Smurfette+and+Teddy's+Blog

World Water Distribution and Quality Assignment: Republic of Botswana
By: Smurfette Belladona and Teddy Smith
 * Manager/Chef of a local restaurant || Cooking show or cooking magazine || Blog or Podcast || Discuss the types of foods you serve in your restaurant and why? Hint: Link local foods to water supply/quality. ||

I am from Botswana and my family and I came to Toronto almost 15 years ago. We came here with nothing and started off with cleaning jobs and factory work. I then worked in a pizza shop for 5 years and then with my wife, we decided to open a restaurant serving typical African foods. Before, I talk about food, let me tell you about Botswana. Botswana is in southern Africa, and shares borders with South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. It is slightly smaller than Texas and ranks 47th in the world ranking of area. When I was growing up in rural Botswana, we did not have much to eat and water was very scarce. There was (and still is) very little annual precipitation, winters are warm and summers are very hot. The terrain is mainly flat and we are home to the Kalahari Dessert in the southwest. As you can imagine, there is very little land suitable for agriculture and cultivation. However, people still rely on farming of sorghum, maize, millet, beans, sunflowers, groundnuts, along with small stock and cattle. Due to severe drought in my home country, Botswana imports grains, vegetables, and processed foods. Most vegetables such as tomatoes are a luxury. There are no restaurants in smaller villages, but you can find Kentucky Fried Chicken in urban areas. Sometimes, I would go days without consuming anything at all and my belly would rumble. But I got used to that feeling. Gaborone, the capital of Botswana is home to more than half of Botswana’s population and today most people (not all) have access to modern drinking water facilities and sanitation facilities. The situation is much worse in rural Botswana. Lack of clean water sanitation leads to widespread diseases such as cholera. My wife used to walk 12 km to collect a 20 L container of water, which she carried on her head. Collected water was often contaminated and my family suffered from diarrhea and typhoid. Water quality is an issue around the world, but most often a big problem in third world and developing countries, especially when you don’t have the technology to clean water that has been polluted from industry, livestock and inadequate sanitation. Here in Canada, we are grateful to have so much food and clean water. I will never forget what it was like though and for this reason we never waste food and water and we give thanks for everything we have. My restaurant, here in Toronto has a simple name. It is called Wild Botswana and you will find dishes of staple meals in Botswana such as sorghum or corn meal porridge. Back home, people wake in the morning to a thinner version of porridge, sometimes served with soured milk and sugar if you are lucky. A thicker version of the porridge, //known as bogobe,// accompanied by a stew of meat, and/or cabbage, spinach, or beans is usually served for bigger mid day meals. Meats include chicken, goat, sheep, and cattle and we use ginger and garlic for flavouring. In sharp contrast to meals back home, the serving size in our restaurant is plentiful! Please, you are most welcome to come in for a visit.

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April 14th, 2001,

Wow, I would love to try food from Botswana! My best friend is from Sudan and I asked her about typical Sudanese food and its very similar. Sudan is also a desert country and having clean/safe water is a commodity! Have you ever been to Africa?

- Fellow Classmate