Liberian Cuisine, Part 2

Weather: High humidity with evening thundershowers becoming more common. Daytime temps in the upper 80sF, nighttime lows in the low 70sF.

We arrived back in Liberia after just under two weeks in Gambia and we were instantly engulfed. Engulfed I say. First of course by the humidity, which smacked into us like a wall the second we exited the plane, but also by our Liberian life waiting for us. By the end of the day, we had 1) attended the graduation ceremonies of LEAD’s 8th business class, 2) hosted an impromptu version of our annual “plum party” for about 15 of our neighbor kids (The mangos are ripe and the kids have a riot trying to harvest the allotted amount before I kick ‘em out.), 3) walked Enoch over to his family’s house and had a long talk with them about the eleven year old’s out of control behavior of late, 4) discovered we had a second deer in our yard, given to us by our friends who are about to go to Canada for a few months, and 5) spent a frantic half hour with the neighborhood kids trying to catch the deer who got out our gate while we were hauling water, (Miraculously, we caught her.) Needless to say, we were dog tired by the end of the day. We are still getting back into it; as I write, Renita is home schooling, and I—well, you can see what I am doing.

So while we are getting up to Liberian speed, I thought I’d introduce you to three more Liberian dishes, all three of which we eat regularly.

Water Greens
Water greens look a little like potato greens when cooked, but have a different texture. To me they are like a slightly slimier (Slimy actually is called “slippery” here, and Liberians seem to like the texture) version of spinach—they definitely have that strong spinach flavor.

To prepare: For four adults Remove stems and wash 4 bunches of greens thoroughly. Cut or tear into fine shreds. Combine with two cups chopped onions, and hot pepper and fry in one half cup of oil for 7-10 minutes, stirring constantly. Place into a pot with water. Add chicken or beef cube, salt, black pepper, seasoning salt to taste. Add pre-cooked meat—we prefer cow meat—but anything (dried fish, fried fish, boiled pig’s feet, chicken turkey) you like is acceptable. Boil away most but not all of the water. Serve over rice.

Dum Boy (with Bene Seed)
Dum Boy is a milder version of its much more famous cousin, fu fu (or foo foo. You get the idea.) Dum boy is not nearly as complicated to make as fu fu, and we prefer it to the strong tang of the fermented fu fu. Every Liberian will tell you “do not chew dum boy, just swallow.” As for me, I gotta chew it a couple times before I can get it down. It is very sticky and gelatinous. Here is what it looks like before the soup goes on top:

To Prepare: You need a large mortar and pestle, and to grab a bunch of cassava—the root not the leaf, and grate it into a bowl. Take the grated cassava, place it into a plastic bag, and put the bag into a pot of boiling water. Boil for a half hour to an hour. When the cassava is cooked and tender, dump into a mortar and begin pounding with your trusty pestle. Pound until the cassava becomes a sticky paste. Form these into balls— and serve with soup.

Bene Seed Soup
You can eat dum boy with anything of course; it does not have much flavor and is very starchy. We prefer peanut soup or bene seed soup. Bene seed is sesame seed. You purchase little bags of bene seed in any market. Here is what it looks like on dum boy:

To prepare: Take about a cup of bene (sesame) seed and toast it in a pan over a coal pot or stove. Make sure all seeds get golden brown or more. Remove the toasted seeds and place them in your mortar and pound them into a pulp. In another pan, fry two chopped onions, peppers to taste, and chicken or beef seasonings, depending on the meat you will add. Add any pre-cooked meat you prefer—we like turkey—and fry a bit more. Put the cooked ingredients into a pot, add water to fill the pot and the bene seed. Boil the mixture for a half hour. Some people add a bit of flour to thicken, others toss in a couple of diced potatoes. Sometimes we add noodles. Serve over the dum boy (or rice).

Jollof Rice
Jollof rice is a favorite all over West Africa, and you can find dishes like this all over the world. Its easy to make, and easy to dress up. We eat it about once a week—usually on Fridays. We make a lot of it and feed a few friends. Trokon does not like it much—too much tomato.

