“Ruthie Bobb”( We called her that when she was iddy-biddy) Shadd and John were worried about me only having 2 P-Nut M&Ms left so they brought me some Amarula Chocolates from South Africa. They are made from the fruit of the Marula tree and are the ones you “hear” about the monkeys and elephants getting drunk eating. So hey- guess my last days here will be GREAT!!!! Yee! Haw! Thanks Shadds! Although, I’m not sure if she was calling me a monkey or an elephant! – or both!! ;)).
Inventory on food and meat count done and it
was good. Budget done and I don’t have to deal with the MPH money again. Have I
told you I don’t like math!!?? However, I have been dead on for the last 15
weeks and three times I was right and Helene had to figure it out! She may have
just done that to make me feel good!! It worked!
Mango sauce
is being made in the kitchen. Sloppy Joes for supper, fresh fruit, mango sauce,
French Fries and chocolate cake! Have
some carbs! Congolese chow for lunch. Sorry that we won’t be here for lunch on Thursday
for Chicken Muamba one more time! It
is SOOO good. (Mwambe
is a way of cooking chicken with peanut sauce and palm oil.) But we will be here for it on our
return trip Thursday before we leave Congo-Ken will be thrilled.
We have been
eating Congolese menus daily at our lunches here at MPH. Congolese meals are usually made up of bedia/fufu
along with a green vegetable and meat in the form of a stew. The bedia is a
paste or mash made of cassava/manioc and/or corn flour. It is eaten family
style- usually from a few bowls holding the main dishes . The bedia is rolled
into golf ball-sized balls and dipped into the stew. Plantains, sweet potatoes,
beans and rice can also be served. There is always a green vegetable such as
cassava leaves, tshitekutaku/ matamba (a spinach-like plant) or okra. Just add
more dips and pinches of stuff to your bedia. (Only the right hand is used in
eating and dipping into the bowls- because it is an insult to conduct any transaction
with the left hand, which is used only for bathroom purposes.). Here at MPH we
use silverware not our hands.
The mighty Congo and other huge rivers make
fish readily available out here. We have eaten El Capitan at several
restaurants while here in Kinshasa and it was very good!! They say the salt
water ones are much better than the fresh water ones. Whatever I ate was good. Their
fish are baked, boiled , fried, smoked or salted(and the last two STINK!). One Congolese
restaurant in downtown Kinshasa serves the still popular goat- it was hanging
outside by the grill- minus his head! Edible insects such as grasshoppers,
flying ants and caterpillars are also added to the stews or meals -no they
don’t taste like chicken- they tend to have a nutty flavor. Have not eaten them
this trip but those taste memories are still there from when we ate out in the
back yard in the sentry’s hut or in Ntolo’s village. In the traditional way of
eating that was done when we were here 53 years ago, the women of the villages
still serve the men first and they and the children get to eat what is left
when the men are finished. Even the bedia served here at MPH is prepared by the
wife of one of the cooks. “Women’s work” he explained.
Our packing continues- a sort of a
reverse of coming out here with one less suitcase than when we came out. We
used that one to fill up with for stuff for Marcia. We will finalize that
tonight and weigh what we are taking up country- since we check in bags Wednesday
for our Thursday flight. CAA will wrap
each suitcase in shrink sort of wrap tape so we’ll believe they are secure. Ok...
;)
News
Bulletin! Electrical problems on Marcia’s station -issue with the hydro
plant. So it is station generator in the daytime-for the hospital- and then off.
So unless it is fixed we really will be living like in the old days in Congo!!
Marcia has candles and flashlights, a small Congolese charcoal stove to boil
the reddish water to be able to drink it (It has stained her water bottle) and
to cook on. Cool! An “inside” camping trip in Congo. It’ll be like in Girl
Scouts at CS when Marcia was my Junior Scout Leader- only those were outside-
usually at the Dam! ;)) Wow!!
Well, Bye
from Kinshasa. If there are Electrical issues in Kananga- I won’t have internet
access. Sooo. Off to the Groceries!!
Love Ya! Me
No comments:
Post a Comment