Childhood experience shaped my relationship with food

I am from Ogun state and even though Ogun state people love Garri (cassava flakes) I don't fancy Garri for anything. Garri happens to be a lifesaver for most people because when someone is broke Garri is the fastest and cheapest food people can afford. But still, I don't like it at all.

I grew up with a single mother and that was not easy at all, it is only those who have been there that can understand how hard it is to grow up with a single parent, and to top it all we are not rich.

There is a difference between I grow up with a rich single parent than I grow up with a single parent who is not rich but then I love my mom despite being poor she tried her best to put food on our table daily even if not three square meals but at least we don't starve.

Eba was our best food then because after paying bills all that would be left her with wouldn't be much so she would buy plenty of Garri at home so that no matter what we would have something to put into our mouths.

I never liked the Garri but what else can I do? Which choice do I have? I was just a child so I would drink as instructed by my mom.

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One day, my mom came home with her salary and she asked what we would like to eat so that we wouldn't drink Garri as usual, I told her I wanted spaghetti with fish, and my siblings wanted spaghetti too so we all agreed to cook spaghetti.

My mom stood up to get the spaghetti but on her way, she bumped into the landlady, I could hear the way she was shouting at my mom to pay her rent.

The thing is that my mom owed two years house rent but she always paid it installment because she couldn't afford to pay everything at once so that makes the landlady come to our door every month end to make noise.

My mom couldn't buy the spaghetti as we planned, because she had to pay the landlady so that she could stop shouting at her in front of other neighbors.

But my mom came back with Garri again, looking at Garri my eyes were full of tears that were ready to fall but I couldn't cry because it wasn't my mom's fault for buying Garri for us.

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I don't know why I developed so much hatred for Garri maybe because it was the food I grew up with.

If you are from Ogun state you can testify to how much Ogun state people love Garri and Eba so much, but still, I don't like anything that has to do with Garri.

When I became an adult I preferred eating noodles when I was in the university to buy Garri, and now that I am a mother I don't buy Garri at home because I don't even want my kids to like it.

Probably because throughout my childhood I couldn't do a day without drinking Garri or eating Eba even though I don't enjoy it.

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