Swimming and Weird Food

Yesterday my friends David and Maria (parents of one of my primary students whom I teach in the afternoons) came by and invited me to go for a swim at the beach (yes, we were going to Poop Beach but it was late enough in the day that it should be safe). I quickly applied my sunscreen, grabbed my sunglasses and we were off. I didn’t want to swim as I think the waves are a bit too much for me to swim here. I typically just stand in the waves to my upper legs and stare out across the Atlantic and think about everyone in America I know and love. I think those are the moments that I miss America most.

While we were swimming with 8 naked African boys who had brought a bucket with a lid to act as their water toy for the day, one of David’s friends decided to swim out to the fishing boats and in spite of the waves beating him he made it and climbed in a boat to rest and wave to us. Amazing! In the mean time David would swim out a bit and float in the current along the shoreline and then get out and walk back. I was playing with some little African girls who were scared of getting in the water but wanted me to take them in with me as I wasn’t swimming. So I would hold my arms out to pick them up and they would come over and inspect my whiteness and the anomaly of blond arm hair. I just laughed. None of them actually let me hold them in the water but it was fun.

When we returned to their house Maria had made Acumay (it’s a form of the La Pot I’ve written about before, think sticky very thick potatoes that you eat with your hand and dip in a soup/sauce) The soup she made was with bush rat, okra, greens of some sort, and cow intestines. I agreed to stay. I know that the food is safe at their house and Maria is always cooking something that is interesting and I love it. I know the first time I was at their house for dinner I didn’t eat the chicken feet that she had made but I ate everything else and have since.

Before we ate David asked me if I’d seen a bush rat before and asked Maria if they had one in the kitchen or if they were all cooked. Maria then came from the kitchen holding a bush rat that had been smoked on a stick and she signaled for us to be quiet and she walked up behind her son and she was right behind him as he turned and he saw it and screamed and we all laughed.

As we ate the bush rat and Acumay our fingers burned, but it’s best when its super hot and that’s how you do it. Maria and her friend commented to me that I was Togolese now and I knew how to eat it. Maria told me that she would teach me to make Acumay this way because it doesn’t have all the bad starch in it. I thought this was a great idea. Then we were picking apart the bush rat and found the led ball that it had been shot and killed with. We all laughed and gave it to her son to inspect.

After we were done we had some little fruit that had a soft furry shell and a soft, mildly sweet inside. I called them the furry fruit. Then Maria also brought out an orange unidentified fruit that is stringy like wood but you chew and suck on it and it changes flavor in your mouth. You felt like you were in Willy Wonka’s factory as you chewed and sucked all the weird flavors out before spitting the colorless woody part out.
So my friends you are missing all this by not coming to visit! Please book your tickets soon as I am only here for 5 more months.