To Prepare: Fry two onions, a minced clove of garlic, and peppers to taste in a half cup of oil. To this add five small tins—about a cup and a half—of tomato paste. Stir it all together and fry it up a bit. Remove and place in a large pot. Add enough water to cook six cups of rice (this depends on how you like your rice. Liberians like their rice soft, I like it “el dente.”) Boil the mixture together. Cook the meats you wish to add—anything but fish. Like many Liberian dishes, it is preferable to serve a dish with two (or more) kinds of meat in the dish. We prefer chicken wings with beef (called cow meat here), but when on a budget, we slice up some hot dogs (here called sausage.) By the way, true sausage would be delicious in jollof rice. We can’t get it here, or else its too expensive. Once cooked, set the meat aside. Add the rice to the boiling pot of tomato paste and seasonings. When the rice is done, add the meat and a can of mixed vegetables. We also chop up some fresh tomatoes and mix in just before serving.

A Few Obligatory Vacation Shots

Weather: The glorious winds have really picked up at the beach, and I for one could not get enough if it knocked me over. Winds averaging a steady 35-40 mph last night, a steady 20mph during the day. Hot, dry daytime temps (around 30 C, 86F), and nightime temps much cooler (20C, 68F).

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We are in our final weekend in the Gambia-- a lot has happened and in our meeting with other team members, we know a lot more about our next steps in Liberia and beyond.

But all of that can wait. Today, and through Monday, we are still embracing our time here. And of course, we are taking pictures. Here are a handful.

The wind blows all day-- our hangout at sunrise...

... at noon-- here you can see the palms bending with the breeze--...

... and in the evening. I know the shot is cliche' as can be, but it also happened to be the view out my front door last night.

The countryside of Gambia/Senegal is much drier than Liberia.

Noah took this shot of a red colobus while on a four hour walk with his sister and some friends.

He also got this view when a family of vervet monks showed up, possibly looking for a handout.

Our beach at mid day, facing North.

Late afternoon, looking toward Liberia, hundreds of miles to the south.

Getting Used To Paradise

Weather: Relatively low humidities with warm days and cool nights. Daytime is sunny with temps in the upper 80's-low 90's, with nightime lows in the 60's. Winds are moderate in the day-- 5-15 mph in the mornings and pick up in the evenings, averaging 20-30mph.

Sorry, I'm still adjusting to life in the Gambia. I'm trying to work on the blog-- I want to write you, give you news and pics, but, well, we are having a such great time hanging out, relaxing, enjoying laughing with each other-- its hard getting around to doing a full post. And of course, the net is very fickle here.

But enough excuses, expect more very soon. For now, enjoy the view from our balcony...

We're having some fun-- Breezes, ice cream (almost unavailable in Liberia), laughter, and takin' it easy. Happy happy, joy joy!

The Reeds in the Wind

We arrived in the Gambia Tuesday night-- all things are swell except the internet. We'd love to post some images of our delightful view, but for now you'll just have to take our word for it that it's just this side of paradise. The breeze remains just as healing as ever. Maybe that's what they mean when they say its "balmy?"

Feel free to read last year's blog post-- I think May or April and you'll get the idea of what's happenin' here. Anyway, until the 'net allows us to post photos, we'll be off having a great time.

Keep tuning in!

I Thought We Wuz Supposed to be in Bakau

Well, of course we were. After one of the most crazy seasons of our marriage, we felt as if we just might make it to the prize at the finish line-- 16 days in the Gambia. Make that 15 days. Make that 14 days. Make that... you get the picture. We were supposed to leave Sunday, but just like our 2006 visit to Mali, we found out at the airport just a few minutes before boarding that the flight was cancelled. I dislike most things to do with flying as is, but African airports-- and especially Liberia's Robertsfield Airport-- are too often hot, humid, stress producing places. And while some airlines are alright, the carrier to the Gambia, Slok Air, is the worst we've flown since the permanently grounded Ghana Airways. So I'm not looking forward to running the boarding gauntlet whenever Slok calls us back to Robertsfield. Even so, it is worth it flying Slok just to get to Bakau, Gambia.

