Kombucha 10/2/2013

This is one of my favorite pictures of Jacque and Hanna.  They can be a lot of fun. 

When Jacque came, she brought a mixture with her called Kombucha.  Kombucha is a solution that is supposed to have probiotics--or bacteria that is good for your body.  It works kinda like friendship bread.  You take some from a friends batch, add things to it, let it sit for a few days, then drink the majority of it.  Then do it again.  It's not sanitized, and I have no idea how you know you're not raising bad bacteria or other things.  So, I haven't touched kombucha.  I've decided that the next batch that is ready I should look at under the microscope.

A couple weeks ago, I did get sick for a day.  I think it was related to something I ate, but I don't know what.  No one else got sick.  Thankfully, I wasn't sick for long.  But I have to say...my stomach sounded like a rain stick and at least that was interesting.

The kitchen staff at school and the lady that cooks for us at home have done a good job.  I have been healthy.  The kids at school are washing their hands with soap more, and drinking tap water less.  Almost everything here is boiled, peeled or cooked.  I eat a lot of beans, rice, potatoes, pasta, and vegis.  Dishes are washed with soap.  We don't have a refrigerator where I live or at school, so I avoid leftovers.  The leftovers from school feed the pigs.

But...having a Mom who was a health inspector and being one of two people with a B.S. degree at school, sometimes things aren't easy.  I have been told things like:

• Eating boiled eggs two days later is ok.
• Meat [or anything] reheated a day later is still good.
• "I don't believe in germs."
• "Don't say your going to get sick or it will come true."

It's not a surprise that the volunteers and people here have had a variety of different food borne illnesses.  I do love Burundi, but sometimes abiding by basic food sanitation rules is impossible, and my encouragement to do so can be viewed as a nuisance. Que sera, sera! TIA (This is Africa.) :)

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha
Kombucha is a lightly effervescent fermented drink of sweetened black tea that is used as a functional food. It is produced by fermenting the tea using a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast, or "SCOBY". Although kombucha is claimed to have several beneficial effects on health, these claims are not supported by scientific evidence. Drinking kombucha can cause serious side effects or even death, especially if the tea has become contaminated through improper preparation.[1]