Here's a blog post that I wrote last summer but has been sitting around in my draft folder ever since:
On Saturday evening it started raining, and it rained all night long. By Sunday morning the thunder and lightning had subsided but it was still raining steadily and so laid around reading, took my time making breakfast, and then puttered around, watching TV and going through the newsletters and paperwork that Peace Corps sent out and wondering if it was just going to rain all day long.
It did stop raining by late morning, so I finally got dressed and sunscreened, picked up some tea and sugar, and headed over to visit Halimatou, a young woman who invited me over last week. I've seen her a few times, hanging out with the ladies who sit on the corner, selling roasted peanuts, fried plantain, fried fish, and shiny little packets of cookies. I stop by there pretty regularly to buy roasted peanuts, and occasionally some plantains, and a few of the women speak Pulaar. My Pulaar isn't that great, but Halimatou was sufficiently impressed/entertained and so she pointed out her house and told me to come by on Sunday for lunch, so I did. I brought some tea and sugar with me, we hung out on the porch, chatting about this and that in Pulaar (and, when I was stumbling with my words, in French) and drinking sachets of extremely cold water and watching the little kids enthusiastically but inefficiently draw water from the family's well-maintained pump. Sarah, the other Response Volunteer in Kankan, came over too, and stayed for what turned out to be an extremely delicious lunch.
They gave us a ridiculously large plate of steamed rice and a small vat of amazing peanut sauce - the kind that's rich and savory and full of vegetables and fried fish balls. The fish balls were the good kind, too, made from fresh fish pounded with peanut meal, onions, garlic and spices and, best of all, completely free of the wiry little bones that most people don't bother to pick out before pounding everything up. It was the best peanut sauce I've had since I arrived in Guinea, and I happily accepted an invitation to come back again next week.
On Saturday evening it started raining, and it rained all night long. By Sunday morning the thunder and lightning had subsided but it was still raining steadily and so laid around reading, took my time making breakfast, and then puttered around, watching TV and going through the newsletters and paperwork that Peace Corps sent out and wondering if it was just going to rain all day long.
It did stop raining by late morning, so I finally got dressed and sunscreened, picked up some tea and sugar, and headed over to visit Halimatou, a young woman who invited me over last week. I've seen her a few times, hanging out with the ladies who sit on the corner, selling roasted peanuts, fried plantain, fried fish, and shiny little packets of cookies. I stop by there pretty regularly to buy roasted peanuts, and occasionally some plantains, and a few of the women speak Pulaar. My Pulaar isn't that great, but Halimatou was sufficiently impressed/entertained and so she pointed out her house and told me to come by on Sunday for lunch, so I did. I brought some tea and sugar with me, we hung out on the porch, chatting about this and that in Pulaar (and, when I was stumbling with my words, in French) and drinking sachets of extremely cold water and watching the little kids enthusiastically but inefficiently draw water from the family's well-maintained pump. Sarah, the other Response Volunteer in Kankan, came over too, and stayed for what turned out to be an extremely delicious lunch.
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| Me and Halimatou |
