Community Life

Two days ago Max, Lucija (new volunteers), Edem and me cooked our own dinner – rice with palavasauce. That was a long and interesting process.

At 5pm we left the office and headed the market. We bought tomatoes, onion, cotombre, eggs, palm oil and rice. On our way home Edem met a friend of him which happens to be his friend. He said he would drive us home. On the way home this police man said “one for the road” – we ended up in a drinking spot drinking whiskey!

When we got there I thought to myself “a police man drinking while driving… that’s not exactly what should happen”, but then I realized that he didn’t drink so I was relieved.

He paid for everyone’s drinks which is something very normal here: the most “powerful” person usually pays for everyone because “you never know what tomorrow might bring and maybe tomorrow you’ll need someone to back you up”. That’s the same for dinners. When people have dinner together there is usually one person who pays for everyone because “what if one person finishes dinner and then realizes that he has no money to pay for?”

When we finished drinking the police man threw the whiskey that was left on the glasses away. That means he is a traditional person who believes in spirits. He did so to give a bit of whiskey to the spirits because you “don´t want to piss them off” – they need to be kept satisfied or something bad might happen to you.

When we arrived home Edem said the police man hadn´t drunk because he was already tipsy. I guess I was wrong…

We left the ingredients at home and Edem said “ladies, stay here and we, the men, will get the stove and the char coals! Ahahah” – that meant they were actually going to get it but they were also having another whiskey! That’s how it works: most men spend the evenings at the drinking spots having whiskey.

When the men were back we started cooking – three hours after we started our cooking activity! Then we realized that we needed salt so Edem said again “we, the men, will get salt! Ahahah” – I guess it’s easy to understand the meaning behind it.

While cooking we were all impressed about how Edem was moving the pot from one place to the other as well as the glowing char coals with his hands! He says that we just need to “switch off our mind” and it will be fine. I tried it: it was really warm but I managed to hold the pot only with my hands for some seconds! He says that’s how people cook in communities. Women move big pots from one side to the other as if they were cold and when men need to start the fire they walk to the closest house which has someone cooking and bring one piece of glowing char coal in their own hands so that they can start their own.

It was 9h30pm when we started eating. We all ate from the same plate with our hands, just like most of the people do it here. Since very young kids learn how to live in a community and soon they learn the values of sharing and baking up the one next to them – when they eat all from the same plate they learn to share their food.

07/09/2012