Today we lost Dr. Fish. In order to evade our dinner tonight of To (pronounced: toe), Dr. Fish fled to Ouaga. He headed out for the bus this morning around 6am and as of around 7:30pm, when we last heard from him, he was still about 20km (12.4 miles) out. From there he'll be heading out on the rest of his journey throughout Africa.
In other news, tonight's dinner was quite the experience. To is ground millet (a grain I recall feeding to our pet birds as a child) in paste form. Upon this gelatinous mass, it is recommended that you apply a generous coating of mystery sauce. It is as very different taste and texture than we were used to. Some tried to cover up the flavor with salt and pepper, honey, and even jelly. The honey almost worked for me, but it is definitely a part of Africa that I will not miss.
Imagine a texture somewhere between jello and mashed potatoes that refuses to mash, but only cuts and jiggles. The taste of To is rather plain, but completely masked by the sauce. Apparently there are many different types of sauce, and the one we received was a rather strong Gumbo sauce made with Baobab leaves. It's actually a very common food around here and people that have grown up with it really enjoy it. I am willing to give them my extras.
I'll stay on the food topic, and briefly mention some of the other local dishes we've gotten. Aside from tonight's Fear Factor-esque challenge, all of the food has been great. We've had a variety of pasta and grain dishes that have been very good. Usually they are topped with an equally good sauce, ranging from peanut sauce to sauces containing chunks of goat. There have also been some rather tasty brochetts, which are basically just kabobs of seasoned meat - a wonderful manly meal.
Aside from the food, all of our work has been coming along very well. Since I've been working with the trikes, I can update specifics on that beyond "coming along very well."
For the past few days, we've been working on the first of the fleet of uniform frame trikes we will be making here. This will be an electric trike for Yempabou, a young guy maybe in his early 20s, who gets the most use out of his trike. The plan is to finish it up tomorrow afternoon, after the paint dries. Until it dries, we'll be working on some of our many other trikes. Originally the plan was to make one hand-powered and one electric trike, but it now looks like we'll be making as many as three electric trikes and one hand-powered trike. Hopefully we'll keep getting faster and faster, so that we can meet the high demand.
That is it for today. I'm sure many other things have happened, but, personally, I am still traumatized by the To. It's one of those experiences that you can remember for years.
-Alex
mobility team
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Every cross cultural experience needs a food story--and now you have yours!!
ReplyDeleteReading the blog has been incredible, it brings back so many memories. Thanks Alex for the Trike update...what did you guys do to work out the "thin tube" problem?
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work guys and know that I am praying and so excited for you all!
PS: Have you guys gotten to eat mango's or Passion Fruit?!?!?
I was pleased to see mention of the progress on the trikes in this blog posting. I appreciate and understand the siginificance of your personal experiences, but the overwhelmingly most important part of what you are doing is the progress and success of the projects and how they benefit the patients of the clinic.
ReplyDeleteLet me first say how much I've appreciated both the personal reactions and the updates about the progress your teams are making! What a blessing it's been to read.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate, too, that cross-cultural experiences often involve dealing with things that we wouldn't have to deal with at home, and honestly sharing your reactions to tonight's meal (for example) is a good and healthy thing; it's far better to speak the truth than to hide behind a mask of false open-mindedness.
Still, this post just struck the wrong note for me. I think that it's possible to honestly describe your reaction to a new experience while still maintaining a tone of respect toward your hosts -- the culture of which the dish is part as well as the individuals who prepared the meal for you.
I'm sorry to play the killjoy here, but I chose to write this comment in hopes that I'm not the only one who's thinking this. Again, the work you're doing is admirable, and I've found that the team's writing in this space has shown, in almost all cases, a really outstanding maturity when it comes to cross-cultural exchange. Thanks!
Andrew: We have not had the opportunity to try any passion fruit but we did arrive in the country just at the end of the mango season and had some excellent mangoes!
ReplyDeleteCharles and Matt: Thank you for your honesty and reminder to us. We will try to do a better job of providing more insight into our work and its influence on the community in future posts.
I have tried to edit out some of the harshest sections of this post, and Dr. Vader and I will remind the team of some guidelines for the future on what is appropriate. We are very appreciative of the meals we have been receiving both because they are often delicious, and also because it helps to take some of the workload off the team.
We also desire to be gracious guests in this community and culture and thank you for your honest challenge to remember that. As a team, we continue to request your prayers for understanding and humility as we continue to work with our partners here in Mahadaga.
-Jon