Anyway, Slok told us Sunday night that the plane was in need of some repairs and "hopefully Monday" we'd be able to begin our vacation. Tonight, Monday night, we are waiting for Tuesday. We are not holding our breath. Maybe by Friday.

We keep reminding ourselves that it could be worse, and that to be able to fly off to a great vacation is something most of our neighbors will never be able to experience. Meanwhile, we're all pretty tired and eager to get out of Limbo. Stay tuned for more Liberian Cuisine posts as well as a closer look into what life is like in a Liberian village. And of course, keep an eye peeled for shots from the Gambia-- assuming we make it.



Actually, the tag line ought to be "Your Gateway to Disappointment, Frustration, and Days of Waiting Until We Fix the Only Plane We've Got for this Route." I guess its better than crashing in one of these buckets.

ReedNews Update: April Edition

Weather: Some late night/early morning thundershowers of late, followed by hot humid days. Monday begins cooler and less humid with temps in the 80's. Light easterly breezes. About an inch and a half of rain in the last week.
We are relieved to report that the dry season is behind us. Think of Liberian seasons this way: 1) A hot, humid season with virtually no rain, lasting four months, from mid December to mid April, 2) a four month cooler, humid wet season with about a hundred sixty inches of rain falling from Mid June to Mid October, and between these two very different seasons, there are two identical seasons of transition from mid April to mid June, and from Mid October to mid December. These two month seasons see about 20 inches of rain each, but it always seems nice in comparison to previous weather. The transition months are welcomed harbingers-- by the end of both seasons we are ready to be done with each.

Here’s the news from our neck of the rainforest.

-Item: On the national scene, President Sirleaf issued a stern warning regarding the armed robbery problem that plagues the country. She gave the current law enforcement authorities—UNMIL law enforcement and the Liberia National Police—one month to make headway against the rogues. After that, she promised “drastic, perhaps unpopular measures” to end the domestic terror.

-Item: In that same speech, Madam President also addressed the rapid increase of the cost of living over the last eight months. Food costs especially have gone up, and the nation’s staple, rice, has seen a 25% increase. Some food prices have doubled. Gas and diesel fuel are around $4.00 a gallon. This all in one of the poorest countries in the world.

-Item: I am getting out of town more of late with the MPCHS Women's Health and Development Program. So far, we’ve met with leaders from Johnson Town, Koon Town and Kaingai Town as prepare to expand our work to include the men of these villages. We spend a few hours with them in each of our several visits, trying to understand their daily lives, their strengths as a community and their hopes for the future. Later, we will offer workshops, skills training and micro loans to support them as they rebuilt villages destroyed by war.

-Item: Speaking of getting out of town, the Reeds are getting out of Liberia beginning Sunday. We are off on our much anticipated—and I might add much deserved—two week retreat/vacation on the windy beaches of The Gambia. We’ll keep in touch when we are not being caressed oblivious by those winds.

-Item: Speaking of getting out of Liberia, we are getting ready to lose our children for the months of June, July and August. Hannah and Noah are leaving the continent and heading to family and friends in Michigan USA and Ontario Canada. They leave our midst with a family heading West less than two weeks after we get back from the Gambia. I think it will be a good preview of how life will be all too soon when they leave the nest for good. I know I’ll miss them deeply—I think Renita even more—but the up side is the kids will probably have the time of their lives and Renita and I can really focus on our next steps.

-Item: Its plum season! Actually, you probably know them as mangoes, but here in Liberia, they are called plums. There are a number of varieties, and the trees grow everywhere. We grow three types in our very own yard. Our favorite is called the German plum, and it is exquisite. In some ways similar in taste, color and texture to a peach, with a tang of orange and in a really good plum, a hint of coconut. Plums are terrific eaten raw, and heavenly in pies and other desserts. For our neighborhood kids, every day is a plum party.

