Monday, March 12, 2012

A Short Guide to Ghanaian Food

This is by no means a complete guide, just a rough outline of what the food is like here.  Some food is more common in the south, but most of these foods are common here in the Upper East.  There is not too much variety, but I mostly enjoy what Alice serves me or what I buy in my village.  I don't cook these dishes for myself, but I have helped Alice and Esther cook before, so many of these things I at least know how to prepare.  People in the market always ask what I'm going to cook, they always think I am going to prepare tzet and stew.  I usually lie and say yes because that's the easiest answer, and it gives them a good laugh.  But sometimes I simply say I'm going to prepare soup ("Mam duge ziiro"), which is partly true most of the time.

tzet (in Gurune/Nab't it is called "saab" or "sagebo")- the most common dish served in the northern parts of Ghana.  Made from white or red millet flour, or sometimes corn flour.  You prepare tzet by stirring the flour with water in a special metal pot over a charcoal fire.  It is served with some sort of stew, such as okra, groundnut, palm nut or bito and alefe stew.  Very plain tasting, the stew served with it is absolutely necessary to add flavor to the dish.

banku- another popular dish found in the north, but also very common in the south.  Made from fermented corn dough and cassava dough.  Prepared by stirring the doughs with water in the same special pot as tzet, over a charcoal fire.  Also served with some sort of stew.  At first, the bitterness of this dish was not pleasant, but I have really come to enjoy banku.  I may even prefer it over tzet because it has more taste.

fufu-  very common in the southern parts of Ghana.  Made from cassava, yam and/or plantain doughs.  Instead of stirring this to prepare, you "pound" it with a long, narrow wooden stick in a wooden bowl.  I most commonly ate fufu at my homestay with groundnut soup; palm nut soup or light soup is also common.  I had fufu here in Kongo for the first time since I left homestay, and it was completely different that what I ate in the south.  I think it was made from corn flour or millet flour; I much prefer the southern fufu.

rice balls-  made from smashed up rice.  Also served with soup or stew.

kwokwo ("coco")- a spicy porridge made from ginger and pepe.  Most of my friends in Kongo eat this for breakfast with cosi.  A few mornings a week, I go to my kwokwo lady who lives next to Cletus and Alice, and who has a puppy she keeps wanting to give to me.

cosi- fried bean cakes.  Made from a liquid-y dough of white beans.

tobani- bean cakes made from bambara beans, very similar in taste to cosi.  These can also be fried, but I think more commonly they are boiled or steamed. 

groudnut soup- made with groundnut paste, pepe, and usually some kind of meat like chicken or beef.  I most commonly have eaten this with fufu or rice balls.

palm nut soup- made from small, red palm nuts.  To prepare, you must boil the nuts for quite a while, then pound the nuts to remove the shell, then you boil the pulp to get the oil.  Lots of work, but quite delicious.  Served with banku or tzet.

okra stew-  can be made form fresh or dried okra, although I think I prefer the fresh okra better.  The fresh okra is cut up and boiled with tomatoes, onions, pepe and meat sometimes.  The dried okra must first be pounded before it is put into a soup.  Served with banku or tzet.

alefe and bito stew- a thicker soup made from these two leafy greens.  I have eaten this only with tzet before, but I'm sure it is served with banku too.

zoom koom- flour water.  I still don't quite see the point of drinking water with flour in it.  Very plain; tastes better if pepe is added to it.  I have tried this in my village, and it is commonly seen in Bolga.

ginger beer- a drink made from ginger and lots of pepe.  Very spicy, but I think it is very delicious.  I sometimes by this from a vendor in Bolga as I'm waiting for the Kongo tro to leave the station.

Things I can find in my market right now:  pepe (fresh and dried), tomatoes, onions (red and green), alefe, bito, oranges

Things I can find in Bolga: cabbage, lettuce, carrots, green peppers, yam, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, alefe, bito, pepe, oranges, apples, bananas, pineapple, papaya, and we are now getting into MANGO season!

