April Market Day

Market Day

So, following up on last update, I went to the market today. I spent more time there today than I usually do and was extremely surprised by what I saw. With the hot weather, the lack of farming, and people’s tendencies to spend the hot days lounging underneath trees, I fully expected to go to the market today and find almost no fresh food. I was pleasantly surprised. I found the usual overripe/underripe tomatoes, onions, and various root vegetables, as I typically see. Instead of the oranges that were prevalent before I left, mangoes have now taken their place as the current fruit in season (surprising, I would have expected mangos to be a wetter season fruit). I also, for one of the first times, saw tons of green, not dried foleré. Foleré is a leafy green here that is a staple for many sauces. It was surprisingly expensive, indicating it was either brought in from another area (maybe with irrigation) or someone grew it on a small field and there wasn’t a lot of it available. Regardless, I was surprised to see it. So far, the only foleré I’ve been able to track down has been dried and pretty tasteless, even in Maroua.

Other new items in the market: squash seeds! The locals don’t eat pumpkin and other squash seeds like we do in the states. Roasting them up and salting them is completely unheard of here. Instead, they take the seeds, dry them in the sun and use them in sauces. They “pilé” or crush them by pounding them repeatedly with a large stick in a large oval standing bowl. I am getting quite good at this, by the way. I often help my friends cook by “pilé”-ing things for them. That’s how they make the northern piment, my substitute for Cholula (a hot sauce) up here. For those of you who don’t know. I love hot sauce. In college, I kept a bottle in my purse at all times, as well as one in my kitchen and bedroom. I love hot sauce, particularly Cholula. Here, I have substituted that for piment. Piment is the name for the local hot peppers. In the south, they make an oily crushed spread out of it, which is still good. But our piment up here is better. They dry the peppers first, then pilé them with ginger, a maggi cube, salt, and sometimes other dried seasonings. It’s delicious. But you have to be careful; you never know how hot it will be. The one I have in my house right now is almost toxic. I put a small spoonful in an entire pot of chili once, almost rendering the entire pot inedible. As it was, everyone was sweating and crying while we ate it. I couldn’t finish my bowl.

But back to the seeds “pistach”. So they pilé the seeds and then make an amazing sauce out of it using onions, garlic, maggi cubes (of course) and whatever other fresh vegetable is available. I’m trying to learn how to make it. First they make a paste out of the crushed seeds, then they form it into a dumpling-like shape and slowly drop it into the rest of the sauce, where it’s supposed to take that form. The only time I witnessed someone cooking it, the balls fell apart to make a weird congealed sauce that still tasted amazing. But I have yet to try it again. That was during site visit. I assume, since I haven’t seen the seeds around, that this is the first time they’ve made an appearance since then. I’m excited about the possibility of learning to cook with it.

Other than that, the market was pretty much the same as every day. There were some more plastic wares than normal. The border to Nigeria is open again and wares coming in are common. In fact, most of the soda that one buys in Mogode is from Nigeria.

I also had another run in with one of the nomadic Fulbes today. I actually saw a couple of them, but while I was at the market, I was stopped, talking to a friend, when one greeted me in Fulfulde. When I ran through my entire knowledge of the languages (lasting no more than 30 seconds, I assure you), my friend helped me translate. I asked the woman for a picture. She had a beautifully tattooed face, similar to the woman I met out on brusse, but not quite as tattooed. The woman laughed, a little uncomfortably and said yes if I paid her. So I did. And I got a photo! Wasn’t a terribly great photo, but a crowd was starting to conglomerate, so I didn’t want to stick around much longer.

All in all, a surprisingly successful, good market. The meat was all gone by the time I got there; probably in preparation for the Easter Holidays. By the way, Happy Easter and Good Friday! And Happy Passover! Unfortunately, since I really had to get back to post, me and the other volunteers are putting off our sedar for a little bit (I know, Jews of convenience). But we don’t have the means or time right now to pull together a real sedar and everyone needed to be back at post. So we decided to do a summer sedar, hopefully with some Cameroonians present, where we can go crazy and do it right. If we’re going to teach these people about our religion, its more important to us that they get the right idea about what it means rather than when it should take place. So for me, I might make some matzah ball soup this weekend (thanks to an amazing care package!) and I’m definitely going to try to keep Passover Kosher as much as possible- no yeast products, soda, or flour.

So happy holidays to you guys across the ocean. And much love from Mogode.