When the world gives you sour milk....

....you make cheese? So, I was at the hospital the other day and a Fulbe woman selling milk arrived. I bought a liter of fresh milk for 250 FCFA (approximately 50 cents). I asked my supervisor's family during lunch how to store the milk so it won't go bad. My supervisor said boil it all tonight and then bring it to a boil again tomorrow morning before I want to drink it. My supervisor's son, on the other hand, said to just leave it out tonight and bring it all to a boil tomorrow. Now I was in a dilemma. To boil or not to boil the milk during the evening. I decided to conduct an experiment; I boiled half at night and kept the other half in a separate container not boiled. When I woke up in the morning, I boiled again the pre-boiled milk. It tasted normal, just like the day before, and I used it in cereal. I picked up the lid to the non-boiled milk, and immediately an awful smell filled the room. It had gone bad overnight...or so I thought. I figured I could give it to the dog anyway, so I started heating it...and soon noticed a change happening to the bad-smelling milk. It was starting to form chunks and I began stirring the liquid with a spoon. When I lifted the spoon, something stuck onto it; CHEESE. It wasn't very much cheese, but I extracted as much as I could. I thought to myself "if I get sick tomorrow, atleast I know why". It tasted so good! Straight up mozzerella! But, after the liquid continued to heat up and boil, the cheese chunks soon melted and were no more. I gave the warm milk to the dog and went about my day happy as ever that my experiments were successful.

27 septembre 2011

My current life schedule:

Monday: go to hospital, do prenatal consultations if female nurse is not there, or help my supervisor with paperwork to send to the health department

Tuesday: go to hospital, vaccination and baby-weighing day, weigh babies and help with vaccination cards and paperwork

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: teach english at the high school in 4e and 5e classes

Saturday: go out to the fields with some friends or hang out and the house and clean and do laundry

Sunday: go to church at my supervisor's house next to the hospital, come back in the afternoon and put together lessons for class, think about life

September 29, 2011

Mark this date ladies and gents, I have officially turned cous-cous. Yes, since arriving, I have watched women turn cous-cous countless times, and I have often started the turning but never finished, or took turns with little Nini and then Fadi took over to finish the turning process...but tonight, from beginning to end, I turned cous-cous. And it wasn't half-bad either. When turning cous-cous, if the corn flour is not evenly cooked and stirred/turned, then chunks of the powder will remain. My cous-cous, however, was chunkless. It was smooth and yummy and Fadi and I ate it up with some sauce that Nini had prepared earlier. I hadn't tried to turn in a couple of months since a failed attempt with Nini where Fadi had to take over and finish. Have I become stronger, is that why I was able to prepare din for the whole fam tonight? Or has my technique just become better? I have a theory about which muscles in the back are most used here during farming/household chores/cous-cous preparation. Here's the theory: the back muscles worked out here in Cameroon are not the same back muscles that get exercise in the US of A. Maybe the makers of the Nautilus machines at the gym haven't yet designed equipment that can trigger all back muscles. I'm pretty sure the emphasis when farming and turning cous-cous is the upper back muscles. There must be a workout machine for that though. Or maybe working out in a gym just can't come close to good ol' outdoor physical labor. Anywho, yes, cous-cous has been turned, mark this date down in the calendars :). Next, says Fadi, she will write down the date when I cannot only turn cous-cous, but make the sauce along with it and bring it to the house.