Baeta, Day Three

Today's lunch was reheated light soup with more smoked fish added, along with some gari. Gari is awesome, it's this slightly fermented cassava meal that has a taste reminiscent of sourdough bread. It swells up to about double its size when water and soup are added, is mostly starch and fiber, but has some protein in it according to the composition index I got form the Food Research Institute. Surprise surprise, it's also a good source of calcium.

Barbara came to see us today at the house to properly finish our series of interviews with her. She has some really interesting stories of the meals she's had to serve, of how she got her school started, of how she tried to make it a practice not to borrow money from anybody (she only borrowed twice in her life, and paid the debt off promptly). She told one story of how she served Jimmy Carter breakfast when he was visiting, and he took a liking to the Tom Brown porridge because it was served with groundnuts, groundnut being the local term for peanuts.

I'm having Maosi make me a dress from the fabric at the top of the stack in the picture to the left. She says it'll be ready tomorrow, I'm very excited. I'll be sure to put up a picture or two!

Things to look out for later in the week: Ghana plays USA on Saturday, any and all of you reading should watch for sure.

Two Nights of Fufu

Both last night and tonight Fran and I made soup and fufu. Lastnight, Sunday, we used fufu flour and stirred it over the stove until it reached the right consistency, but today, Monday, Kay and Naomi taught me how to properly pound fufu from plantains and cassava. Fran caught a short video of me pounding fufu.

Last night, I also learned to pound palm nuts in order to make palm nut soup. After the palm fruits (those red things we bought at the market) were

boiled for 45-60 minutes, they were mashed in the taller mortar using the hard stick. Then they were soaked in hot water, strained several times, and that cream was what was used forthe palm nut stew.

Today, Maosi (who owns the sewing kiosk outside) took me to Makola Market down in Accra. It was one of the coolest things I've seen since I've arrived in Ghana. We caught one of the tro tro, the large vans that act as busses and have really cheap fare to ride. It took us through some really rough dirt roads rather than chance getting caught on Spintex Road or pay the toll on the Motorway, but that alone was a really cool experience, driving through so much of the area between Tema and Accra rather than right past it on the fast roads. I bought several yards of really nice wax prints, and I'm hoping to have Maosi make me a dress before I leave.