Why I hate peanut butter and Jelly
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I didn’t use to hate it , PB&J was once a yummy treat but alas those days have long since passed. It is common wisdom that on travel days it is cheaper to bring food than to try and buy meals at the random and often unscheduled stops. So starting in the Ukraine travel days have been PB&J days. Sometimes other items make guest appearances in the food bag, fruit (usually bananas which I simply will not put in my mouth), chips, cookies, cakes, basically not things I like to eat. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was rebellious but I take special pleasure in getting through a travel session without eating anything I don’t like.
All long distance African travel is done by bus, there are established bus routes throughout the major cities and so like any smart people (the Africans are brilliant) the opportunity for business was seen and capitalized upon. The roads in most parts of Africa are shoddy at best, so an 135 mi trip might take as long as 8 hours. Every hour or 2 on the road the bus driver will slow down, sometimes because the road conditions make it necessary and sometimes because its just easier and the bus gets swarmed by the vendors. They sell everything, sunglasses, jewelry, shoes, toys, perfume, water, soda, carpets… really everything. My favorite vendors however are the food vendors, they never come on the bus like the others, they will simply stand at the window and shout what they have. Road Chapattis, and road eggs, road goat and road chicken, roasted corn and yucca, sweet potatoes and baked goods. Road Chapattis with honey or a nice goat skewer is decadence at its finest. My absolute fave, however, is road chicken. I have yet to see it outside of Uganda but road chicken is delicious. It is cooked over an open fire, spiced and handed hot and delicious through the window for about $1. When we first saw road chicken I wasn’t sure if it was safe, but Justin the master of road food got one and so I had to have one too. It set off a trend and at least a quarter of the bus enjoyed road chicken and chapatti that night and no one got sick. I spent the next 2 days looking for road chicken, samosas or chapatti but eventually had to settle for Tanzanian eggs and PB&J. I lost the battle that time but 65+ hours of road travel is a battle in itself so I will count it as a partial victory.
