Vegetarian volunteer in Botswana...

April 28, 2009 6:50 AM

I am spending three weeks in Botswana as a volunteer this summer. I am also a strict vegetarian. Having never visited that part of the world I am not familiar with the local dietary options. Will it be difficult to maintain a vegetarian diet in Botswana?

I will not be near any major urban areas.

As custom and availability prevails I was hoping to maintain my vegetarian lifestyle (as I've been one for 15 years). However, I also realize that it is a luxury to have the food selection available to me in North America to do so.

I don't want to be rude as I am a guest in their country. Any ideas or advice will help make any the mental shift a little easier. Thanks!

posted by anonymous to food & drink (13 comments total)

Most people in africa are too poor to eat meat on a daily basis. You won't have trouble finding veggie options. I hope you like beans.
posted by Kololo at 6:58 AM on April 28

I don't want to be rude

That's all you need to remember. A little chicken fat in the gravy for a couple of weeks won't hurt you—or your (higher) principles—one bit.
posted by bricoleur at 7:08 AM on April 28

I guess it probably depends what you mean by "strict," but also by how willing you are to offend your hosts. Kololo is generally right that meat is frequently out of the range of most Botswanans' budgets, but this means that if you are offered meat, you should probably eat it, because it may well represent a significant sacrifice upon their part out of respect and appreciation for you. I've no idea what your situation is going to be, but this may happen to you more often than you'd expect; most traditional cultures, Africa included, tend to make a big deal about visitors and the phrase "kill the fatted calf" can be quite literally what happens.

I'd imagine that being vegan is probably harder than being vegetarian though, as even a dish which doesn't include meat per se might be fried in animal fat. Insects are also occasionally snacked upon.

But on the whole, most Africans' diets consist largely of grains. As Kololo said, yeah, you better like beans. And corn. And wheat. Etc. The diet isn't nearly as exotic as it's frequently made out to be.
posted by valkyryn at 7:08 AM on April 28

When I was in the bush in Botswana, I subsisted almost entirely on corn meal (pap). Sometimes with some vegetables or stew. However, when visiting people, they would often kill a chicken to be hospitable. It would be terribly insulting to refuse to eat it. Larger gatherings might involve killing a goat or cow, but those will probably be pre-planned and fewer eyes would be directly on you.

On the road, we mostly ate "fat cakes" (fried dough). The roadside cafes had burgers, curries, chips, and other things. Also fried caterpillars, but you can avoid those without difficulty.

In Gaborone, I'm sure you could find an Indian restaurant without any difficulty.

Basically, I wouldn't worry about having enough to eat. The worry is whether you'd refuse meat if offered, and whether you are ok with the ramifications.

A caveat: I was last in Botswana in
'91. It's economically successful, and is next to South Africa, so it may be very different now.
posted by bitterpants at 7:23 AM on April 28 [1 favorite has favorites]

My experience as a vegan/vegetarian in visiting Tanzania is similar to what other people have said. You will almost certainly be offered meat and you will have to eat it. When you are feeding yourself it will be fairly easy to avoid meat but as a foreigner you will probably have to fend off meat dishes and ask for lowly beans and rice because everyone will assume you want meat.

The biggest challenge for me in eating meat (after 20 years without) was knowing when to stop chewing. Maybe it was the particular grade of meat we ate but it seems like you could chew it all night without really changing its structural integrity. I made a rule that I'd chew while singing a short song in my head and swallow when the song ended.

In Tanzania among agriculturalists it is fairly easy to be vegan as most people can't afford animal protein with any regularity. The margarine widely available (Blue Bandi) was made with milk by-products. Chipsi mayai (homefries in an omelet) is a popular street food, as are boiled eggs.

To go back to your question, I don't think there is anything you can do to prepare. Some people have crazy stories of getting sick from eating meat after a long hiatus but since you will probably get sick anyway I wouldn't worry about it. Just try not to think about it, chew 100 times and swallow. Try to stay to the back of the crowd when they roast a goat or you will have to suck the marrow out of the bone.
posted by Chrishartley at 7:56 AM on April 28

...also, three weeks to be someplace and perhaps to have to compromise the conscious decisions you have made about your diet is not much of a sacrifice. It will be interesting to hear about your experiences upon your return. I think so many of us living in western industrial countries have grown so detached from our own food chain that it should be very interesting for you to experience how things work in a country like Botswana.
posted by hippybear at 8:53 AM on April 28

I have never been to Botswana but I am a vegetarian -- and have been one for 34 years. I'm a little disturbed by people insisting that you will HAVE to eat meat. I would imagine that people in Botswana are as intelligent as people elsewhere and are quite capable of understanding the idea of a person not eating meat for personal moral reasons. Assuming you can befriend a native of the area and explain very clearly what your concern is, perhaps that person could then explain to your hosts that -- while you very much appreciate the thought behind the gesture -- you cannot eat the meat they are offering. This explanation will, of course, need to be made before the people go to the effort of killing a chicken or whatever.

I suppose, if worse comes to worse, you could also keep in reserve some made-up story about not being able to eat meat for medical reason. When personal moral choice is insufficient, some people will excuse you for medical reasons.

