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Published: February 19th 2016
If I had to be honest, I would say I was taken aback a little bit more than I thought I would be. I wouldn’t say I was over my head, but I would say that I was shocked and even questioned my own fortitude when I arrived at Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi…Why is that you ask? Well I signed up for a volunteer spot at this non-profit organization with an emphasis on cultural tours and canoe trekking in the Gorilla Highlands (name of the area they want to start using). I was blown off by my original host and welcomed quite warmly into the open arms of Miha, Jane, Owen, Davis, Alex, Shaba, and Tom! I simply wanted to help in some way cuz I like the area and wanted to do something to enrich lives as well as my own and Miha (founder and managing director, also Slovenian) simply asked me what I had for skills or talents. I wrote a few things down and he picked up on the cooking aspect of my life and that’s what he had in store for me J I was to train the current cook, Alex, along with three other
helpers that could learn and/or take over if Alex was away. I walked into the newly built kitchen to find two gas burners and a wood burning over. No other appliances. No refrigerator. No nothing. Fortitude questioned. I was also supposed to not only teach these folks how to cook but also produce restaurant quality items that were going to be featured on the new menu. With no cold storage I was bound to the dishes I could come up with being off the shelf or from a garden…and within the wheelhouse of people who haven’t even heard of most cooking terms or who’s food culture required them to boil everything to the point of consistently bland flavor and texture… I was in for a serious challenge. I used a menu from the Edirisa in Kabale town as a format and tried to use what Alex knew how to make from that menu and expand it to new and different tasting dishes still using the same ingredients. I also was specially requested to get the oven going with items like bread, rolls, and roast meat dishes. The main idea of the menu was to have two parts. The “quick” side
and the “no hurry” side. The former being all items able to be whipped up with ingredients that were always stocked like eggs, flour, staple vegetables, simple seasonings, and oil. The long side had items involving meat (have to run to town 8km away every time one of these items is ordered) or something from the oven which needs about 30-45 minutes just to come to temperature before using(well, I didn’t have a thermometer so I never actually knew how hot it was getting). Quick items such as the famous Rolex was present and from that I pulled a Zanzibar pizza and chapatti tacos. Zanzibar pizza is like a super thinly stretched chapatti dough wrapped around a pizza filling before cooking oh a hot surface. Chapatti tacos are done with about half the size of a normal chipat with the flavors of Mexican awesomeness to be loaded in. Reminiscent of a fry bread taco without the fry. The no hurry side also included meatloaf (yes mother…your meatloaf, or a version of it), herb roasted rabbit with rosemary potatoes, and buns for the hamburgers or dinner rolls if you make them smaller! I was flung right back into the fire and
had to do everything from memory cuz there was internet only twice in the two weeks I was there. And I haven’t really baked since the days of the Willie’s bakery…17 years ago…This was seriously the second most challenging time I’ve had on my African adventure. Working the usual cook schedule when there’s only one cook for the whole place; up at least an hour before breakfast was due (my alarm went off between 6:30 and 8 depending on if there were guests or tours starting early, etc.)make breakfast, wash dishes after brekky, think of what we have and are able to make for lunch, make lunch, do the dishes, have an hour off in the afternoon, back to the grind for thinking, planning, maybe shopping, make dinner, do dishes and see what we have for breakfast in the morning, bed between 9:30 and 10 to dream of the next day of fun! I put in many hours in that kitchen barely stepping out of it trying my darnedest to make a difference and pass along the knowledge I have obtained over the years. After a few days I was rewarded by being able to join a group of Germans
on one of the cultural tours offered by this place. We went on a short canoe ride to one of the peninsulas where we walked to the top and visited a medicine man, a local tavern where we enjoyed some obushara (sorghum beer), a craft lady where I learned how to make a bracelet out of reeds for myself, and then to a nice view point to take a postcard photo of many islands. Great way to spend a few hours and it got me out of cooking lunch! Haha. Back to it I was getting brain tired and remembering why I got out of the cooking business in the first place. Lol. I read the specialized volunteers were required to do 40+ hours a week and I know I reached that half way through the 4
th day so I figured I would have the weekend off. Friday night shenanigans was keeping me motivated but I was also beginning to think of ways to break it to Miha that this was too much for me or I bit off more than I can chew or I was over my head. Friday night we went to a village called Rotiendo (not
actually a village but a place where three roads meet and there are tiny shops and a few bars…one with music…) about 40 minute walk from where we stay and had lots of fun watching some younger bar goers dance with their cool kid shade on. There was about 14 people in the place of choice including 4 of us and the mother bartender, father DJ, son waiter and daughter waitress. There was really only room for 0 more people so it was a lively time! It got so lively in fact with the addition of 3 people from “across the lake” the dancing boys got into a fight. Seems that they weren’t from here so they had to go down or something like that…idk. Buuuut I was shocked the next day when my alarm went off at 10 when breakfast should have been done and eaten and cleared by then to find out that there is no rest for the wicked….im to cook through the weekend too…for that’s what we do. Chapatti for brekky cuz it’s easy…But whenever there’s a day off people still gotta eat. And we are the ones to do it. All the cooks of the
world. Bless their poor kitchen-folk hearts. I believe my vibes were felt out and Monday’s meeting saw a shift in my responsibilities. I was to train by making a single dish a few times a day instead of three new dishes a day for the entire staff of 8. Wow. What a break! So much of a break I decided to get on with the other thing I was prompted to do; start an organic vegetable garden complete with compost pit. So my second week would go something like this: Wake for brekky and help when there were questions of methods and ingredients while Alex tried to make the new menu items I showed him the week before (kind of like a test where I would help and then judge how it went), start chopping away a hill to make a flat garden, test/help with lunch, hour off, back to the kitchen for training on a new item, just for a taste though, not 8 whole meals, test/help with dinner, dishes and bed by 9 or 9:30. Same sort of schedule but this week I got rewarded to do a town tour when two new volunteers arrived. That included a
Bakiga (people of the area) museum, having a drink at what used to be the fanciest hotel in the area, and of course a large shopping trip…well I did that before the tour but yeah…stocking up of the kitchen. The rest of my days I was trying to finish up the garden project but the stupid seeds weren’t germinating fast enough…idk what happened. Maybe too cold being at altitude or something. Buuuut there was a nice presentation Thursday afternoon about where the company was from and going to. Pretty cool stuff for sure. Very well put together and I learned that Rwanda was to be in the mix in the near future. I didn’t realize this and jumped at the chance to help again! I have a flight out of Kigale (capital of Rwanda) on the 10
th which gives me over a week to help out! Miha like my idea, gave one phone call, and I was in! A volunteer spot at Red Rocks near a place called Musanze. Idk what I’ll be doing but I wanted to help and they accepted! Hahaha another week of helping where I can and getting a great cultural experience without paying someone to
show me or whatever. I enjoyed the crap out of the challenge I laid before myself despite waking in the middle of the night with bad dreams of food not being tasty, hurting myself with steel or fire, starving the already flavor depraved, and other kitchen nightmares. I also believe that my training sank in, if only just a little, but I’m certain my food will be remembered…at least my love for all things spicy!!! I am also taking this moment to publicly thank Miha and the staff at Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi for allowing me to come in to their home and kitchen to share the wonderful bond that ties us all together: foooooood J THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
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