Deep fried ants and other animals
One evening last week (since the day I wrote this was the day when the net decided to die so I can’t now use the easier phraseology of ‘yesterday evening’) I decided to cook a very basic tomato sauce for supper. I picked up the frying pan from the pile of (probably) clean utensils and placed it on the hob. After having prepared the sauce in a bowl, I got read to light the hob- not helped by the fact that our gas cylinder seems to have issues in letting too much gas escape into the air, to the extent that a hand, foot (or more usefully the full 5 gallon water butt which hadn’t been opened yet , since all limbs are then free to move around the kitchen doing other activities, unfortunately this took me a couple of mins to work out/organise during which period immobility was becoming increasingly annoying) had to remain on the valve at all times to ensure that the only gas that left the cylinder went to the hob rather than into the air. I’d placed a dribble of oil in the bottom of the pan (not strictly necessary but helps things not to stick) and as I lit the hob, noticed several ants running round the edge of the pan, since at this point in time I hadn’t realised the usefulness of the water butt and was holding the valve in place using my foot, trying to get rid of the unwelcome spectators was unsuccessful. Anyway, the assumption was that the ants would try to get away from the heat in the middle of the pan, unfortunately the heat obviously wasn’t to their liking and instead of taking a running leap onto the hob, they ran round in circles all over the frying pan. Eventually, the oil was hot and very liquid and made and light fizzle-pop sound as it encounter the extra protein that had sacrificed itself in the frying pan. Once having removed the ants from the oil, used the water butt to prevent problems with the gas supply, and cooked supper I very much enjoyed it, but it was a bit of a hassle. However, I know that several people (a few ex pats but many, many locals), would love the option of cooking on a stove in doors, since currently all their cooking must be down outside, so I do remember that a few ants really aren’t that much of a problem and that I do have a very high standard of life compared to so many people here in SL.Those of you of a squeamish disposition should avoid reading the next paragraph…
When I first arrived here I was encourage to read the book Aminata Forna’s ‘The Devil that Danced on the Water’, which is about her childhood in SL, growing up during Siaka Steven’s era. One of the more familial touches in the book describes how all clothes had to be carefully ironed to get rid of the eggs that flies might have laid upon them and even then, each weekend, their mother would carefully examine all the children to check for spots which might show where the eggs/larvae had hatched and burrowed into the children’s skin. This was then treated using liberal doses of vaseline over the spots, since this would deprive the larvae of oxygen and force them to exit the body, any recalcitrant larvae would then be squeezed out of the body (along with the liquid surrounding them). Unfortunately I (as well as several of my friends here), have now had first hand experience of this and although it’s pretty gross, it’s not as painful as I was first lead to believe it would be.
Anyway, back to other news, we have recently had a sudden downpour of rain. For those not conversant with a dry-season, wet-season lifestyle, this type of thing is pretty rare in the middle of the dry season (where SL is now at). The good side is that it refreshed the air a lot the morning after; it cleaned the streets a bit (ahead of the Saturday clean up- when all citizens of SL are expected to spend the morning cleaning the streets and putting the rubbish in large piles for collection, tho’ often mostly burn it instead) and hopefully add an extra level of water to the reservoirs that supply Freetown with water (much needed since the last rainy season was fairly short-apparently- and F’town’s water supply infrastructure was built to supply a much smaller population than currently lives here now). I know that in May-June 2006, there was rationing of water in Freetown, which made life pretty difficult for everyone for a few weeks and everyone’s hoping that the same thing doesn’t happen again this year; last year the rains arrived in time, but they are becoming gradually more unpredictable as time passes, I hope they do not tarry too much. The possibly negative point about the rains last night is their suddenness and ferocity (when it rains here it really rains- no mist or drizzle, but ‘real’ rain), which (I’m told) caused the deaths of several people in the slum areas when they hit F’town in a previous freak burst about a month ago. The slums/shanty towns are often built round the streams/water runways down to the sea/sewers for Freetown and so when the water rushes down from the hills towards the sea, due to the huge build-up of rubbish in these open sewers, it can mean flooding of these homes (with water, sewage and rubbish), as well as possibly sweeping people away with it, which is heart-breaking. Hopefully people living in areas at risk from these rains will have seen the warning signs in the early evening and were able to prevent this from happening.
On a lighter side, here’s a picture of one of the potholes in one of the roads up country, I found this photo in the archives of the Standard Times Press one of
posted by Nenya @ 12:27 pm
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