Saturday, July 21, 2012

Day of Delicious Food


Hello Everyone!

Happy Weekend! As tends to be the case, it’s been a busy Saturday!

In the morning Heidi and I got Zemis to class. My motorcycle helmet was recently replaced with a newer one, and since we have been biking, this was the first time I got to try it out! It is very nice. However, I miss the Boston stickers (Patriots, Red Sox, and Celtics) that a previous volunteer put on my old helmet. It seemed pretty lucky to me. Hopefully I won’t need luck with my newer less beat up helmet!

Once we all met up for class, we had some time to review and chat before each of our language interviews. There were several new Beninese outfits to admire.

I felt like my interview went well. It was definitely better than my initial language interview in Cotonou, the day before we met our host families. I felt like I conveyed my thoughts more clearly, and I was seldom scrambling for the word I wanted. However, I am worried that I didn’t correctly use enough different tenses to move up a level. We will see how it goes!

After the interview we went in shifts to the Porto Novo Palace Museum. We got a tour of all the different rooms, and their traditional purposes. It was interesting to hear about different traditions for Porto Novo Kings, and I was impressed by the well recorded lineage in a culture that, through most of its history didn’t have a written language. However, the tour didn’t really get to go into detail about the art or other scenery that would have been in the Palace, and we didn’t have a chance to get into Benin’s more recent history, which I would like to learn more about. Today, there are still regional kings in Benin, who sere a social role while the elected government makes and enforces rules and regulations (just like Great Britain!).

When everyone finished with the tours we commenced with what I thought would be the most stressful part of the day. We had been told a few days ago that we would be divided into groups of 7-10 and would go tone trainees house to make some Beninese cuisine. There was a lot of ambiguity around who was buying the ingredients, and how we were going to learn to make this food. It turned out that different host families volunteered, and I wound up going to the trainee David’s house. His family was given some money by the peace corps and bought the ingredients needed for the food we wanted to make. The family also guided us through cooking the cuisine. We made talli talli, which is sort of a fried banana deliciousness, benignets, rice with eggplant and a spicy peanut sauce, and sliced pineapple. It was so good and I ate so much! Even though I had my doubts going into the activity it turned out to work out perfectly. I learned how to make some Beninese cuisine, ate a meal that I helped chose and thought was delicious, and got to share the activity with my Peace Corps friends. Who could ask for anything more?

Upon arriving at the home of my host family, I chatted and caught up a bit. My mama was mercifully understanding when I only took a half portion of dinner (half portion for me, which is more like a quarter portion for the rest of the family!). We had beef for the first time since I left the states and it was delicious. I couldn’t help but wonder why all the delicious food was in my life on the same day!

After dinner the power went out. This happens somewhat frequently in Benin. I picked that up the first time it happened and no one commented or reacted. Usually it comes back on in 10 minutes to half an hour. This time it’s been a little longer, maybe an hour now. We chatted by candlelight for a while, and I talked about when the power went out for a day at my house in the United States over Christmas break.

Who knows what tomorrow will hold. For today, I’m just thankful for great food!
Thanks for reading,
Love,
Lauren

No comments:

Post a Comment