A Clash of Cultures In Suffolk
Nothing serious or untimely, but I found this charming tale in the Daily Telegraph about the Rwandan athletes settling into their base in Bury St. Edmunds. Here’s the opening couple of paragraphs.
When Robert Kajuga was served a plate of food shortly after he arrived in Bury St Edmunds earlier this month, there was one item in particular upon it that he did not immediately recognise. It was certainly not anything he had encountered in his home country of Rwanda.
Thus it was that Kajuga, a 27 year-old distance runner who will compete in the Olympic 10,000 metres final on Aug 4, became acquainted with the concept of mashed potato.
“The potatoes,” he says in broken English. “They change the potatoes into, like porridge. Puréed. In our country, we just cook potatoes. We don’t do that.”
Let’s hope that the links forged result in something lasting and positive. Perhaps, we should sent someone like Delia Smith to Rwanda to teach them how to make mashed potato. Especially, if their athletes do better than they’d expected to on the strange foreign food.
The Anonymous Widower 
This athlete might himself start a craze for it, especially if he takes a potato masher back with him
Comment by liz | July 20, 2012 |