Hungry?

I've decided this could get very tedious if I just write a diary. Therefore, I'm going to let you into the world of my learning about Ghana.

Despite what you may think from my posting about food and the lack of certain things, I am not losing much weight. Unfortunately, the food here is designed to fill you, is extremely cheap in its natural and cooked form and is also very labour intensive. The staples include yams, beans and cassava. The local women pound these substances with a pole in a bowl for hours and hours to bind them and make them smooth. You can hear them in the evenings. They are then formed into balls and other forms before it is steamed, boiled or left to sweat. Some of it is not eaten the day it is made and some has long periods of drying before they start the preparation process. You can buy it all on the street and in the market ready prepared. They charge a pittance for it after all that sweat and the time devoted to it. Patricia and I just bought some Tumpanii or Belibeli (same thing) it looked like slices of liver but was made from beans. It came in a hot spicy tomato/chilli sauce. A bowl full cost the equivalent of 25p !! So......the next time you complain about peeling potatoes or waiting for pasta to cook, spare a thought for the women of rural Ghana who will still be pounding Fufu long after your dishwasher has finished its cycle. Here endeth the lesson according to ...............Sorry!

The St Patrick's Day Party was good. Folks traveled some distance to get here. On average an hour on a moto. The Pitou was good and we ate some excellent dips that tasted genuine even though we were creative with the ingredients. eg Hummus without chick peas or tahinni!!. The avocadoes here are enormous and great for guacamole.

On the subject of food, if anyone wishes to send anything in a powdered or dried form that does not require butter or fresh milk to reconstitute it, that would be lovely. We can do amazing things with dried mushrooms & fruits, herbs, spices and cake mixes esp.Chocolate!!  Brownie mix was sent to Laura last week with only a small hole chewed by mice in one corner in transit. They were gorgeous! The local flour suffers from mould or lots of "creatures" in it that need endless sifting out. I apologise if the last bit made anyone squeamish. I'm way past any of that.

Must go, we need to find the ripe dead mouse in the spare room before tea time!!