ladies in the kitchen

me, Ada, Isaora, Mackenzie

I continue to blog because it's the first month being back from Cameroon and honestly... I miss it. I get into a nostalgic mood and then I stay up and blog about it. Memories are sinking in and the realization that I'm back in the States seems unreal (I guess you can call it reverse culture shock). If you've ever stayed in a different country for an extended period, or studied abroad, you know what I mean. C'est normal. This might be the reason for my recent bout of insomnia, but it's no biggie because my brain will soon revert back to 'America.' So...

In mid-December I tagged along with my friend Mackenzie (a fellow Fulbrighter) to visit her extended host family in Douala. It is an extremely hot coastal city and has one of the biggest ports in Cameroon. We stayed at Ada's house and during those few days there she was the most excellent host, cooking for us, making sure we met all of her friends and taking us out and about. It was certainly a fun, adventurous and crazy few days.

Before I went, people kept saying that it is so hot in Douala that people slept outside. Well it was true. The air was so thick with heat that after taking a shower, I was drenched right back in sweat again. You can't escape it... Man it was hot there! I compare the current heat wave in Chicago to the weather in Douala. haha.

Anyways, four ladies: me, Mackenzie, our friend Isaora and Ada were having some fun in the kitchen. We were watching Ada cook and she was explaining what she was doing while stirring a heavy pot of pasty flour. Her instructions were all in French (and I was appalled when I realized the deterioration of my French)! Coming from the Anglophone region, I had forgotten a lot and strained to understand. After she cooked, we all sat outside in her backyard under the shade of a giant tree and enjoyed our meal in the coolness of the shade. I will just upload a series of pictures.

The end result: A delicious-okra-filled-slippery-finger-lickin' meal.

the good earth

AgroFest December 2010, Bafut

While I was in Cameroon this past December, I went to an AgroFestival. It's an annual event that takes place across the country, essentially farmers show their best produce at large festivalsand prizes are given to the farmers with the biggest, freshest, most interesting produce. Prizes included money, buckets, hoes, and other farm equipment. Most farmers (who are mostly women) do their work ALL by hand. It's really amazing. One AgroFest was held in Bafut, about 40 minutes away from where I lived. Cocoyams are shown above.

This was the ginger aisle and it came in different varieties. This type looks very wormlike...

There were beautiful displays of corn too. Endless stalks of corn grow in the NW region. Wherever people have space, they will plant a patch of corn, even in front of a one-room red brick house right next to the road, there will be a patch of corn outside the door, planted in their mounds, as commonplace as grassy front yards in the US. It's no surprise that corn is a staple food here.

These are spices. I don't know the official names, but the one on the right (skewered on a stick) is called "achu spice." I mentioned what achu was on a previous blog, but it's a traditional NW dish, and these spices are roasted and then ground up with a stone to add flavor to achu. It's very aromatic.

Melons that remind me of starfruit...

The land in the Northwest Region is as beautiful as it is fertile. Everywhere I turn, especially during the rainy season, the fields are a bright rich green. People have a deeper connection to the soil. They depend on it, it is their life source. People really work the land; they use their hands, they bend their backs, they sweat in the hot sun, and then carry their crops and spades home. When have I ever worked like that for my food?

It feels almost unreal when a woman unearths a yam from the ground from her farm, hands it to me all caked in soil and says, "Here, take this home with you!" Haha, maybe it's because I'm from Chicago where farmland doesn't exist or because I was never an avid gardener but I felt such a pure connection to the soil in Cameroon. All this musing about farming/land reminded me of the book, The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. If I were subjected to grueling, back-breaking work and reliant on the rains and soil for my well-being, how would I fare?

look what the mouse did!

The pesky mouse, that Jacqueline and I "lovingly" nicknamed Mickey, ate my chocolate! what the..!? It got through the plastic wrapping and the foil, and probably sulked back to its hole with a stomach ache. Mouse ruined my candy! Oh well. I got over it. All just part of a normal day.

now these are the types of roads a 4x4 would love

university games

Forget cheerleaders. We've got 10 drummers, 30 dancers and one unstoppable Fans Club to cheer on the sports. Members of the Fans Club were at the University Games in Dschang to energize their athletes, catch the attention of the judges and also to put on a good show for the spectators. Every school that participated sent their own Club, and they were on the field much longer than any athlete. They spent hours everyday (during that week) on their feet, swaying to the rhythm, beating drums and performing quick, fast-footed cultural dances. They ran around, energized the crowd and then paraded around the entire campus like it was Mardi Gras.

2011 was the first year that the students represented the University of Bamenda and participated in the annual University Games in Dschang. I was filled with pride, ownership (I'm with these guys, this is my school) and a sense of je-ne-sais-quoi... that burning inside your stomach when you witness someone fighting so hard and waiting so long, and they finally get it. This was it. Our school became a university, and we finally had a team. We were all in good spirits, and completely fraught with anticipation... (or maybe, it really was just me, haha). Regardless, nothing like sports can bring people together like that. We even took home two bronze medals in judo. Bravo.

"Our fulfillment is not in our isolated human grandeur, but in our intimacy with the larger earth community, for this is also the larger dimension of our being..."

- Thomas Berry

rice and stew

My friend Veronique loves to cook for other people, lucky me! She was making a "stew" sauce that's eaten with rice, and it's basically a blend of chopped vegetables, tomato paste, minced tomatoes and green spices (basil, parsley, celery), garlic and hot peppers mashed into a thick paste. Also, we can't forget the Maggi cubes that flavor everything.

