Breakfast on the 2 Dollar Day
This morning we started 2 Dollar Day with a Breakfast that had foods common to the poor in our area – bread, banana and tea. Our kids are really grappling with this whole concept – which we love watching. It is impacting us in a deep way, too.
We started by each getting ¾ of a piece of bread. This bread is sold locally for 1.20 ETB each (7.2 cents). Up until a year ago these pieces of bread used to be much larger and cost only 1 ETB (6 cents), but inflation has taken its toll on white bread, so the loaves have gotten smaller and cost more. Less to go around for those who rely on this as a staple.
We couldn’t afford peanut butter, jam or butter for our bread, so it was pretty dry, airy and without much taste. It helps me better understand why children like to dip their bread in their tea…it makes it go down a bit smoother.
We then added ½ of a banana for each of us. Bananas now cost 10 ETB per kilo (60 cents). We could afford 3 bananas for 4 ETB (24 cents). Bananas used to be 5 ETB or less per kilo (30 cents), but inflation has definitely taken a toll on this fruit that is cheap by local standards…a 100% increase in cost over less than a year. Last year at this time all 6 of us could have had a whole banana…not anymore.
We finished off our breakfast with tea. A box of loose tea is 5 ETB per box (30 cents). We used about 1/6 of a box, so we spent a bit less than 1 ETB, so we’ll say 5 cents worth. By the time we got around to the 6th cup from that much tea it was getting pretty weak.
Breakfast cost us 58 cents. But, its only 9 am and I’m already noticing that I’m hungry. At least I have lunch to look forward to, Shiro Wot and Injera…but I’m expecting there’s not going to be much to go around.
What are you eating for Breakfast?
The five of us had two slices of bread each (the cheapest bread from Wal-Mart at 5 cents per slice) with water to drink. We’ll have the same for lunch.