Lasagna Night

So Lucas and I have tried several times to invite people to dinner. Most times it doesn’t happen. The people here seem so curious about us I figured they would jump at the opportunity to come see our home and eat an American meal. One of the problems is that very few people in Salajwe have vehicles. So they would have to walk back home in the dark. Other than those people who frequent bars, Batswana in Salajwe keep inside after the sun goes down. Another reason is most all women I have met in Salajwe are mothers. So most times women are rushing home after work to start cooking for their own families. So we tried a different approach.
Miranda and Amy sent us lasagna noodles. We have been searching everywhere for a recipe on how to make cottage cheese (I can’t find it anywhere here). I had heard it was easy to make (the name comes from the ability to make it in your own cottage). So the night we invited two ladies over for dinner we take a stab at making lasagna. The cheese is made from scalding whole milk and cream and adding lemon juice to make it curdle. After the third try we still didn’t have cottage cheese. But after mixing in the shredded mozzarella cheese, we thought it would be ok. Turns out the ladies forgot we had invited them to dinner and never showed.
We tried again the next day and invited the cleaning ladies from the Primary School for lunch. We were so excited to share this American meal with the Batswana. That was until we saw their faces when they started eating. They were choking it down. I have never seen Batswana women eat so slowly. I felt so sorry for them. I’ve been there (chicken intestines, sour porridge). I kept telling them they didn’t have to eat it. But you could tell they were trying to be nice. Finally one of the ladies Boikgano said, "The lasagna will not let my stomach eat it any more." Thankfully some students came by to return a pen they had borrowed from Lucas. The ladies eagerly gave away their plates and said, "eat and finish." It was embarrassing and hilarious at the same time