“there are three types of bananas…”

Le 16 mars     There are a few things that Rwanda has an abundance of: tea, hills, and bananas just to name a few. If you take one step out of the airport, you’re bound to see “bananiers” (banana trees). Everywhere you look, hills, banana trees, and a place where you can buy tea.

During the hike up the nearby mountain with my class in December, the students gave me an education. They showed me around their neighborhood and told me everything that there is to know about the people, the animals, and the plants.

“Do you know what this is?” said Patience, pointing to a tall, leaning tree with broad green leaves and a bunch of yellow bananas.

“Yeah, it’s a banana tree.”

“Yes. This tree grows the bananas we eat as fruit. There are three types of bananas: bananas to eat, bananas to cook, and bananas for beer.”

It’s true – life here in Rwanda wouldn’t be able to function without bananas. There are the “puny bananas” as my predecessor Jacqui called them, which is quite accurate – they’re TINY. They grow not more than four inches long and therefore it makes two a serving. (Quite often, too, there will be a hand of bananas with “gumelles,” (twins) – two bananas that are Siamese twins.) These bananas are for eating as fruit, and I will truly miss them when I go back home and find only pretty-tasty-normal-size-bananas.

The bananas for cooking can be made in a series of ways – you can fry them or grill them and eat them as you would French fries, or you can make them in an array of casseroles which I’m becoming quite fond of. Much tastier and far more exotic than potatoes, bananas can be cooked many ways but I prefer them with peas. Mmm.

Then there’s the type of bananas that are used to make beer. Banana beer, in fact.