Behold a few semi random photos. One I added April 28.

This was taken this morning. A somewhat grumpy Noah being helped by his Teacher Mom. Oh, the challenge of dual relationships! Hannah in the background viewing a math lesson on DVD.

Remember that playground we all constructed in memory of Norm Katerberg? Here is another shot of the finished job...
...but we thought you ought to see it in daily use, with over 800 girls giving it a workout. We think Norm would have been delighted.

Hey, and while we're on the subject of "what it looks like now," this is what a container filled with books looks like now: four new school libraries and and kids who can't get enough of them. Added 4/28.

A couple shots of road repair, Liberian style. This is work in the city, which is going on in a number of places...
... and this is our crew last Friday, trying to get to Kaingai Town. We had to do some repair work on this bridge to get to our meeting with the men.

Plums (mangoes) on the vine. These are country plums, less prized than Kerosene or German plums, but still a valued commodity.
Trokon sucking the pit of a German plum, with another small one on deck.

Our Ten Most Valuable Little Things

I think one of the most common themes I’ve hit on in this blog is that life is not nearly as easy in Liberia as it is in America. I’ve referenced more than once the climate, the cost of living, and the limited availability of stuff we think we need. But we have made a life here, and we have made it more than tolerable, thanks in part to what we brought with us and can find in Monrovia. So I’ve come up with a list—“The 10 Little Things that Have Made the Most Difference in Our Liberian Lives.” These are the small items that have turned out to be big deals in the struggle to maintain perspective in an often surreal and uncomfortable place.

10 The Inverters—Without these little guys, we would have no power during the day to run a few electronics, most especially our laptops, CD player and battery chargers. They invert the DC power from our solar panels into AC. We brought a bigger, more expensive unit when we came to power the whole house, but the corrosive climate put it out of commission in 10 months. Happily, we have been able to make do with these smaller, less expensive units in a couple rooms. We use them every day.

9 Our First Aid bag—We go through lots of band aids, bandages, ointments and even antibiotic medicine. Without it, some of the kids around here— the Reeds too- would need to go to the hospital to deal with cuts, infestations and sores that otherwise all too easy turn nasty. We use it almost every day.

8 Popcorn—We need it. We pop it four nights a week while we watch a DVD movie or show. Its cheap and easy to get in Monrovia compared to other snacks. (Potato chips, for instance, might cost $3.00 for a 5 oz. bag while we can feed all four of us popcorn for about fifty cents.) I think we might go crazy without being able to crunch regularly.

7 Epoxy—We’ve used this stuff to affix everything from razor wire to mirrors and to repair everything from our cracked solar batteries to our ceramic bowls. We use it as needed, every couple of weeks.



6 Shower bags—This would be even higher if we figured out a way to increase the flow pressure, but as is, being able to take even a dribbling shower is something we certainly took for granted in the States. Without shower bags, we’d have to use cups of water poured overhead, wash, then pour another cup or three to rinse. We would end up using far more water that way, and its just not the same as a shower. Multiple uses a day.

5 Flashlights—Once the sun goes down, we get three hours of electricity from the generator, then its lights out until morning. Flashlights are simply the only way to see. We have the new LED type, which draw far less energy and last longer. We also use a 3,000,000 candle flood to light up the whole yard and scare away potential bad guys. Used every night by all of us.

4 Batteries— We’ve become semi-experts in the world of DC power, amps, voltage and batteries. Without batteries, not much would work around here—we run our refrigerator, fans, some lights, our music and daytime electronics from our big solar batteries, but also we use small rechargeable nickel metal hydride and even disposable batteries. We are charging and using all day every day.

