Just Go for it!

So it seems I have made a promise to talk about the food! I will probably be doing food updates from time to time as we are eating Cameroonian food once a day, but this is a catch up food post. For the week I have been served a lot of American food. It is probably because the people who serve us either 1) understanding that it takes time for us to warm up to Cameroonian food 2) They know that we will eat American food if they serve it 3) They miss the American food themselves.

Whatever the reasoning seems to be, I have had more lasagna, pot roast, and potatoes in this last week than my whole life. (not really) But I have to tell you, after not having really anything in our tradition and culture anymore, it is really nice to walk into a house and smell the pot roast. The interesting thing to think about when I am eating lasagna and pot roast, many of the ingredients that would be at the palm of our hands, are now non-existent. A few nights ago when I had the lasagna, the lady who made it, made her own noodles, made her own cheese, and made her own sauce. Everything is from scratch..so I cannot even explain to you the taste. It was as if I was floating on a fluffy cloud in heaven. Everything was fresh and bold..if only we did this in the United States. Many of the SIL members, and the Jackson house, have cooks. So many of the people who are cooking the food are Cameroonians, which was another interesting topic for me to explore. In the States, I do not know about you, but in my mindset having your own cook is a sign of wealth or a sign of being too busy. It is very true the Jackson's are very, very, VERY busy people. Chris is so busy I do not see him until dinner time. He is out and about fixing problems in the house (like the other day he was fixing the fridge, yesterday he was fixing the washing machine, this morning currently there is no water so he is attempting to figure out the problem.) On top of fixing everything SIL is calling him hoping he would speed up the internet connection, talk to this person, talk to that person, and in the meantime while being called all over the place somehow work on translating the Sunday School lessons….(sorry I just got sidetracked just thinking about how much this man really does..) Karen is very similar, she is not so much as the tech woman, but she is more on the relational side of things. She reaches out to people, she keeps the Jackson name floating around so that when people have nowhere to go, or have nothing to eat, they will come by. She has the biggest heart I have ever seen. This woman can make you feel like all your life you had been part of this family. She welcomes you with warm embrace, she offers an ear if you need to talk to someone, she engages in conversation..she is a magic woman..they both are magic people strengthened from God.

Back to what I was talking about, as you can see they are very busy people, and cooking for sometimes thirty people is not an easy task. (about an average of people who come by the house daily.) So Chris and Karen have hired two Cameroonian ladies to do all the cooking during the week. At first I was not sure by this..me, being very I guess you could say racially sensitive (which I think we feel this way because race is a very sensitive subject to talk about in the States), the thought of being white in Africa and having Cameroonian cooks feels to me a little sensitive. But I came to learn that the women are given a full time job, and they are paid well. This means that these women are able to provide a steady income to their families, which is a big deal. The cooks have also become a part of the family as well. It really is an amazing thing to see. So how it is set up is that every lunch time we eat Cameroonian food, and every dinner we have American food.

A couple of dishes that I have had that are true Cameroonian food is a thing called, and pardon my spelling, foo foo jamma-jamma. This “tasty” treat seems to be popular with everyone. Sadly, it is a meal that frightens me. I have had it twice so far, if I am able to load pictures I will attempt to, but this meal consists of slimy dough that is made of cornmeal, and cut and cooked greens that take on the look of grass. You eat this meal, and every Cameroonian meal, with your hands; You pick a piece of the dough up and then you scoop up some of the green and you eat it. Everything is hot and steamy. The reason I personally have a hard time with this meal, as well as many other foreigners, is for the fact that if it is not prepared correctly, the greens come out very bitter and overly slimy. The first time that I tried the foo foo jamma-jamma it was not prepared correctly so it was very difficult to eat. They also included a fish cut in half. I enjoyed the fish, but the rest was very difficult. The rule is if you cannot finish a meal in Cameroon you say, “it has defeated me!” and the cooks will be pleased with that. It is a sign saying that the food was too much and you could only eat what your stomach would allow.

Another dish that I have tried is probably the most welcome by foreigners because for the decadent taste, it is rice with peanut sauce. It almost reminds me of curry, but it does not have the curry taste it is more of a darker and richer peanut flavor. I enjoyed it very much! You can have this with boiled potatoes, or with rice. It was hard to not have a second helping of it, but I kept in mind that while I am here I need to make attempt to keep my girlish figure!

One fun thing in Cameroon is that on the side of the road venders have made camp, and they sell the items on their farm. This usually consists of carrots, bananas, mango, “plums” (which are totally different than plums in the states.) yams, apples, watermelon, ground nuts, and plantains. As we made our trek up to Bamenda we would stop and buy some bananas or anything that caught our interest. In Bamenda the cooks make plantains with almost every meal. This is probably one of my favorite foods so far! They throw the plantains in the oven and you eat them with ketchup! It is a sweet, amazing taste that I honestly have craved everyday! The mango here is hands down the best mango I have ever had in my life. It is very juicy and very sweet. I eat bananas all the time as well (hurray for me getting over my dislike for them! They are one hundred times better over here as well!)

One of the most recent meals that I have had, which was just for lunch today, was boiled potatoes with seasoned black beans. The black beans were soaked in this amazing sauce. I am a big black bean person so this was right up my alley. With each meal they usually have salad and cut up fruit.

Milk is very hard and very expensive to come by over here so for coffee, baking, and anything that requires milk they use powder. I have gotten used to it now, and I actually enjoy waking up every morning for the coffee. Quality chocolate is another difficult thing to get over here, so any way to get chocolate you snag it! (thank the Lord I found Nutella in Yaoundé!) I will hopefully be able to post some pictures up soon that you all can get some visual aids to everything!

If you have any questions just let me know!

Blessings!

-Sarah Newman