Common meats: chicken, guinea fowl, sheep, goat, fish, donkey, dog, bushmeat (i.e. rat).  I think my favorite meat in my village is donkey.  There is a woman who prepares the donkey in a light soup (a simple broth with pepe and tomatoes) at the pito place we regularly go to.  Whenever I go to Bolga, I get some sort of street meat- usually beef or liver or sausage.  There are is also a vendor in Kongo that cooks up whole chickens on market day, the closest I will get to barbeque, and it is also my favorite meat in town, but too expensive to buy very often.  I have also had rat before; at first I was slightly disgusted by the idea, but I tried it, and it was actually very good.  I know several volunteers who eat rat on a regular basis in the Northern Region.  And I will admit I have had dog before.  I thought I would never knowlingly eat it, but I did, and it is surprisingly good, it reminds me of another type of meat that I can't quite put my finger on.  I have not had cat though, and I think that's where I cross the line.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Kongo market days

Little by little I am getting more comfortable walking through my market.  At first, I was really nervous about being the only solumia walking through market, but now I've made a lot of friends so it is nice to go through and say hi.  And each time I walk through my market, or anywhere in town for that matter, the novelty of seeing a solumia wears off. 
So first, I walk to my tomato lady, who is super sweet and loves that I by from her.  She always gives me a few tomatoes extra, which is always nice of her.  Usually I'll buy some red onions from her as well.  Then next to her, I buy my green onions and garlic from these two little girls.  Then I head back around to where the greens are sold.  There is one young lady who I buy alefe and bito from, which are two greens that Ghanaians use in stew that goes with tzet.  But of course that's not what I'm making; I usually put it in soups or saute them up.  Sometimes I buy pepe or beans also.  After I buy all my goodies, I walk out of the market and cross the street to get red red and yam chips from my yam lady.  She makes the best fresh pepe sauce on market days, super spicy, but so delicious. 
My market is fairly small in comparison to other markets in the area, like the one in Pelungu, but I like that it is small.  I can still find the few things I need between market days, I don't get yelled at much, and the women I buy from are really sweet. 
Before and after I walk through the market, I stop by Cletus' house to say hi to Alice.  Sometimes Esther is there, and we will take some pito to go along with the yam chips and red red.  Other days we take tzet that Alice has prepared or get banku from the market.  As we chat, Bertrand (Esther's son) and Bernadine (Alice's daughter) play by us.  Since I have always spent a lot of time with the men in the community, I really enjoy the times when I get to talk with Alice and Esther and the other women who live in the same compound. 

Bolga market days

1. Hop on a tro at market square.  Wait anywhere from 10 mintues to an hour for the tro to leave town.  Get to Bolga in about 20-30 minutes depending on how many stops you make.  Alternative: bike to Bolga in about 50 minutes.  But now the thought of that makes me laugh/cry since it is so hot.  So I won't be biking to Bolga for a while.
2. Get off tro in Bolga.  Walk through the tro station, fend off all the "Where are you going?" questions.  I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE.
3. Wind your way through town, go to either the bank, internet cafe or the International Traveler's Inn.  If you go to the bank, better get there early so standing in the line doesn't kill your whole day.  I've waited anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours in the bank.  Mostly it takes so long, because here there is no such thing as a "line."  Everyone is saving a spot for everyone else, everyone wants you to hold their place while they go do something else, people tend to just cut in line, saying they were there before.  Yeah, no you weren't.  Getting our allowance at the beginning of the month is the best and worst day of the month.  If you are going to the internet, you have to walk a ways, but its so worth it because there is air conditioning (absolutely glorious), and the connection is really fast.  If you go to Traveler's you will probably meet up with other PCVs, talk a while, get some food, stare at the other white people who come in to get food, check to see if there's mail for you.  PCVs have been coming to this place for years now, so the owners know Americans very well and they are really friendly.  You don't even need to speak Ghanaian English to them since they have talked with foreigners their whole lives.
4. I usually spend the whole morning at Traveler's if I don't go to the bank or the internet.  For lunch, whoever is in Bolga meets at the Blue Bar to eat lunch and grab a beer or mineral.  My go-to lunch is red red and yam chips from the red red lady that's by the Blue Bar.  Maggie, or as we call her, Maggie Cube, is the sweet lady who runs the Blue Bar.  The PCVs here have made good friends with her, so sometimes she'll give a mineral for free.  Wait around for the street meat to be ready, which is prepared by a man that works right next to the red red lady.  Street meat, YUM!
5.  In the afternoon, its time to actually get some errands done, get your fruits and veggies, eggs, oats, condensed milk, tin tomato, noodles, canned goods, and some wheat bread if you're lucky (its really hard to find).  You can go through the old market, which is behind the tro station, or the new market, which is between the tro station and Traveler's.  Its all about finding the best deals on veggies.  The old market has better prices on carrots, peppers and cabbage, but in the new market there's a sweet lettuce lady that always gives plenty extra lettuce, and there's also one lady you can buy potatoes from, expensive, but so worth it.
6. By about this time its probably a good idea to catch a tro home.  Wait another 10 minutes to an hour for the tro to fill and leave.  Get back to Kongo in 30 minutes, but usually it takes longer to get home than to go to Bolga because there are a lot more stops along the way where people want to get off.  If you ride a bicycle, it'll take about an hour to get home since there's a slight incline most of the way back. 