3 Giant Ziploc bags/Zorb it— Electronics are just at the mercy of Liberia’s humidity and ocean air. Nothing electronic survives long left in the air. So every night, everything electronic we use that can fit—laptops, inverters, camera—go into bags. In each bag we put a product called Zorb-it, which is a high tech desiccant that does not need to be replaced. These two products have saved us thousands of dollars. Used every day.

2 Our front porch/yard—We are on the porch throughout the day, but certainly every morning around 7:00 we sit together with our coffee and plan the day, and every evening around 5:30 take our plastic chairs into the yard and catch a sea breeze while the boys play around us and Enoch chats with us from his tree perch. It is a ritual that has sustained us and centered us through our stay.

1 The DC Fans—I would not be in Liberia without these fans. None of us would. Because they run off our solar batteries, the fans can run virtually 24 hours a day, and we absolutely would not be willing to swelter in 85F heat with high humidity every night in the dry season without some relief. This house is not built for air conditioning—levered windows cannot be closed tight—and we could not afford the cost of air conditioning anyway. We could not even afford running regular AC fans all night. But the DC fans on a hot dripping body are just enough—and because these little Amish made wonders have made our stay here possible, they earn the number one spot as “The Little Thing that Makes the Most Difference” to our life in Liberia. Used all day, every day and all night, every honkin' night.

The Container Arriveth

Weather: Mostly hot and humid-- some rain at the end of last week as we begin to transition out of the dry season. Temps in the 90s and very humid. Not good container unloading/box carrying and sorting weather. Tuesday the 8th, we recieved heavy rain for the first time in four months. We got about two inches in the space of and hour. It is marks the begining of the end of this year's dry season.

This is going to be another week of "post-as-post-can" I'm sorry to report. The internet cafe we usually haunt-- which is the fastest commercial site in the country when running-- continues to limp along with generator problems. This puts us at the mercy of other places, most of which are much slower and cannot handle photo uploads. Actually, with all the error messages I'm getting, I'll be lucky if I get this note off.

After waiting ten weeks and multiple frustrating false starts, we finally got the container we've been waiting for out of the port. From the 40' foot long steel box, we extracted hundreds of cardboard boxes and bicycles bound for 1)the YMCA 2) Catholic schools around Monrovia 3) Five local school libraries we (Active Kids Canada, some of you, the schools and the Reeds) helped build, and 4)LEAD. Renita and her Liberian crew unpacked the container at the YMCA on Wednesday April 2, and then took the stuff for our five libraries and LEAD to our house. (We knew that if it came during the week, one of us would not be able to be there because of the alternating nature of our schedules. I felt bad-- it came on Wednesday-- because I had to teach at MPCHS. If it had come on Tuesday or Thursday, I would have had the unloading job.)

Our take was 300 boxes, mostly of books-- about 50lbs each--and a few bikes. We spent the next three exausting days sorting and organizing the haul into essentially six piles of boxes-- 5 to the schools, 1 to LEAD. Each pile has about 50 boxes, sorted according to subject and grade. It was brutal work for the kids and me, but nobody worked half as hard as Renita. We had to work in our yard because we could not fit half of it all in the house. Naturally, it rained Thursday and Friday, the first time its rained two consecutive days since November. So we used the big tarps Renita's mom had sent along and created a roof over our heads. We finished after a 12 hour marathon session Saturday, and Sunday, we sort of rested from our labors. Both Renita and I prompltly got sick Sunday, probably from the let down of being on container duty for the past few weeks.

Monday the 7th, Renita had the happy tasks of delivering the thousands of text books, library books and reference books to the libraries. Fortunately, she did no more heavy lifting-- the schools had crews unloading their prizes.

UPDATE Wednesday, April 9

I mentioned before that we were feeling a bit under the weatther after our ordeal with the container and boxes. It turns out Renita was much more under it that I. She has malaria. This is the second time she has contracted it and feels appropriately terrible. Vomiting, fever, aches, nausea, headaches, the typical symptoms. However, she is taking medicine and should be better soon.

Now for the pictures of our week with the boxes.

