) "Why not?"
Seth: (thinking, because it's a friggin gizzard! I don't eat bird throats!!) "Oh, it must be the texture."

Fortunately, I had some more samosas on my plate and was able to burn the remnants of the gizzard from the inside of my mouth.

The ultimate upshot of the episode is that it prompted another trip to Nakumatt (my new favorite retail mocation) to purchase peanut butter, jelly and bread. This Nakumatt was smaller and less well stocked with barbed wire and baby diapers, but they had my beloved PB&J. I now know that I will always have something to eat that is both recognizable as food and less likely to cause violent bodily reactions.