Advertisement
Published: March 13th 2008
Karin cooking
Chilli matters!Denzil Washington is not a good policeman, indeed he is really quite a nasty piece of work in the
film ‘Training Days’. It may therefore seem strange that I have chosen it for the title of this bit of my chronicle. There was certainly nobody unpleasant in any way amongst our seeking of volunteers or the VSO staff brought together for our week long in-country training. No, the reason is in the time frame and the amount that happened in it. One week can seem a terrible long time and to me often does but the week spent at Sunlodge Hotel went very quickly. My notes up to now have been fairly contemporaneous. In fact, I would have been a credit to any police force with the accuracy of my offerings and would have made the perfect witness in any courtroom drama. Alas, that has to change.
My time frames are about to become more jumbled. They will not be misleading (well not very misleading) and at times may incline to interpretation rather than fact but just as Denzil was trying to give his new partner a feel for the job as he saw it, so I will attempt
end result
down to the 2 Dave's! to give you a feel for things as I see them here in Ghana; with the help of Kwami and Ame of course.
“Hello Obruni. How are you?”
“Fine thank you Kwame.”
“Is Gloria also fine?”
“I believe so”, I replied.
“I understand that you had a Ghanaian meal the other day.”
“Yes we did and I have a bone to pick with you about that.”
“Are you not capable of picking your own bones?” he asked.
“I do not mean it literally!”
He looked somewhat bemused before adding,” I think it would be better to be literal here, for a while anyway. Your accent is difficult enough without saying things that have two meanings.”
“Thank you I will remember that piece of advice. What I meant to say is that I could have done with your advice on what I was eating.”
“Why, was it not enjoyable?”
“It was very nice.”
“Then why did you need my advice”, he countered.
“In case I want it again.”
“O.K., that is sensible, for a change.”
I was getting just a little exasperated but continued calmly,” what were the dishes called then?”
“I do not know, I was not there”, he said innocently.
“That is helpful.”
“You are welcome.”
I thought he was about to go but instead he just smiled and looked off to the distance.
“Kwame,” I said, “why hasn’t Ame spoken to me?”
“She will, maybe, but she is here to help Gloria, not you.”
“But she has not spoken to Gloria either.”
“Gloria does not need as much help as you do.”
“Great,” I said, “just like home then.”
“Yes, you are right.”
I did not see Kwame again in that first week and as far as I know Gloria did not see Ame either. The training course itself varied from the very useful to the pretty obvious but it was all enjoyable. I did not go to the Karaoke night with my younger colleagues. (I can not abide Karaoke, it gives me the measles!) Gloria was tempted but she did not in the end go either. I did not therefore fall into a storm drain after the Karaoke as someone did. He claimed it had nothing to do with the alcohol just as Lucy claimed to be poorly the next morning as apposed to having a hang over. I did not believe either of them
We had a spell of language practice. We are trying to learn Fante and you will be exposed to that in the coming weeks as I practice with Kwame, assuming he turns up again. We also had a cooking lesson on the final morning of the training. A local woman, Antoinette, took her teaching responsibilities very seriously. She had a lesson plan and was determined to follow it. Unfortunately for her many of those who went to the Karaoke the night before and others who I suspect were normally less than interested in cooking anyway were not being co-operative. Nonetheless a meal was put together that was not too bad and as usual it was all eaten. Antoinette thought that some of the seeking should have failed the lesson and been sent back home. She did not get support from the VSO staff but I did feel a little sorry for her.
I on the other hand did enough not to incur the wrath of Antoinette. I had two jobs. The first was to drain off the excess water in the boiled yams. Now this may seem straightforward enough to you but it had to be done exactly as Antoinette told me. I was balanced over a drainage ditch (from which I assure you there was no way back if I dropped the very big pot I was draining off) and when I say it was boiling, I really mean boiling. Now the sight of a fifty-eight year old, rather plump hot and bothered person squatting on his haunches in a most uncomfortable manner is not at all pretty but I can assure you it impressed Antoinette. Teacher’s pet or what?
My second job came as a result of promotion by Antoinette. Having decided that I was, unlike some others, co-operating with the aims of the exercise, she put me in charge of seasoning the soup. There does not seem much difference between soup and stew in Ghana but more of that later. I was given a packet of ground chilli. I actually think it was paprika but I was told it was chilli. She told me to put as much in as I thought appropriate.
For those of you that know both of us, you will know that we like highly spiced food. There was therefore some danger attached to me being given charge of the hot stuff. Fortunately or at least I thought it was fortunate at the time, Karin had taken some interest in what I was about. I carefully added some spice to the mix and tried it. I asked Karin to try a little of the liquid. She did and pronounced that it needed more chilli. I added more and she said the same. I continued adding and she kept on urging me to add a little more. I was getting a little concerned for whilst it still had some way to go before I thought it was too hot, I was aware that some of my seeking had already expressed some worries on the degree to which the food had been spiced up to now. I asked Karin if she was sure that it needed more. I might have imagined it but I swear I thought I saw a somewhat conspiratorial smile appear on her face. Then it struck me. This was chicken soup and I had noticed previously that Karin was a vegetarian. She had no intention of eating this offering. I am not for one moment suggesting that her action was a sort of alternative strategy for animal rights activists but I do know that had I added any more chilli then the chicken soup would not have been eaten by many thus providing a small if somewhat hollow victory for non meat eaters. As it turned out, it went down rather well and even Frank enjoyed it.
So ended the training week and Saturday night was time for a quiet drink before leaving to our various placements during the next three days. Gloria and I were meant to leave first. In fact we were meant to leave immediately after cookery. Gloria’s employers were to pick us up. They did not and their failure to show was a sign of things to come for us; more of that later.
I had a quiet Saturday night talking mostly to the barman, Bismarc (as he said-a bit like the battleship but not quite), just as I had done most of the week. It is my experience and believe me I have a good deal of experience in this area, that talking to barmen and/or women can be most instructive when in foreign parts. They want to talk to you because they rightly in my opinion hope to get a decent tip. They also tend to be interesting, knowledgeable and unless you are a complete jerk yourself, friendly. It is thus that I learned more from Bismarc than I had from the guidebook, maps and week long training. I gave him a good tip and we parted the best of friends or so he led me to believe anyway. I was happy with that.
Bye for now
Advertisement
Tot: 0.064s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0401s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
christy
non-member comment
Damon Runyan
I want to know more about who people are. Did Kwane drop from the skies? Is he paid to assist? What does Obruni mean? (Oh brown one?) Who's frank and Karin? Can you build uo the cast of characters that goes with this blog. Like in a long complex novel ( which I am quite sure this will be) where on the inside front cover you have a family tree or a cast of characters..... you can add to it and we can refer back in future months when you meet up again with them. And can you do it the style of Damon Runyan? Guys and Dolls. You are looking good in the photo.........