School children are fed breakfast and luch at school for free. Breakfast usually consists of a type of porridge, and lunch is usually a mix of papa and beans. I have attached a photo of my school lunchbox with the papa and beans. Just like in the U.S., school lunches here are not very tasty and don't look particularly appetizing. But for many rural children, the food they are given at school is their only meal of the day.
There is one standard meal that Basotho eat almost everyday: papa (grits), moroho (cabbage), and chicken. Meals are not typically eaten with utensils unless you are dining at a hotel or restaurant. Instead, Basotho eat with their hands. If a family cannot afford chicken, they will just eat papa and moroho. Papa is a starch that has a bland taste, and it is used to help scrape all food remnants from the plate. It looks a bit like mashed potatoes but has the consistency of play-doh. Papa is also called pap in other regions of Southern Africa. Moroho means "vegetables", but in Basotho culture, it only refers to one type of vegetable: cabbage. Unless there is a special occasion, this is the only vegetable that Basotho eat. The cabbage is finely chopped and then put into a pot with oil. Once finished, it looks and tastes a lot like collard greens. Chicken is deep fried in oil and mild spices. The strangest food that I've tried since moving here is chicken feet. I tried one foot, but I didn't particularly enjoy the texture of the toenails, so I ended up giving the rest of the feet to my cats, whom I'm happy to say enjoyed them a lot more than I did!
