Looking back: Cooking and shopping

I remember the first time I walked into the kitchen after arriving at our home last year. I'd seen pictures of the house and new what it would look like, but it's so different to see something in person. And as I walked into the kitchen...that new smell hit me. That new house smell you're acutely aware of when you move somewhere different.

That smell.

I remember the smell and I remember looking around, feeling really intimidated.

Our sponsors graciously left some groceries on the counters for us until we could get to the grocery store. There was homemade banana bread in the refrigerator as a welcoming from the Ambassador. There was a bag of sugar that I thought was salt. There were condiments in the fridge with labels in a language I couldn't read. There was a half a loaf of bread. There were pots and pans and dishes in the cupboards to hold us over until our boxes arrived.

I stood in the kitchen hunched over the island, replaying everything I was told up to this point...."Don't drink the tap water. Don't cook with the tap water. Bleach all your fruits and veggies for two minutes and then rinse them off. There's no need to bleach fruits like bananas and pineapple where you peel the skin. Keep your food tightly sealed to keep out bugs. Scrub the poop off the eggs and bleach them before cooking. And make sure to check and make sure they are fresh because nothing is refrigerated and you have no idea how old those eggs are. Always use a transformer to plug in 120v appliances."

Upon arrival everything began to flood my mind at once. Every time I'd go into the kitchen, I was overwhelmed. It took me a while before I could get into the swing of simply cooking here. I was so overwhelmed with transitioning, that even cooking seemed like a huge endeavor.

Because so much more than cooking was involved. I had to learn how to shop. Learn how to read French and Arabic labels. Figure out how to order cheese and meat at the grocery store not only in French but in kilograms, and demi-kilos, and every increment in between. It took a while to figure out how to calculate that all in my head and figure out in pounds how much I was getting. It took a while to learn Burkina's currency and even know how much to pay for something.

It took a while to find my groove. Nothing was convenient anymore. Everything required extensive prep. And everything cost more money. For such a poor country you'd think the cost of living would be lower, but it's not. A brand name loaf of bread equivalent to what you'd get in the States (like Wonder) costs you between $8-$9. A demi-kilo of cheese which is approximately 1 pound costs you between $8-$10 depending on where you buy it. Flour is over triple the price. Salmon runs you between $80-$100. Liquids are measured in liters here instead of by the gallon and it costs us $7 for the equivalent of a gallon of milk.

And of course there are many things we found that you can't buy here at all. There are many fruits and vegetables that Burkina neither grows nor imports such as blueberries, raspberries, asparagus, squash, celery, and many that you can only find for a couple months out of the year like strawberries and broccoli. And due to the fact that Burkina doesn't have a port and import and transportation prices are so expensive some times it takes months before they are able to restock certain items in the stores. Every now and then they will have cream cheese and cheddar cheese or ricotta. But those are luxuries that aren't frequently available.

We've gotten really good at going without many foods or finding things to substitute in place of certain things.

Over time I've figured out what to buy, how to cook it, ect. And there are many things that I just make homemade now, like tortillas because you can't purchase those here, so I make a batch every week for our Mexican night. I also make our own bread, and I've found some great recipes for homemade enchilada sauce and sloppy joe sauce too.

I've had some disasters. Of course. Things are just different here. Even with all the same ingredients, somehow, the meal will turn out differently.

For a number of months I had a local orphanage, AMPO, that also runs an organic farming school, deliver me a basket of veggies each week along with eggs and a chicken.

The first time I had a chicken delivered I think I had a small undetectable heart attack.

It was abSOlutely horrifying!

When you are used to walking up to the frozen food section in Kroger or HyVee and getting your nicely packaged chicken breasts or thighs for dinner...there is really no way to prepare you for the horror of seeing a freshly killed chicken arrive at your house in a brown paper bag with feathers still sticking out of its skin, its face still attached with its legs wrapped around and stuffed inside its beaks with its claws coming out the back of its neck. 

I let out a good scream, "BLAH!!" and then determined myself to cook that thing and gut it and present it for dinner.

Yeah, I only lasted three "go's" before I called it quits. Some things just aren't worth the trouble...and that was one of 'em.

From then on I just stuck to buying frozen whole chickens from the store. When they could be found.

Its turned into a weekend tradition to go to the boulangerie and buy a couple of baguettes, mash up some avocados and tomatoes and eat ourselves an avocado "sub". It's simple and baguettes are a local staple here, with boulangerie's on nearly every street, you can buy a large baguette which will feed three people for 130 franc which is about  $.25.

Many months ago I stopped ordering from Ampo and started buying all my veggies at a local market we found in a nearby neighborhood.

A lot of people here will have their household help go to the market for them to purchase all their veggies....but I like to do all our shopping myself. I like to go to the market, walking over the uneven and murky ground covered in egg shells and fish bones, weaving in and out through the different vendor stalls, and purchase veggies for a few days. I have certain ladies that I go to to buy certain veggies from, and after a short time they've come to recognize me and will throw in little gifts from time to to, like a couple oranges (which are green here and not orange), for returning back to them each week.

And due to the different foods available here we've all learned to eat different things than we did in the States. I have become quite fond of avocado and mangoes and there is a local dish called rizgraw that we all enjoy. And the girls now eat a lot more eggplant than they ever have in their lives because it's available year round in abundance. Marvelly's favorite drink is mango juice and both girls have a deep love for couscous that now supersedes Kraft macaroni. And of course baguettes, with anything on them is always a favorite.

So slowly, over time, We've started to find our way. It wasn't an easy transition, but we've gotten the hang of it.

And now when I walk into the kitchen I don't feel that overwhelming feeling I was plagued with in the beginning. The new smells have worn off and become familiar. Every now and then though....I'll walk into the kitchen, and I will catch a wiff of what it smelled like in the beginning, and it will take me back to those first few weeks of being here. And I will stand and marvel at how far we've come.

Yes, we are getting the hang of it. Getting the hang of living here, adjusting to new normals, cooking and eating and shopping included. It's a continuing process, but a process I'm glad to be making.