Gauntlet Week begins Wednesday the 2nd at the Port. This is our second trip in three days to get the container. First time we waited four hours only to find out a loading crane was busted. Second time, Renita waited in the heat four more hours, but finally after being in the port 10 weeks...

...here it comes! Forty feet of good wishes from Canada, all waiting to be unpacked, reorganized and delivered.

Opening the container and hauling out the 60 bikes first. Then the boxes. We got our three hundred-- it was exhausting working in the heat and humidity-- and headed home.

A literal ton of books and supplies waiting under the tarps to be organized, sorted, and divided.

Saturday morning, we head for the finish line. With Renita consulting her list, Eastman, Noah, Trokon, John and Alex shuffle boxes according to her commands.

All done and under the tarp by nightfall Saturday. Five piles of over fifty boxes each, waiting for delivery. We slept well.

Monday, the books were delivered-- the scene was the same at five schools-- kids and staff claiming hundreds of books and oodles of supplies-- thanks to Active Kids Canada, and many friends both in Canada and Liberia.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Women

Weather: Continued very hot and somewhat humid. Right now, my fingers are wrinkled from wiping the sweat off my brow in this internet cafe. Temps in the upper 90's, sometimes reaching 100F by early afternoon. Nighttime lows in the low 80sF. Nice afternoon breezes help out a bit, especially late afternoon, when we get the shade of our mango trees. Total rain since December1: around 2 inches.

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For ten years, the MPCHS Women’s Health and Development (WHDP) program has worked with the women of a number of communities in Liberia’s interior. Grace Boiwu and her staff have supported and empowered the women of these communities by offering workshops on many topics, providing skills training so the women can help support their families, and even micro loans so that their budding businesses can expand a bit. The relationships by now are deep and look very much like friendship. The goal of WHDP has always been to heal and strengthen post-war communities by empowering women. But a funny thing happened on the journey. The women’s program discovered men.

The trip to Koon Town. A jarring two hour trek.

What I mean is WHDP is realizing that in order to more fully do its job to strengthen women, it cannot focus only on women and ignore the men of the community. Even if it remains primarily a “Women Health and Development Program,” it needs to figure out how to include men. Men are simply too important to the health of the community and the women, especially in this patriarchal society. In a way, this was inevitable. Take Koon Town for instance. WHDP has been in this little village for a decade, working exclusively with women, building skills, enhancing capacity, empowering them, transforming them-- while the men of the village watched from the sidelines. Yet the men are key stakeholders and of course have enormous interest in how

Koon Town, viewed from the road in. The arrow indicates my location in the next pic, looking back toward this point.

their wives, mothers and daughters are affected by all this empowerment and capacity building. Grace Boiwu and WHDP have come to a point where it seems obvious that it is time to include the men in this process. They see the connection between women’s empowerment and helping men become better men. They see women and men living in community need each other to be strong and healthy, in order for the community to be strong and healthy. What a concept.
Something tells me this is laundry day.

So last week, WHDP sent my Liberian co-facilitator, John Dominic Moore, and Yers Trooly up to Koon Town to begin the process of engaging them with a view toward their empowerment and building their capacity as well. John and I had a great time. Here we were, gathered with 21 Koon Town men, in the Women Empowerment Center—“built by women for women,” and discussing ways to make Koon Town a better place.

The men posing in front of our meeting place-- the Women Empowerment Center.

It felt like we were breaking some invisible barrier, like the time had come to work in a new way—women and men together—on community development.

The men were proud of this-- a cleared field, being prepared for cassava. Its a big field, and it is cleared without anything but the most basic hand tools-- in the hottest months of the year for harvest in the wet season. I almost died just walking the mile uphill (in the 100F heat of the day) it takes to get there. My bald head makes a great brain oven.

