Carrying on with the theme from my last blog it is safe to say that one of the biggest changes for me in Africa was the available food.

Ask any of my friends and they will let you know I am a massive food lover. Eating a steak is probably one of my favourite past times. So, it was a harsh reality working out after my first week in Africa I would be living off tasteless rice, sloppy vegetables and a slab of hard, gristly meat most nights. On a couple of occasions I would ask our chef, Colin, what meat it was going to be that night, he either didn't know or said "chicken" - I know for a fact that what was put on m plate was no form of bird. Some nights Sarah, Fed and I would sneak to the kitchen after dinner and ask Colin for some bread and peanut butter - he did spoil us sometimes!

To be fair, I am being slightly dramatic as we had 'pizza night Tuesdays' where all the volunteers would have a family night at the pizza place in town and swap stories about school and the orphanage. You have no idea how much I looked forward to Tuesdays.

I can remember texting my dad and giving him a list of food to have in my house for the arrival home, and believe me when I say rice was not one of them. I tell you now girls, if you want to lose some weight get to Africa, I came home 11 pounds lighter and because of all the gardening a bit more muscular.

Whilst in Africa, I tried the local staple dish of Zimbabwe known as 'sadza', which takes the form of a large blob of mash and is made of cooked cornmeal. The Zimbabwean's ate this every day. It costs around 2p to make a plate full and although tasteless it is filled with carbs; it's what they needed. At the orphanage we even got the chance to make and prepare sadza for the children, they would mix this with beans and some sloppy vegetables, this was the meal provided every single day. On one occasion this cheap meal couldn't be provided and on that day the volunteers collaborated together to collect enough money so that the children got their meal for the day.

Dennis, one of the project leaders, told me that in their culture a fat woman was considered beautiful because it shows that her husband is caring for her. A skinny woman was seen as poor and mistreated. I told him he should take a trip to England, as there were lots of beautiful women there for him.

I'll tell you more about this in a future blog, but on our last weekend we decided to have a final, special family meal out as a goodbye at a restaurant called Boma, which is renowned for the excellent food and electric atmosphere. Here I was able to experiment with food like crocodile and warthog steak. Another volunteer, Fed even tried fried insects! Needless to say, I ate like a king that night and probably ate some of the most beautiful food I will ever eat.