Spice Rubbed Steak and Egg Avocado Toast

I can't believe I'm already halfway through my pediatric HIV elective month in Africa! (Follow on instagram for frequent updates!)

Botswana has the 2nd highest HIV prevalence in the world at 25%, which is a shame since it's quite a stable and peaceful African country. The government has mounted a huge campaign, and anti-retrovirals are free for patients, paid by the government, grants, or international aid. I'm considered an "intern" here, so I have a lot of autonomy here which I love - the best way to learn something is jumping in and doing it. I write orders and prescriptions, decide what labs and drugs they need, and make the plan (after checking with an attending of course).
While English is the official language and school is taught in English, there's still a language barrier with the younger and less educated patients. A lot of counseling is encouraging them to go back to school / stop failing school. For the teens, I always give the talk substance abuse, and more importantly, sexual protection. For a country with such a high HIV prevalence among youth, it's still hush hush, which makes finding acceptance even tougher.

And of course there's supportive care - psychology (for educational assessment, "disclosure" - when kids learn they have HIV and why they take HAART, depression), dietician for malnutrition (lots of patients), and social work (these are the saddest - kids will be doomed to treatment failure unless an adult takes responsibility, and it's rough seeing kids panned off from relative to relative without good care).
After clinic, I walk home back to my flat (thank goodness it's winter in the Southern hemisphere), which takes about 30 min. It's so dusty and dry that I'm covered with orange dust when I get home. One day, I happened to run into three cows wandering along the roadside - they had cowbells but no owner in sight and they just moseyed along. As I watched my dinner walk away, I nearly got run over; they drive on the right side of the road British style, which is just so bizarre to me, and out of habit I keep looking at the wrong direction when crossing the road.

While the variety of food is limited (literally all they eat is starch and meat), there's no lack of protein. Beef / streak is BIG in African cuisine, and meat is plentiful. And they have so many eggs - the cartons just sit out since they don't refrigerate them (NPR has a great article). While Botswana has to import a lot of its produce, avocados are super cheap.

So you can guess what I've been eating....yes steak, eggs, and avocado. Good for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
I was delighted that my flat has a small kitchen (with the most darling plates), so I'll be sharing some African food in upcoming posts - this rub is from North Africa, with its many exotic Arab spices (I never had cinnamon on a steak before, but it's delicious!) I've also never had this type of avocado, but it's creamier than the Hass variety I have back home, making it a great spread for toast. I also never eat brown eggs, so it was fun playing with them in the photos. Spice rub and steak adapted from Country Living.

I could ramble about life here forever, but I'll stop for now, so you can make this recipe!

North African Spice Rubbed Steak and Egg Avocado Toast

Ingredients
STEAK:
2-3 steak, cut into pieces *
olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon peri peri (African chili) spice (or paprika)
sea salt and pepper, to taste

EGG AVOCADO TOAST:
1 small ripe avocado
1/2 teaspoon peri peri (African chili) spice (or paprika)
pepper, to taste
2 eggs
2 slices bread