Last Days Of August

[Belated Post]

As for the past few days here in Hohoe I have been doing my best to settle in to the new place and get myself ready for the next big adventure: cooking for myself. Yesterday the gentleman who helped get my bungalow ready brought the last piece of the puzzle to my back door, the natural gas canister meant for my stove unit. There was a hold up in gas delivery to the area just at the moment where I was to move in, and that shortage meant that I still could not cook. That naturally precluded me from even bothering with buying simple things like plates, utensils, and the like. Well, that was just me being lazy, but still I didn't need these items since the school was providing all of my meals since I arrived in the guest house and continued here at the new place.

So now I need to cook. Several members of the campus community from age 8 to 50 have told me that they will be my mentors when to comes to preparing Ghanaian foods. I have welcomed the offers so far, but we shall see how well I adjust to making my own homemade cuisine with a Ghanaian flair. When I was told that banku could be made in as little as a half hour, I was impressed. Then later I was informed that to make it in a half hour one must be at the pot at all times stirring a batch of what could be described as extra, extra thick oatmeal and my ambition waned a bit. Oh for the love of microwave dinners back home (even though I never ate those when I had the chance). My thought is to start small and work my way up. Peace Corps Volunteers in the past took the time to cull together a slew of recipes and suggestions for your new diet while in-country and I have a PDF that will refer to often for new dishes. Still, I am going to need to travel to the market more frequently than I did when I was at home for fresh ingredients and the chance to speak more Ewe out in the community.

Beyond my cooking needs, I am going to look for more books to read. The three that I bummed from my fellow PCV last week are almost finished. The Hunt for Red October is coming to a close and after that I think it will be back to drawing for a while. Each book has been excellent and given me a reason to stay up past midnight immersed in the pages. Strange that during training I would not stay up much beyond 9PM. The principal of the school stopped by last night before I could crack open the books and we chatted for the better part of an hour. Very interesting man to say the least. He attended university in the former Soviet Union during the 1980s. I had plenty of questions for him to be sure.

So that is what life is like. I think tonight will be the end of the book, some pasta and tomato sauce, and then a plan for the rest of the week's menu. Where did August go?