At any rate, I can certainly sympathize with you. While I, too, would not wish to be rude, neither would I betray a dietary choice that is deeply grounded in a firmly-held moral principle.
posted by rhartong at 10:13 AM on April 28

If eating meat is absolutely not an option, you can try the "I took a religious vow" route. It may be a little closer to the truth, and many people are reluctant to interfere with religious obligations. Botswana looks like it has a large array of faiths in the population so they aren't likely to be horribly offended by someone else's faith-based practices.
posted by pointless_incessant_barking at 11:01 AM on April 28

I'm a firm believer of "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." People will probably be making sacrifices for your visit, as mentioned - killing a chicken for you or whatnot. You can make excuses. You can try to explain your vegetarianism. You can invoke a quasi-religious or quasi-medical rationale for your avoidance of meat. And people, being as kind as they often are, will not make too much of a fuss. But it *is* rude, it won't truly be understood by many and, well, this is just my personal feeling . . . but when you go to some place as exotic as Botswana, it's kind of a shame not to go with as open a mind as possible. Three weeks with a wee bit of meat is a sacrifice I would make in that situation. I'd even eat caterpillars if offered in a private home as a gift to a guest, though that would obviously be hard to swallow (literally and figuratively.) But guess what? You get to go home to your luxuries in a short time!

It's important to know that in many places in the world - including Botswana - there is simply not enough access to regular, healthy foods to allow for the sort of discriminating choices we in the wealthy West can make. Meat is a luxury item, and if you're offered it, it will dishonor your host in some way to refuse it. They may not express this in a way you will perceive, but nonetheless it is true. It simply depends how you value your personal choice versus the proper way of being a guest in a land in which you are visiting.

I would imagine that people in Botswana are as intelligent as people elsewhere and are quite capable of understanding the idea of a person not eating meat for personal moral reasons.

I'm sure people in Botswana are as intelligent as people everywhere. But - to give an example - I've met people from India who imagined that Americans were as intelligent as people elsewhere and therefore quite capable of understanding that people should wash themselves with water after going to the bathroom, and not disgustingly use dry paper to wipe themselves unhygienically afterwards. Surprise! We're not.

People tend to hold convictions so intensely that they do not recognize how culturally biased they are. In some parts of the world, vegetarianism is easy and consistently possible and people can be vegetarians for life. In other places, one would die trying this - I can think of cultures in less variegated lands - the northern Urals, Lapland, various South Pacific islands - where sustainable vegetarianism isn't a possibility at all.

There are plenty of places even in Europe, where people simply do not understand vegetarianism, where the bunice will cry with worry if you won't even eat soup flavored with a little chicken. This has nothing to do with intelligence, rather than practical reality in those places. Do what you like based on how important it is to you; but don't fall prey to the "intelligence" red herring, which takes as de facto truth that we tend to behave in logical lines. We don't. Neither do they. If you want to be a good guest, eat what you're offered when you don't have an easy alternative.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 12:24 PM on April 28 [3 favorites has favorites]

I don't know the basis behind your flavour of vegetarianism, but if it is based on the ethics of not needlessly taking the lives of animals, then that objection no-longer applies if a chicken is killed in honour of you as the guest. You have already taken the life of that animal, and (to my mind) to not partake at that point belittles the death. If you're not going to eat someone, don't kill it. If you kill something (even by proxy), you should eat it.

So the way to avoid rudeness and ethical compromise is obvious but difficult - to try to communicate ahead of time that you avoid meat, to avert any special hospitality meat before an animal is killed if possible. But if the animal has been killed for you, then you eat. To not do so makes no sense from a vegetarian perspective (depending on the reason for your ideology), and is potentially offensive from a social perspective.
posted by -harlequin- at 12:45 PM on April 28

"If you're not going to eat someone"

Can we make that "something" instead of "someone"

Pretty please? :)
posted by -harlequin- at 12:46 PM on April 28

rhartong -- actually, no, people in many places (even America, I bet), don't understand vegetarianism at all. I, in my travels, have to tell people I am "allergic" to meat and I still am fed/offered meat all the time.
posted by k8t at 5:47 PM on April 28 [1 favorite has favorites]

Haven't gone to any countries in Africa, but my in my travels to a dozen other places, the notions of "vegan/vegetarian/pescitarian/etc. are so uncommon as to often create confusion. I've eaten in many homes, villages, road stalls, and more, and have explained in the native language "I do not eat meat" only to be served chicken or beef and other exotic animal parts.

Travel to other countries often means we are leaving behind the comfort and norms of our society/culture which in this case, offers the particular luxury of picking and choosing what we eat. Notions of vegetarianism are confusing and certainly foreign in many countries. I found refusing food prepared by a host for a guest more offensive than eating what was offered and consequently ate some really horrid stuff. It was all a part of the experience.

At best, the people you encounter might find your aversion to meat amusing or even novel, but certainly, part of traveling to another country entails a different way of being. I have always been baffled by people who travel to other places and expect that things will be just like at home. Where else, and under what other circumstance would I ever have eaten gelatinous cow skin?

Good luck, safe travels and happy eating!
posted by loquat at 11:17 PM on April 28