Meat

I remember talking with a teacher here about food. She was describing different Ugandan foods and asking if I had each of them while here. The answer was mostly yes, between my two months here and month last year I have had many dishes. She then asked me about American food. I started describing different American foods my family would make. I forget which foods I was talking about, but the first thing she said was that all we eat is meat. Meat here is associated with wealth/status: it is expensive and rare. When I started describing different U.S. meals, all of which revolve around meat, I was in her mind elevating myself above her. I quickly tried to cover this up by saying that in the U.S. meat is very common, but this only made things worse as this only demonstrated U.S.’s superior wealth over Ugandans. I tried to cover up my tracks by arguing that growing up in the city, we all had to buy food from supermarkets (which means something slightly different here but is similar enough to get the point across). That there meat is about as expensive as fruits and vegetables, so we can buy a lot of it. (Most rural Ugandans eat a mix of foods they grow and stuff bought from nearby. What one eats rarely comes from more than say a few miles away.) I also had to explain that most fruits and vegetables grown there come from other parts of the U.S., and it is thus more expensive, hence it’s the same price as meat. (Even in major Ugandan cities like Kampala, meat is like 8 times the price as anything else.) I don’t know if any of this is actually true, having not really started doing much grocery shopping yet. As a matter of fact if anyone wants to correct me, then it would be incredibly helpful. I won’t promote false myths about U.S. food across Uganda! I also don’t know where most of my food comes from nor type of food grows near Pittsburgh: I’ve been asked many times and often sort of make up an answer. I thought dairy farming is popular in southwestern PA, something that would be oddly helpful if true because it is important here in Central Uganda as well. I am staying at a ranch where my school is and cow mooing is almost a constant thing: there are several mooing outside as I type. Anyways, I got distracted. My point in this blog is not to discuss cattle mooing, but to reflect on something. I have been given a quick glib response to the accusation of U.S. status that I hoped would somehow absolve me of any potential gluttony. I have no idea if it’s actually true, as a matter of fact I sort of made it up on the fly. What I wanted to talk about was that I never thought about meat-eating as a wealthy or status symbol. Maybe that’s a Ugandan (or East African or African) thing that is justifiably not the same in the U.S. (it is true that I would associate vegetarianism with the upper-middle class because it is in my mind more financially more difficult). Maybe we are a bunch of snobby pigs. I don’t know. It did make me think. Every time I think about U.S. food, I realize how meat-filled it actually is. Clearly things like burgers, steaks, etc., but even meals not inherently meat-orientated like pasta, pizza, etc. usually include some sort of meat. Growing up, the meat defined the meal and if meat wasn’t a significant portion of what you ate, it wasn’t a meal. Here in rural Uganda, I do get meat few weeks. In Kampala, I got it every lunch. Though for both of these I would eat like a dice-sized portion. This is one example of when I accidentally walk into a land-mine when I answer a question about the U.S. Saying we do something that is considered “high status” or “unfair” here. I don’ always know what to do. I don’t really have any conclusion for any of this except maybe that I am more aware of when I eat meat.