Tea in Uganda

In one of my travel posts I briefly mentioned that I had tea with Eron, Kizito's aunt.

I wanted to tell you more about Eron and my time with her.

First of all, she is a super sweet person. She is 19 years old, much younger than all of her siblings. She's graduated secondary school and can't afford to continue her education. Currently she lives with her mom and helps care for Kizito.

She has a sweet smile and very pretty micro-loc hair (mini dreds for most of you... not all dreds look like Bob Marley). She is slender and tall, but very graceful.

She speaks nearly perfect English and is very easy to converse with. She is insightful and asks good questions and gives good explanations, but forgets to interpret because she gets wrapped up in conversations.

The one day I spent most of the day at Kizito's I spent it with Eron. We had tea together. I was really nervous about eating from places other than my guest house... I didn't want to get sick. My weak American stomach was my fear. But it was offered and I figured tea would be boiled so there wasn't much chance of things causing me harm... hopefully.

Any way, Eron slipped in the house and came back with 2 mismatched, but lovely, tea cups and saucers. I didn't tell her ladies in the US would like a mismatched set for the style of it. She also brought out a box of loose black tea and a tub of raw sugar. Then the water was brought by a neighbor, Constance, in a thermos with a lid, and it was steaming hot... a good sign. Any way, we spooned the loose tea into our cups, added some raw sugar, and when I looked in the thermos I saw brownish water with bits of bark-ish looking stuff floating in it!

My thoughts, "Oh dear! I can NOT drink that!" But, I kept cool and asked, "Eron, is this water?"

Yes, I know she must have thought I was a nut!

She said, "Yes."

I said, "What is in it?'

She smiled and said, "That is something we put in our water to flavor it. Do you know ginger, it is a root."

I sighed internally.

"Oh, yes! I know ginger!"

Eron, "We grow it and grate it and dry it and store it to flavor our water."

Me, "Wow! That is a good idea."

So, what have I been flavoring my tea with since returning home? Yep, ginger.

Had a cup last night that rivaled Eron's.