Cuisine

Ok, I have to admit it: I do not like “funje”. “Funje” is the local maize or manioc “mash”, which forms the basis to pretty much every meal. Most Angolans would say they couldn’t imagine not eating funje at least once a day. The real “test” for a good housewife is her ability of preparing funje. No party would be complete without a hearty funje meal. But while I’m curious enough to taste anything, no matter how “weird” it looks or smells, I am just not able to go crazy for funje and crave it when I have to go a day without it. So, I end of confirming local stereotypes. White people like potatoes. Check. And pasta. Check. White women prefer vegetables to chicken or beef. I’m no vegetarian, but check. They also think that a bowl of fruit can actually be a full meal. The perfect lunch when it’s 30 degrees outside: mango, pineapple, passion fruit and a bit of guava juice. Check. White folks can’t live without coffee. Check!! And perhaps their skin colour is due to the fact that they drink so much milk… Who knows! But check the milk-drinking bit. It’s nice to know that in any case we can all sit together at the same table and wonder and laugh about each others “weird” food preferences!

Moments

There are moments when things seem a bit hopeless and impossible: nothing seems to move anywhere, the medical centre further from being ready than ever, people difficult to work with, untrustworthy, lazy, not interested. A huge cockroach runs over the just cleaned kitchen floor; it’s too hot to do anything without sweating profusely; the person you needed to speak to is incredibly late again; the telephone line is dead once again. The family next door has just bought a new generator and sound system and insists on playing the worst possible techno music as loud as possible. The car has a problem that no one seems able to identify and fix. Tomatoes have again gone up in price and all shops in town have run out of soap (or mineral water, or toothpaste, or toilet paper). Will this place ever progress, ever change, ever get even slightly better? And, most of all, what does it mean to "get better”?

And then something happens: a kid rides by on a bike that’s far too big and smiles and waves. You become aware of the incredible shades of green of the trees against the amazingly blue sky and the rich, red earth. A gentle breeze refreshes the air and carries the smell of mangoes ready to fall from a tree nearby. The sun drops at the horizon in one of those glorious sunsets that seems unreal and gives you goose bumps. You see two women chatting with each other, while smoothly walking along and carrying their babies on their backs, wrapped in colourful textile. The neighbour finally runs out of gasoline and in the following silence you hear a bird sing, a distant group of people rehearsing church songs, clapping their hands and playing the drums. The mind goes quiet, forgets to be angry and hopeless and decides once again that being here is the best choice of all.

Social networks

When we hear the word we are by now used to think of “chatting to people online”, “poking”, “connecting”, “e-mailing”, etc. We are always informed, always reachable, always “in touch” with everyone.

What about walking 10 miles to go see your uncle who is sick? Or seeing the new born baby of the cousin who lives three villages away? What about sitting at the fireplace, telling stories with friends who seemed to be long gone and suddenly reappeared? What about calling the “phone booth” of a village, only to have one of the boys run to the house of the person you are trying to call and announcing the phone call?

To be sure some speed has been added to the process, a general “easiness” of keeping in touch, but are we really that much closer? Didn’t we loose some “poetry” in the process and are we really being able to use all this speed to our advantage, or does it end up just being all more superficial?

Coffee

Why is it that in the “West” we consume almost all the coffee that is grown almost exclusively in South America, South Asia and Africa? The only Angolans I’ve ever seen drink coffee are the ones that are “westernized” or trying to be.

How is it that the Swiss are known for the chocolate they produce and dominate the market of this product, when they haven’t even had colonies and all the cocoa is produced very far away from their borders? I think in Benguela I’m one of the few to buy chocolate every once in a while, along with the foreign doctors and a few NGO employees.

Puzzles, to which so far I haven’t even been able to find the slightest hint of a solution!