Quarantine Part 2

Some days there was nothing else to do but take a nap.  Along with boredom, the next biggest challenge for us was food. I don’t cook Indian food. Not that I can’t, but I don’t know how. This proved to be a challenge and still is. I was trying to cook American food in a country that doesn’t carry the same items. To compound that challenge, we didn’t own a fridge yet and wouldn’t get one until day 16. Thankfully items such as milk and eggs don’t have to be refrigerated here. We left jam, opened packages, and butter on the shelf. We learned it is so warm here that butter melts. 

We made only enough food for everyone to eat. The most food we had leftover filled a snack sized bag. We used the leftovers and any open ingredients that needed to be refrigerated, in the next meal. We only threw food away one time and no one got sick. 

We ate pasta, rice, beans, oats and lentils with a variety of fruits and veggies. Our first meat was our celebration dinner. Thankfully the kids weren’t picky and didn’t complain about anything we made. Our worst meal was plain rice with corn on the cob. The corn that we got was dry and hard even when cooked. This was dinner on day two and I was ready to go home at that point. 

We didn’t have any snacks but I had brought one bag of dry cookie dough that you only needed oil and water to make. We mixed it up and ate it uncooked.  It was a treat when I tried making cookies and apple crisp in a fry pan. They were interesting. Our only source of decent treats were 2 pounds of peanut butter m&ms I brought and a 2 pound bag of jolly ranchers that Nick was given as going away present. 

On day 7, we heard from our subdivision that internet lines hadn’t been run to any of the houses here yet. They figured it would take another 5 days before we could get it. (We finally got it on day 20.) That’s the one thing we all wanted. The ability to contact friends and family back home and to find some new recipes to cook.  Luckily Dennis had purchased an Indian phone on a previous trip that we were able to use in a limited manner. 

On day 13, our debit card finally arrived so we could purchase items for our home such as garbage cans, squeegees, food, toilet paper, clothes pins, dish towels, dish drainer, and garbage bags. We also ordered our other two beds that never arrived last spring. The internet workers also showed up and started manually running line to our house. 

The best day was when quarantine ended. Dennis and I went into town to buy food, appliances, cell phone plans, and other household items. That night we bought KFC chicken and pop for everyone. It was our first meat since getting here and also our first fried food. Yes we gorged and the combo of meat, eating too much, and fried food made us all sick but it was still the best ever!