Tanzania 2014: The food in Arusha

Food here is interesting.
At my first host every evening meal is almost the same. Some sort of starch - rice, noodles, or potatoes - and a mixture of tomatoes, carrots, and peas with a seasoning I can't place. There is usually some sort of meat in this mix but very little. For example they have small chickens here and they will take one half of a chicken to feed 7 of us. Dinner isn't until almost 8pm most nights so I try to keep this my small meal of the day.
My new hosts, dinner is very similar also. A starch, but then they have a couple of topping choices. They have an amazing green bean and carrot dish that I LOVE!!! I am going to learn how to make it with the girls. They also make an amazing cabbage dish. Most of their meat is beef so I don't eat much of it.

Breakfast here is usually toast and sometimes some eggs, or one day was a really thin pancake. I bought Elizabeth some cereal that she sometimes eats. I tend to eat a yogurt and a banana, and some days an egg.

We pack our lunch every day to take to the school. I buy eggs and we hard boil a dozen at a time. We take 2 each every day then add popcorn or some fruit. Lunch is our main protein every day. We also carry peanut butter with us for snacks and lunch. Since the team has gotten here we have been going out to eat lunch a lot of days.
At the school they eat breakfast about 10am and it consists of bread and tea. They actually tear the bread and dip it into the tea. The little boy that we were staying with loves this and eats it as a snack in the afternoon. Lunch is usually a huge pile of rice with some beans on it. I think dinner is the same, but I have never been there for dinner to see.

The fruit here is amazing. The oranges, pineapple and bananas are the sweetest things you can imagine. Avocados are huge and so creamy! I have started eating them as snacks on a regular basis. All the fruit is grown nearby and is very cheap. I try to keep a lot of it around. Even Elizabeth is liking it.
You can find fruit and vegetable stands everywhere and there are women carrying it around in buckets on their heads to sell it. Sometimes you will go to an area and there will be 6-7 women all selling the same thing.
Last week I got 2 big piles of Tomatoes(about 6 pounds), 2 big piles of potatoes (probably 10 pounds), 6 green peppers, 2 piles of red onions (maybe 5 pounds), 2 big cabbages, 2 big avocados, 2 piles of carrots (about 6 pounds) and it all cost less than $10 US. I will miss the costs of veges when I come home!
One really cool things is that often the vegetables and fruits are all displayed so pretty. They really try hard to make it look nice.