There are challenges ahead. One of the reasons WHDP came to be was to support women, most of whom were victims of violence because they are women. Gender Based Violence is still a problem in Koon Town. Wife abuse is still an all too prevalent part of the culture in this male dominated corner of the world. The fact that WHDP has empowered so many women has also, in some cases, created more conflict. The men feel their masculinity is threatened, their way of relating under attack. How can we help men see themselves in a new way, help them redefine their masculinity in a way that preserves their sense of “being a man,” and at the same time uplifts empowers the women in their lives? How to we teach these men what it means to be a man without sending the message that they’ve not been good at being men up to now?

The trip home. Following a truck laden with raw latex from the rubber trees.

The good news is, the guys seem eager to participate in the process. They seemed open and willing to engage us. They’ve seen what WHDP has done for "their women," and even though it has sometimes created conflict and left the men feeling powerless and out of the loop, they see it has produced impressive results. The women have learned skills, are more capable, have provided for the family. “Yes,” we imagine the men thinking, “they seem to be more assertive, and talk back when in the past they would have kept quiet, but maybe that is a good thing. Maybe if we figure out a better way to be together, we can figure out a better way to work together. And maybe together, we can make Koon Town a better place to live.” What we imagine, we can work to make happen.

I tried to get a shot with the shadows to give an idea of how bumpy these roads are. It didn't work. The roads may look flat. They are not.

Back Online (knock on wood)

Hey Folks,

Just a quick note. We are back online for the moment, so here are the shots of the playground. Hopefully, I'll be back on Monday with a story about Koon Town and "the women's program that discovered men."

Bob

Here is what the space looked like in early February.

Here is how it looks today.

Another view that gets the slides, jungle gym, merry-go-round, and swings.

Please forgive the lag!

Hi folks, Renita here, filling in for Bob, who is doing some work in a village called Koons Town, a few hours northeast of Monrovia.

It has not been easy getting online this week. Our goal is to post a blog entry at least once a week, and we aim for Monday, so for those of you who check in weekly, you may have wondered where we were. It turns out Monday was “Easter Monday” around here, a non official holiday where half the population plays hooky from work. The internet café we usually go to was closed. Then Tuesday the café was closed again, this time due to generator problems.

Just as a reminder, the internet situation in Liberia is that except for Monrovia, there really is no internet. In the city, one can get wireless receiver set up in home, but we live outside the wireless area. This means a three mile drive three times a week to the internet café where we send pre-composed emails, get email, and do any internet work we need to. The limited availability of the internet means are not on for more than a couple hours a week, and the kids are almost never on.

Anyway, Bob is gone today, and he’s the guy who’s in charge of the blog. So you’ll have to wait for the entry he was planning to post, but he asked me to at least write and tell you what’s going on with the lag.

I was planning on posting some before and after pictures of the playground that has recently been completed in Norm Katerberg's memory, but after going to three internet cafes and finding them all closed, and finally finding a fourth, I have tried to upload the pictures for the past 90 minutes only to have it fail again, and so I am going to stop trying. I am so thankful to Bob not only for his creativity and commitment to writing this blog every week, but also for the patience he has in working with the Internet in Liberia!

Liberian Cuisine, Part One

Let's talk about food. What we eat and how we eat it help define our culture, and I would be remiss if I did not explore with you Liberia's contribution to the culinary arts. Most of you know that the four Reeds spent much of our lives in the Great Lakes region of North America. Renita is Canadian, living most of her growing years in Ontario, while the rest of us are Michiganders through and through. We all grew up on foods very different from what we have encountered in West Africa. Compared with my midwestern culinary orientation, the food in Liberia is blunt, unrestrained, and powerful. Three years ago our uninitiated taste buds found many of the dishes overwhelming, and at times repulsive in flavor and texture. I remember thinking critically that there was no subtlety to Liberian cuisine, no "hinting" at this taste or "suggesting" that flavor - this was rude food. Little did I know that my perspective was based on a simple misunderstanding.

