Rebecca's day

Rebecca considers herself blessed to have an indoor kitchen.  A kitchen with a sink, a stove and a refrigerator.  She spends much of her day there, and she works magic.

We have three meals each day.  Most days breakfast is simple, a piece of bread per person from the store nearby, and a cup of tea.  Not a lot to it, and it’s usually Jonas and Rebecca or someone else (even I’ve done it), but Rebecca is also usually in there getting something for the kids as well as getting started on lunch, before she has to go to work, or town, or whatever.  Lunch and dinner are usually basic as well, typically a starch and a ‘sauce’, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy.  Her sauces are all made from scratch and include many ingredients; tomatoes, carrots, okra, greens, ginger, onions, garlic, to name a few, and sometimes a few pieces of meat, or fish.  The meat and fish are cooked separately, and require much preparation of their own.  The starch usually consists of rice, sweet potatoes (not like ours, but large and peeled and cut into chunks), spaghetti, plantains, or cous-cous.  Cous-cous is a local staple and can be made a variety of ways, but involves a lot of mixing, cooking, stirring, and shaping.  She will usually make enough ‘sauce’ for lunch and dinner, but it has to be reheated, and she will usually make another starch, or more of what was left from lunch.  She often makes a salad as well, but she insists on making them pretty with grated carrots and cucumbers, sliced tomatoes and onions, and if we’re fortunate avocado or boiled eggs.

Anything that needs to be ground or crushed is done on a flat piece of granite (not cut or polished, naturally broken that way) with another roundish piece of granite.  With the exception of spaghetti, a few packets of tomato paste, and something resembling bullion cubes, nothing comes in packages.  It all must be prepared by hand.  So on market day, when we buy produce, it first must be washed, then picked over, leaves and stems separated, and whatever else.  Most will be further prepped prior to cooking.  Hours will be spent picking over rice and beans to get out the bad ones, sometimes on the day of cooking, or when there’s some spare time.

(As I type this, she’s just got home from work, changed her clothes, and is in the kitchen getting something for her kids.  I think she might take a nap, though.  Lazy.)

A lot of the prep is done while sitting on a bucket with trays or tubs spread around on the floor.  She does have a blender which she will occasionally use to liquefy the vegetables she’s chopped for certain of her recipes.  (She doesn’t use a cook book or recipe cards, everything is in her head.)  The water is all from buckets, because there is no running water during meal prep or cleanup. 

The temperature in the kitchen is always much higher than the rest of the house or outside, and is nearly unbearable for Beth and I.  Even Rebecca complains, and says that on the worst days it’s unbearable for her as well. 

Except those that she does while preparing meals, Rebecca doesn’t do dishes.  It’s one of the work duties assigned to students.  (It’s one of ours…)  Beth and I have helped quite a bit with meals since we’ve been here, but as the heat as affected Beth, it’s happening less. 

Assuming the power stays on, and there is water, and propane, and the refrigerator works (constant battle…), pretty easy life.  This week we’ve run out of propane, and there is none available at any of the stations locally, so it’s back to the outdoor ‘kitchen’ to cook with wood.

In addition to her time spent in the kitchen, there is her children, her job, grading schoolwork, shopping, participating in some our activities, amongst other things. A liberated Cameroonian woman.

crusher/rolling pin

water supply

the backup...