Cookout...

Saturday, May 6, 2006

Today was the BIG day…my family and I had been looking forward to it all week. It was the day that I made hamburgers. Being Saturday, we only had a half day at the training center, so after lunch, I hurried home to get my brothers, so we could get everything I needed. It was definitely an adventure…its not like going to Kroger to pick up dinner.

Once at the market, we hunted down salaat – small bushel (lettuce), tomaate (tomato), kerine (coal), hal – 1 (melon), pommes - 3 (apples), and ananas - 5 (bananas). I don’t know if I paid a good price for all of that but it came to 2,600 CFA. That comes out to be around $5 in the States if you want to look at it that way, but living here, you can’t really do that.

After the market, I was in search of the more luxurious items. I was hesitant in going to a local butcher, so I decided to get the viande hache (ground beef) from the Bon Marche (Toubab Grocery Store). You definetly don’t pay the same prices in the store as you do out in the market. At the Bon Marche, I ended up getting 1.5 Kg of ground beef, mangos – 2 (couldn’t find any good ones in the market), American cheese, and ketchup. It was an expensive trip at the grocery, coming to a total of around $12.

After the Bon Marche, we were in search for buns. The grocery store was out, so we had to brainstorm. First, we went to Pamanda (PC hangout) and I asked if I could buy buns from them, but they didn’t do that. So after asking around and traveling to a few bakeries, we found some fresh buns, which had just come out of the oven. They were amazing. Twelve buns ended up costing 1,200 CFA.

Finally, after about 2 hours in the afternoon heat and some wilted lettuce, we headed back to the house. It was about 4 when we returned, so there was no hurry on dinner (we eat around 8:30 – 9:30 every night). I decided to take a short nap before putting the apron on.

Around 5:00, I started on dinner. I don’t know if the kitchen set up would have passed a health inspection, but I had to utilize what I had. Emeril would have been proud. I started with the fruit, since the meat had to thaw. The preparing of the fruit took a good while, but in the end, I had a huge bowl.

After the fruit, I ground some dried pepper and mixed it with salt. Finally, the meat had thawed and I was able to mix in the pepper and salt. I formed the patties and placed them in the freezer section of the refrigerator. I say freezer very loosely.

At that point, another volunteer came over to use my computer and my mom started making fries. I have no clue how to make them, so I asked if she would. I still had work to do, so I started cutting the tomatoes and shredded the lettuce. I was pretty amazed.

Around 7:30, the grill was started up. Once again, I say grill very loosely. I brought my IPOD and ITrip outside and listened to some tunes like at a good ol’ fashioned cook out. My mom and dad came out and watched my cooking techniques that they were unaccustomed to.

I threw the patties on and had to see what would happen. I really had no clue if the grill that I was working with would work, especially since I didn’t have a spatula or anything. The patties shrank tremendously in size, but the first batch turned out fairly well. I put the second batch on, and another volunteer stopped by my house and was amazed at the guy from Georgia. Tunes going, grilling out, and being in Africa…it just has a certain ring to it.

We set up the stools outside and I got everything together. I had one of my brothers secretly go and pick up a litre bottle of Fanta and a litre bottle of Coke as well. There were I believe 10 or 11 of us…my family, two volunteers, and myself. The meal turned out amazing. My family eats really well here, but it sure was good to eat American food. Also, they enjoyed it tremendously, as did I. It definetly was worth it. It was nice to get the vote of confidence. I was nominated to cook dinner every night, but I had to decline. After dinner, we sat around drinking Fanta and Coke.

Finally, after socializing most of the night away, I headed out with some other volunteers to Pamanadas and to a concert…another night of fun it was.