It is eaten as a porridge for breakfast, cooked together with beans for lunch, ground into a flour to make ugali for supper, or eaten roasted straight off the fire. Although nowhere near as tasty as sweet corn, when it is freshly roasted it isn't a bad snack- despite having practically zero nutritional value besides a bit of energy.
Everyone who has land grows maize. Not having much of a farming background I have found it so awesome watching fields get ploughed, neighbours and friends working in teams and helping each other to plant seed and then witnessing the crops grow out the ground, almost visibly changing on a daily basis until they are towering above me as I walk past (or on occasion- through!).
At this time of year- just coming into harvest- there are fields of maize absolutely everywhere.
Initially I wondered about theft- if people are hungry why don't they just nick it from unprotected fields? What could the owners do to stop it?
As it turns out, people do just nick it. It's a common problem that unless you were happy to keep watch over your field 24:7 doesn't really have a solution. The school principal banned students from bringing maize to school to roast and supplement their meals as he said he didn't want to encourage theft and there is no way of knowing if it is stolen or not.
I have been generously presented with much fresh maize from kind students and neighbours. Initially I was unsure what to do with it as I truly can't eat it in the same quantities that the locals do. However I have found if I take it to the kitchen and roast it I will soon be joined by many willing students keen to help me finish it up.
The locals really struggle to understand our lack of it at home.
When discussing with the school staff about the fact I had never eaten ugali before I came here they were shocked. Some declaring they could never visit Australia because they would starve from lack of ugali.
One was clearly struggling with the concept of no ugali and I could see the bewilderment on his face as tried to come to terms with it... ' but madam, if you don't have ugali... What do you do with all your maize!?'
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