One of my pet theories about food is that when we reject a new dish or initially find it unpalatable, it is at least in part because we do not “understand” it. We don’t get what the dish is “trying to be,” so we don’t know how to orient ourselves to it. A similar phenomenon occurs when one is given a tuna sandwich when expecting an ice cream cone or when one is offered New York Cheddar on sourdough when one has his palate set for French Brie on a cream cracker. The offered food is rejected as unpalatable because the mouth was expecting something else. So it was for us with the cuisine of Liberia. Palm butter, bonies, foofoo, cassava leaf, red oil, fermented fish, bitterball, kitili, torpogee, fish heads, okra—many of the foods came with unfamiliar tastes and heretofore unacceptable textures. Some we found frankly disgusting. How could Liberians love this stuff? But that rhetorical question became the key to understanding. Liberians DO love it. Maybe we were missing something. So we kept eating, kept tasting. Gradually we began to figure these foods out, and as we did, we learned how to eat them,how to enjoy them and even look forward to them. We now have our favorites, and of course some tastes we still avoid, but mostly I think we can say that we finally understand Liberian food.

So beginning this week, I thought I’d present to you some of the foods we have figured out and learned to love—and maybe a couple that we still find confusing to the brain and disagreeable to the palate. Look for these every few weeks or months.

Before we get to the dishes, there are a few things you ought to know about Liberian cuisine. 1.) Rice is the staple of Liberia, with no close second. Rice is eaten with almost every meal. Most dishes are called “soup” and served over steamed rice. 2.) Most foods are boiled, roasted or fried over coals or a wood fire. You may use a stove top. 3.) Liberians use a lot of oil. Until we figured this out and redirected our Liberian cook, we were using a cup or more of oil a meal, mixed into the soup. Unfortunately, both the raw red oil and refined oil is palm oil, which is not generally considered to be very healthy. 4) Liberia being located where it is, fish is readily available, and is the most common animal flesh found in Liberian dishes. Dried fish is very popular here, in part because it requires no refrigeration. It has a very powerful flavor, which we tend to avoid. 5.) Hot Peppers are used in many dishes. Based on all of this, if you think of Liberian foods as spicy, fishy and oily over rice, you are getting the picture for much of it. Let us begin. Actually, because I’ve used so much space on this intro, we’ll only look at two dishes today.

Palm Butter
This could be called the national dish of Liberia. It is only recently that I figured this dish out, and now it is my favorite. Renita is learning to like it, but the kids still don’t understand it. Made from the flesh of palm nuts, it has a strong musky flavor.

To prepare: Wash palm nuts and boil until the skin becomes loose. Remove and place the nuts in a large mortar and pound until skin becomes separated from the kernels. Remove the kernels and continue beating skin, fibers and flesh into a pulp. Transfer pulp into a pan and add water, enough to cover. Wash pulp thoroughly, then squeeze liquid out of fibers and chaff. Pass liquid through a sieve to remove all fibers or traces of kernels. (Palm butter may be purchased already prepared.) Pour the liquid into a pot and continue to boil. Add a combination of preroasted fried or boiled meat, including chicken, crabs, dried fish, or dried meat - we prefer a combination of fresh beef (called cow meat) and fresh fish - along with 2 chopped onions, hot pepper to taste, seasoning salt to taste, etc. Let mixture cook until it becomes thick. Serve over rice, foofoo, or cassava.

Potato Greens

This spinach-like green also produces a sweet potato if allowed to grow but like the cassava both the leaves and the tuber is prized. The greens are also prized by Hannah who considers it one of her favorite dishes. We eat it every Thursday without fail. To prepare: Remove stems and wash 4 bunches of greens thoroughly. Cut—we prefer tear—into fine shreds. Combine with two cups chopped onions, and hot pepper and fry about 7-10 minutes, stirring constantly. Place into a pot with water. Add chicken or beef cube, salt, black pepper, seasoning salt to taste. Add pre-cooked meat—we prefer turkey—but anything (dried fish, fried fish, boiled pig’s feet, cooked cow meat) you like is acceptable. Boil away most but not all of the water. Serve over rice.