Market days are good for a lot of reasons- it gives you a little break from site, you see fellow PCVs that you can discuss problems with or talk about the work you're doing, you have more food options than in your village, and you can find many household goods you need.  These days are also exhausting because you do a lot of walking all around town, and people and children are constantly yelling at you or wanting your attention...by the time you get back to your village, you are very tired and happy to be home again.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Home at last

I am now a PCV and I am now at site, after three long days of travel from our training site.  (Day 1: homestay to Kumasi.  Day 2: got up at 3 AM to catch a Metro Mass bus to Bolga, but that didn't work so well, with all the Christmas-time traffic, didn't leave Kumasi until noon.  Dawn stood in a line that did not move for 4 hours.  We wanted to get to Bolga that day, but we had to move to a back-up option since after all those hours we found out the Bolga bus was "spoiled," so we got on the next bus to Tamale with the help of a Ghanaian who got us tickets.  Day 3:  Get a tro to Bolga, meet up with our counterparts, go HOME.  Finally.)
These first few weeks/months have been a lot of settling-in.  Buying lots of household things (a mattress, then another mattress because the first one was a piece of crap that I sink right through, stove, cylinder and gas, nails, rope, utensils and dishes and pots, lamps since I don't have electricity, buckets for bathing and doing laundry, a bike), organizing my room and kitchen the way I want it.  Still waiting for my house to be done, we'll see when that happens. 
On Christmas I went to Bolga market with Ran and Rob, since it was market day.  We just roamed around town, had banku and groundnut soup with a piece of chicken for lunch.  That was my low-key holiday.  The day after Christmas we biked about 25 minutes to Yakoti, Ran's village. We talked under a nice, shady tree and ate lunch prepared by Cletus' wife (the wife of Ran's counterpart), had some pito and box wine to go along with the meal.  Later in the afternoon we went to the Yakoti chief's palace, where Ran lives.  There were a lot of people we had to greet, considering the chief has four wives, and they all live in this compound with all their children.  It was a little overwhelming.  Then they served us pito and pork in light soup, in case we weren't full enough from lunch, but we were told we must eat or we would offend.
Then we went to greet the chief and elders formally.  We sat outside of the compound in plastic chairs in front of the chief, who sat on a ledge about the elders who sat around him below.  He entered this meeting area surrounded by community members, dancing and making high, shrill calls, as five drummers played around them.  There was one man in particular who was very drunk and was dancing and stumbling around.  Rob and I sat their utterly amazed that he didn't eat dirt; at one point the drummers were playing in a semi-circle, backs to the drunk man who was right behind them, and as the drummers were about the leap backwards, Rob turned to me and said the drunk man is going to go flying...I pictured it all in my head, but somehow he avoided the drummers leaping back, it was amazing.
So Ran, Rob, Christopher, Cletus and I sat as our counterparts formally greeted the chief and introduced us to him and why we were here.  Then the drumming and dancing continued.  The drummers had these drums that had two drum heads on opposite sides, which strings attached between the two drum heads.  They could control the pitch of the drum by pulling or pushing on the strings, very cool.
Then we went back to Ran's room to greet more people, with yet more pito.  We finally were able to go outside and watching the dancing in the compound's courtyard.  It seemed to be some sort of dance-off, with a big crowd gathered around the dancers and drummers.  The drummers would determine by the beat they played whether the boys or girls could dance, but mostly they played beats for the girls because they were much better dancers than the boys.  The dancing was very jerky, with violent arm and leg movements up and down, it did not look very comfortable.  If the crowd really liked the person dancing in the center, they would place a one cedi bill on their foreheads so that they would keep on dancing.  Of course Cletus and Christopher wanted me to try.  Haha, heck no.  At one point Cletus turned to me and told me that he would never let his son dance like this, because he could easily be bewitched.  Interesting.
The next day was Kongo market, and there were a lot of people in town for the festivities, but unfortunately they didn't have the traditional dancing like they had the night before in Yakoti.  Christopher says that this traditional dancing and drumming is disappearing, which made me sad.  But Kongo will always have very large speakers that can blast popular Ghanaian music for all hours of the night.
