staying raw-vegan in africa

[Rose_VanViegen]

Hi there
I've been vegan for about 4 years now and went raw-vegan about 8 months ago. I'm moving to sierra leone in 6 months to volunteer before I head off to university. Right now the plan is that I'll be staying there for 2 years. I'm living in a village with no electricity or running water (there is a well about a 20 min. walk away). Any ideas about how to stay raw? I have been to africa before and managed to keep a vegan diet, but raw will be much more difficult especially because I am nervous to eat uncooked fruit/vegetables that have been washed in that water. I also won't have too much time to prepare meals during the day.
Any thoughts?

[Ilse W.]

Eat the fruits and vegetables. Boil the water first and let it cool, then wash your produce.

[rawstrength]

Bring several bottles of wormwood extract, black walnut hull extract and cloves. You can ingest these three herbs to kill off almost all parasites. And I second what EmmaT said about the water.
How noble of you to volunteer! I wish you all the best of luck. And enjoy the avocados, if you are in an area of Africa where they grow wild.

[Random]

While boiling the water prior to washing is a good tip, I think that I'd seriously consider being a bit more lenient with cooked food if I were going back to Africa. There will be cultural issues: you're already an outsider. You look different. You speak differently. It might be harder for you to be accepted by the local community if you don't partake in any community meals. I'm not saying to eat cooked all of the time, but you might want to be a bit more lenient with your diet, at least when you're invited in to someone's home.

And before I get blasted for telling someone to "fit in", this is a very different situation than Thanksgiving dinner with your family IMO. If you're volunteering, it's because you have a skill set that will help the local community. If the local community feels that you're not interested in sharing their lives - and by extension, at least some of their food - then you might not be able to do the work that you're going there to do.

Anyway, these are just my (probably very unpopular) thoughts.

[Raine]

Sierra Leone? I admit to being curious about what type of volunteer work and the security assigned to you.

On some of our more extreme shooting assignments we have ex-Israeli and/or Interpol-trained as our security details. From them I have learned about a water purifier that is very effective, portable and long lasting. It was designed exclusively for the military; however, is now making its way to the consumer market in slow numbers. http://www.nitro-pak.com/product_info.php?cPath=40_184&products_id=1082

There's another one that's recently been made available to consumers that uses only a filter and is good for something like 50,000 uses. I'll see if I can find that one and post you the info.

You have good reason for water concern - on one of our Tanzanian shoots a whole group of villagers didn't show up to where they were supposed to be for 3 days. Upon checking on them, they whole village had dysentery because they had built a new well near an old latrine.

.

[iamacranberry]

Wash your fruit and veg with castile soap. I imagine you could pick a lot of your fruits fresh from the tree down there.

[spicyfull]

You have My Prayers.........

[RawYorkCity]

I wish you the best experience possible, and I'd like to commend you for such a noble deed! I remember when I was in Europe I purchased pitted dates that were shipped from Africa, so maybe the area you will be staying grows fresh dates, which are perfect for filling up on!

[Rose_VanViegen]

thanks for all the ideas! I will hopefully be able to stay at least 50% raw

[Ilse W.]

I read that over 50% of Sierra Leone's economy is subsistence agriculture, which means you should find plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Don't forget that most small farmers in the world do not use pesticides, so their produce should be very safe to eat. I wish you the best for this adventure.