Living in Africa with an Anaphylaxis Allergy

In 2011, my family left our home country to live in Rwanda, Africa for six months. At the time, our oldest daughter had just turned 5 and our middle had just turned 2. We headed half way around the world to fill in for the executive director of a home for former street boys. Our health journey leading up to us leaving was exhausting in many ways. Six months before we left, our middle daughter had an anaphylaxis reaction to peanuts while we were on vacation. She also had severe, though not life threatening, dairy and soy allergies. Due to these two allergies she was on prescription formula. Before we left, we had long conversations with her pediatrician and her gastroenterologist. They were both amazing and supportive of our upcoming trip and encouraged us to not let the food allergies keep us from going. With the stamp of approval from her doctors, along with many other pieces coming together, we prepared to head overseas.

baggage

As you can see, we took a whole lot of baggage! Flying internationally allows each person to have 2 suitcases up to 50 lbs and 2 carry-ons. We took full advantage and took all 16 bags, a stroller, and 2 car seats. It was quite a spectacle at the airport. We arrived three hours before our flight took off so that we had plenty of time to make it to the ticket counter, through security, and onto the plane. The woman that checked us in was amazingly helpful and patient with us. One item that we purchased for this trip and still use everytime we travel is a hand held baggage scale. It works like a charm and is very small, I highly recommend getting one if you don’t have one. I made sure that we had enough, and extra, food to get us all the way to Rwanda with delays if they happened. We called the airlines ahead of time to ask what they would be serving on the plane. There wasn’t a whole lot that we could eat, but that is pretty common for us. I had Dr’s notes for the epi pen, Benadryl, and medically necessary food in case anyone gave us a hard time. If I remember correctly we had at least one whole carry on full of food with ice packs. No one gave us a hard time, it just took us a very long time to get through security lines. We were prepared for that so it was ok.

While my middle daughter had severe food allergies, the rest of us also had food intolerances. At that point, our family couldn’t have nuts, gluten, dairy, soy, egg yolk, tomato, and garlic. We had a friend in country that was able to help us decide what we needed to pack for our time in Rwanda. Two of our suitcases were full of food and kitchen items. The first one of these suitcases was full of 40 cans of prescription formula for my daughter. We couldn’t leave the country without the formula since my daughter couldn’t drink any milk alternatives and she also failed to thrive without the calories she got from the formula. Our carry ons also held several cans just in case our bags didn’t show up. The second suitcase full of food had xanthan gum, one pot, one pan, and as many boxed mixes that we could stuff in. At that time, we used Chebe pizza mix, Bisquick GF (gluten free) pancake and waffle mix so we packed many of those, and a few other random mixes as well. We knew that we could easily buy GF flour so we didn’t need to bring flour with us. It was amazing to have GF flours so easily accessible and also launched me into baking full time.

Chebe pizza

Our friend that was in country was able to get us a loaf of GF bread upon our arrival from a sweet friend of hers. Along with the loaf of bread was the recipe as well. All of the corner markets carried GF flours for very little money. I could get brown rice flour, white rice flour, tapioca starch, millet flour, and I think teff as well. Before we went to Rwanda, I had used many boxed food items for our allergies, but hadn’t done very much baking with my own mixes. This trip changed all of that in a heart beat. I was able to get many recipes from other Americans that we had become friends with, but I had to figure out how to convert them to fit our dietary needs. Our internet connection there was far slower than dial up, if it even worked at all. I didn’t have pinterest or any other sites that I could get recipes from. So this began my crash course in allergy friendly baking. I spent hours upon hours in the kitchen there with my two daughters to make enough food to sustain us. Meat in Rwanda is VERY expensive so it was only for special occasions. Other than that, we ate a ton of rice, eggs, salad, avocado, fruit, and vegetables. While we lived there I managed to make bread every other day since we only had a small refrigerator and the heat made the bread mold quickly.