This is the grinding stone. Vero's cousin was helping to make the paste and a neighbor came to help make the other dishes. The countless people I've seen cooking here make the preparation seem effortless... though it might actually take several hours or half the morning. The toil and pace that goes into food is fascinating, and the slow food movement is catching on because people are reverting back to the old, slower-paced methods of cooking and eating.

Plantains, boiled or fried, are delicious. I've never eaten so many plantains in my life. They are a staple food in the Northwest Region. When they're boiled, they are very starchy and heavy, and fill up the stomach very quickly. It's a good thing I love carbs. The process involved peeling, slicing, smoothing out the outer layer, rinsing them in water and then boiling.

The end result..... rice, plantains and vegetable stew.

My friend with one of the biggest hearts ever, Vero.

There isn't a fancy name to the dish, just "rice and stew." This case was with plantains but on the streets, you can order a bowl of "rice and stew" for around 400 cfa (under a dollar) and a typical bowl would come with a piece of meat. The stew would be a thick red tomato sauce without other vegetables. / Thanks team! The meal was delicious and dude, I miss the food.

A Cake Story

(This post is dedicated to my grandma, who just celebrated her 83^rd birthday.)

So, we bought this cake for my grandma’s birthday dinner. It was a lovely, colorful, sprinkle-y ice cream cake. It was delicious, but I won’t say where it’s from and you’ll see why. My older cousins are at that point where they’re all having kids, so all the toddlers LOVED the tiny fake plastic balloons that bedecked the heavily frosted surface. My grandma was beaming from being surrounded by so many great grandkids (which is suk in Cantonese).

It was very lucky that all the babies and my paw paw cannot read English because “grandma” was misspelled on the cake. Instead, it said “Gradma.” Really?? In my mind, people could have rioted during the “Happy Birthday” song. It was hilarious. But actually, no one really noticed... the fancy cake decorations/candles stole the show.

According to my mother, anything could have been written on the cake, in French, and it wouldn’t have really mattered. But, apparently the one downfall was the fact that the writing was done in blue which is associated with sadness, death and mourning instead of lucky, festive red. Otherwise, it was pretty great, yea?

As her gift, I got my paw paw a mural of three villagers hand-painted on fabric from Cameroon that I bought from the Extreme North Region, in Maroua.

Oh family and gigantic dinner gatherings… how I’ve missed you. People have asked me, "Are you going back to Africa soon?" To be honest I have no idea, I would love to go visit another country in the near future but for now I'm relishing in the fact that I'm home. A year can feel really long without the birthdays, the family traditions, the holiday celebrations. Anyways, I've been back for two weeks now. I wouldn't want to miss moments like these for anything. To a birthdays that make everyone smile, and many more.

Happy Birthday g-r-a-n-d-m-a!

saying goodbye is never easy

Kribi beaches

There's a place called Kribi, in the South region of Cameroon where "all your dreams come true." Literally. Just ask Meera and Kiran, my fellow ETA and her younger sister and they'll vouch for me.

There were white-sand beaches, perfect waves, fresh shrimp to eat caught from Lobe Falls, a waterfall that drops directly into the ocean, which was a 10-minute walk from our hotel.

It was the kind of vacation where one lies on the beach all day with a dictionary-sized beach read, sans probleme. It was not crowded at all because while it was a touristy area, there were minimal tourists during the off season. There area was isolated and a good distance from the center of town. There was plenty of sun and 'twas the perfect way to wrap up our academic year, to celebrate our success (we survived!) and in a way, to commemorate our final region visited in Cameroon (we visited all ten!).

There's a bustling fish market in town where you can choose your own fish for grilling, and there were plenty of 'fish mommies' waving you come sit at an empty table in their area. We stuffed ourselves with grilled fish and gambas (gigantic, fresh prawns) complete with red piment, green sauce, mayonnaise, baton de manioc, plantain chips, frites and 'fruit de pain' chips. The market, and eating/grilling area are side-by-side on a dock overlooking the water. [Insert a very satisfied sigh here.]

I'm back!!!

hey-o! I'm back in Chicago. Home sweet, sweet home.

Where did all the posts go from April until now? They're yet to be written. (Kind of like a reverse, Benjamin Button sort of thing.)

I will keep on updating, if not more now because I am back. There is more steady internet and plus it will be a way for me to reflect and remember that I experienced for the past 9 months. Wow. Let me just say it once more: I made it back safely!

But right now, I feel like home has never been sweeter. It's not like I haven't enjoyed my time in Cameroon, but it was the first time I've been away overseas for so long. I appreciated the wave of familiarity when I saw the Chicago skyline. I basked in luxurious little comforts like A/C that was too cold, sticking leftovers in the fridge and of course seeing family & friends.... the latter making my home-coming so awesome. Of course, other things helped like taking a piping hot shower, opening my laptop to wi-fi, sleeping in my own bed, fruit smoothies, and driving on a 4-lane paved road. Home, how I've missed you!

My family was glad I was back, well, my dad sure was since he kinda blew the cover of a 'surprise' welcome back party on Sunday.

Coming back from the airport:

Dad: What about the party?

Mom: SSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

hahaha. At least I knew enough to try and look nice by wearing my African-print dress that I got made in Yaounde. Thanks!

This weekend I was one of the happiest girls alive. And when my stomach could hold some substantial food again...

...pho.