Cooking and Preparing Our Food!

Hello everyone! First we ask that you lift Randy's Dad Jim up in prayer!!! I am praying for you Jim, Bonnie, Randy, and the rest of the family! May God surround you with love at this difficult time! 

People have been asking us in emails what we eat. So we have been taking some pictures! Some of the food we tried just for fun and we will definitely never try again and others we really liked! First I will explain "The Market". It is right down the road from our house and it is definitely not Giant Eagle or Martins! On Saturday all the local farmers bring their produce to the market and sell their items. Pineapples, bananas, po-po (papaya), and passion fruit are very plentiful! (And very delicious) This is the best fruit I have ever tasted! They also have apples and oranges but they are harder to find! Mangoes are not in season yet but I have heard they are really good! The plantains are good also! We make fried plantain chips! Vegetables that are plentiful are carrots, green beans, onions, peppers, cabbage, and hot peppers. In Bamenda, we can get lettuce and cucumbers.

 

This is our Market! It is basically a string of little wooden huts that have stores in them. The stores are open during the week also. They sell the basic needs. Flour, sugar, salt, rice, beans, etc. The people bring their produce on Saturday and lay it out on blankets on the ground. We took this picture from the hill above the Market.

After Jen and Randy go to market, everything must be soaked in bleach water for 10 minutes. Here are all our goodies washed, bleached, and drying!! 

Okay here is a food we definitely will not buy again!! The kids were craving bologna. So they were so excited when they found luncheon meat in a can at a store in Bamenda! It looked like bologna on the can! Definitely did not taste like Oscar Mayer on the inside!!!!

Fufu and Jama Jama

This is fufu and jama jama. This is a Cameroonian dish. They eat this a lot! It is made for any celebration or occasion.  The fufu is a lot like grits. The jama jama is the greens. I like both of them. Jen and Randy only like the jama jama! The fufu does not have any taste. It is like white mush but in a good way! Ha!

Elliott likes both too!!

This is Marlis. She is our helper. She has helped us get settled here in Africa and now she is part of our family!!! She is braiding Meg's hair! She is the one who makes us the fufu and jama jama too!

Over the Christmas, we had one of our chickens killed. Young Margret who works at the hostel killed and cleaned it for us! After she was done she wrapped it in a plastic bag and stuck it in the freezer! So Jen got it out and defrosted it! As she was opening the bag, so she could cut it into pieces, two chicken feet popped out at her!!!! So she screamed! But then she looked closer and realized the head was in the cavity of the body too!!!!! We laughed so hard! On the bright side I have never seen a cleaner chicken ever!!! 

Here's the feet hanging out!!

 

The head!! Here they use the whole chicken!!! Not us though!

Our first African Tea Party!! It wasn't the same without you, Grammy!! But the kids enjoyed it!

Here is Gretchen and her chicken!! We have not killed this one yet! The kids think of it as their pet! He follows them around when they try to feed and water him!

Here are Megan and Elliott in their matching African outfits! They wore them to church on Sunday!

We celebrated Randy's birthday yesterday! We had lunch as a family and also some of the kids came too! We had brownie sundae for dessert! Jen made the brownies and I made the ice cream! We used matches as candles on the cake!!! It worked pretty well except matches burn quite quickly!!! 

Megan roasting a hot dog over the flames of our stove!! The hot dogs over here come in a can! There are 10 of them in one can! The can is the size of a regular soup can! So they are pretty tiny! Gretchen likes them! Hot dog and french fries is her go to meal when she hasn't eaten anything else! We have so many more pictures of the food here so we might have to make another post later!!

Prayers for Jen this week as she is in Banso working there! Prayers for us as we miss having her here with us! The kids and I will be going to Bamenda for a two week stay starting February 3rd! The kids are going to a home school group session! It should be really neat! They will attend class with the other kids and also have swimming lessons. The helicopter pilot is doing the special studies for the two weeks. It is on small engines! Gretchen also gets to attend! She will be in the preschool class! I will be helping out as needed! I'm sure they will have lots to share when we get back!!  Prayers for friends and family back home! We miss you!! Prayers for the Muthler family as they are preparing for their trip to Ethiopia!  Prayers for Leevi Steele!!! Again prayers for Jim and the entire Keyser family!!

 

Fear not, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  Isaiah 41:10