Kitchen
Breakfast

We worked at a home for former street boys and all of us would spend a full day together there each week. From the first time we met the staff and boys, we were VERY clear with them about our daughters severe food allergies. We made a rule that no one was allowed to feed her. While people in Rwanda don’t have food allergies, the staff and boys were amazingly understanding. They all took her allergies very seriously which we were so thankful for. English is the national language in Rwanda, but hasn’t always been. Thankfully all of the staff at the home spoke fluent English and we also had an interpreter with us most of the time so we could communicate effectively.

boys

There is a very close knit group of ex-pats in Rwanda. We made sure that we connected with them right when we got to Rwanda. This made our transition much easier to find safe restaurants, large grocery stores, learn how to navigate the market we lived next to, and also gave us friends right away. When we lived in Rwanda we ate at home, or home made food, about 98% of the time. This was the easiest way for us to ensure our daughters safety. There were a handful of restaurants that we frequented, there is a list of them below. We lived in the capital city of Kigali, so there were many options for us to choose from. All of these restaurants had staff that spoke fluent English, were originally from an English speaking country, and/or were high end that catered to English speaking people. These three criteria were important for us to stick to so we knew our daughter would get safe food. Many of these restaurants also let us bring a few of our own food items. We made sure to call ahead to ask if this was ok and also to talk to them about our daughters food allergies ahead of time. Thankfully we made it through six months living in Rwanda without needing to use an epi pen!!

Our Safe Restaurants
Mr. Chips- this is a small burger shack that is owned by a Canadian man. It is frequented my many English speaking people and all of the staff speak English

Sakae Japanese Restaurant- This was a brand new restaurant when we lived there. They serve amazing asian food of all sorts and kinds. All of the staff speak English. We called ahead of time to talk about our food allergies. They were fantastic! We went for early dinners so the staff wasn’t rushed. They allowed us to bring our own GF soy sauce for those of us that could have it. All of our food was checked closely by the staff to ensure that it was safe for my daughter to eat.

Zen Oriental Cuisine- We had the same experience here as we did at Sakae. They were a bit on the busier side, but still great!

Aromas Coffee- This coffee shop was a few blocks away from our house so we went there several times. We would get smoothies and nothing else. I wasn’t comfortable eating food there, but the drinks were great.

The country of Rwanda is very small in terms of land mass. It is easy to go on day trips to other parts of the country. This was very helpful for us to see other parts of the country without having to find safe food in small villages. While there, we went on a safari trip. We used Bizi Danny’s guided tour and they did a great job. They picked us up very early in the morning because the animals are most active then. I packed all of our food for the day so we didn’t have to stop at any restaurants along the way. Akagera National Park is on the east side of the country that borders Tanzania. The park is split between both countries so the animals are free to roam between them. We had the opportunity to see zebras, hippos, topee, gazelles, water buffalo, baboons, giraffes, and many species of birds. The day we were there the elephants and lion were in a different part of the park. We were told that the lion typically stays on the Tanzania side of the park. This is one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. It felt surreal the whole time we were there. I would highly recommend doing a safari trip.

Zebra
Topee
Hippo
Giraffe

At the very end of our trip we headed west to Nyungwe rain forest. The scenery in the rain forest is stunning to say the least. We found a little hotel and restaurant to stay in just outside of the forest. This hotel wasn’t fancy in the least, but it worked for us. We had fun guests outside our room every morning. Our girls loved having baboons so close. The drive through the rain forest is slow but beautiful so we just learned to enjoy the scenery as we made our way through. Towards the west side of the forest there is a ranger type station. This is where you can find trail maps and hire a guide if you want. Many people go to Nyungwe to see orangutans, but they don’t allow kids to go on those hikes. We hired a guide to take us to see colobus monkeys. It was a pretty steep mile hike down before we found the monkeys, but worth every step. There were probably 1oo monkeys playing with each other, screaming, and flying from one tree to the next. If you ever go on this hike, or any other hike in a rain forest, it’s a good idea to hike in tall rain boots or gators. Take it from me, biting ants in the pants are no fun! :/ After our hike we drove through the rest of the forest to see what was there. There are miles of tea plantations in a gorgeous setting. In the middle of one tea plantation is an amazing hotel. The next time we go we will be saving our pennies to stay here. Our time in the rain forest was magical.

Baboon
Tea Field

All in all, our trip to Rwanda was a great success with food allergies! It took a lot of planning ahead and time in the kitchen while there, but it was all worth it. My current baking is a direct result of our time in Rwanda, so I am abundantly thankful for that. It pushed me far beyond my limits in many ways which helped me to grow in ways that I wasn’t expecting. If you are contemplating a trip with severe food allergies, it can be done, if your medical team approves it. I am so thankful that we had a medical team that cheered us on and encouraged us to make this trip. They prepared us and helped us in many ways to make this a safe trip. I hope you enjoyed learning about our overseas journey and feel encouraged that it is possible to travel with severe food allergies!

*all photos are mine