On New Years, the section of Kongo called Pitanga had a meeting, I guess for the inauguration of an association.  What association, I have no idea.  There were many influential people from the community there to speak- a doctor, a handyman, the District Chief Executive...at one point, I was introduced to the whole crowd and had to stand up in front of all these people, but luckily I wasn't asked to say anything.  And since it was New Years, I got many special greeting from different people, usually along the lines of "may we both be here this time next year" or "may God give us a good year" or "may God give you a child by this time next year,"  which was the first time since being in Ghana that the subject of children has come up, suprisingly.  There was also a few "may we have a child by this time next year" or "may you have twins by this time next year."  Whoa there.  At first I was taken aback, but then I remembered I was in Ghana, and every woman is either pregnant or has a child wrapped around there back, and if they don't have a child, people ask why they don't have a child and say they need to have babies.  So very quickly I came up with some responses that would make the comments go away, like "Well, if I have a child, then Peace Corps will send me home" and "I don't think my husband would like me having someone else's child."  Ususally that did the trick.
After a few weeks, I finally started to cook for myself.  Took a while to get the regulator to hook up to the cylinder.  I had several people look at it to try to hook it up properly, and I even took the regulator to Bolga to test in out on another cylinder, and it worked fine...so I finally just fixed the problem myself and duct-taped the regulator to the cylinder.  Bingo.  I told Christopher about how I fixed my regulator-cylinder problem, and I told him about all the things I have set up in my room and compound without any tools, and he responded, "You should have been a man!"  I guess I'll take that as a compliment.
Before I got the stove to work, I was so anxious to cook, I made about the only thing possible with only tomatoes, onions, garlic and salt: salsa.  It was about the most delicious thing I had tasted in my life; by that point, my body was repulsing all Ghanaian food.  But now with my stove, the food has gotten even better: soups and stews with beans and veggies, eggs (NOT fried, which is the only way they make them here, other than hard-boiled), oats, tea and coffee, pasta sauces, potatoes (expensive, but sooo worth it), salad... I have to get pretty creative since I use mostly tomatoes and onions in nearly everything I eat.
My days are taken up by going to the markets (Bolga, Kongo and sometimes Pelungu), cooking, doing laundry, sweeping my room and veranda (you have to sweep every single day because it is SO DUSTY), drinking pito, bucket bathes, running in the mornings when not many people are awake and its still relatively cool, although its not cool anymore even at night since we're into hot season, yay.  I also hang out with Alice, Cletus' wife, at there house in Kongo, which is about a minute walk from my house.  Sometimes I'll help her cook food, and if Cletus, Christopher or Esther are around, we'll get some pito to drink.  This week I went to Christopher's family house to drink pito and cook with Esther.  She taught me how to make jollof rice and okra stew, and I stirred tzet!  I also have started playing football with the men in my community that play in the market square.  Its a lot of fun, but I have a lot of practicing to do.  USA Women's Soccer Team here I come! Just kidding.
At the end of January and beginning of February, there was lots going on with the African Cup of Nations.  Ghana made it to the semifinals, but lost to Zambia, who ended up winning the cup.  It was a great final game against the Ivory Coast.  Now I'm looking forward to the qualifying games for the 2014 World Cup and the Olympics. 
Esther took me to Kong-Gorug primary last week, so for at least this month I'm going to go to the school twice a week and do some activities with the kids.  More to come on that.  Also more to come on market days and a more lengthy description of the food.
My days are certainly getting busier, but what I like most about each new day is that I never really know what I'm going to do.  One day I may sit and drink pito and talk all day; another day I'll spend in Bolga visting other volunteers; another day I'll go through market, talking with the women I buy food from; maybe I'll bike to Zanlerigu with Alice, or bike to Pelungu market; and then many times I just sit in my room and read all day.  I like the spontaneity of each day.  I'm someone who always plans, who always needs a plan, but here, plans don't exist.  Time almost doesn't exist.  Its good for me.