Toh is one of the staple foods here in Mali. It involves pounding either millet or corn (millet in most of Mali, but often corn in the Sikasso region) into powder, then adding water and cooking it until it forms a thick paste. Its then spooned into a communal bowl where it semi-solidifies. It is eaten with your right hand, and coupled with a few different kinds of sauces. If you’re lucky, you get a red, kind of spicy sauce. And if you’re unlucky, you get a green okra sauce, that has the same texture and consistency as snot (and the same taste if you ask some of my fellow volunteers).
Toh is incredibly easy to make, can easily be reheated (for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!), and inexpensive (because most people in Mali are subsistence farmers). But it’s also boring to eat, and not as nutritious as people need it to be.
One of the things I will be working on here, is education about food diversity and food groups. I’ll probably spend the next two years being malnourished, and yet I’m expected to teach others how to eat better.