Week 85: Madombi

 One thing I can always count on in Botswana is that things never go as planned. This can be infuriating when I don’t have the energy or an exciting adventure when I do. One of my favorite foods here is Madombi, a boiled bread. I have never made it, even though I have made the dough since it is the same dough that other breads here are made of. I was always too afraid because early on one of my teacher friends was laughing with me as she told me all the ways she has messed it up. Naturally I wanted my sister to try my favorite foods so I planned for us to go to one of my friend’s houses for dinner as she is a phenomenal cook. At the last minute something came up and my friend was unable to have us over (as a mother of four, this is perfectly understandable). I was a bit bummed that my sister was not going to be able to eat madombi until I realized my sister isn’t going to be able to tell the difference between my first timer madombi and my friends excellent years of practice madombi and if I really messed up, the dogs could have a nice afternoon snack. As it turned out, my madombi isn’t so bad and I was grateful to my friend for her busy schedule because it pushed me to try new things. If I hadn’t been given a little extra shove, I would have never made madombi and I would still be thinking I couldn’t do it.