When will I learn? These bananas are over ripe, good only for banana bread. Yet, they’re green! Tricky, huh? Someday I’m going to learn to tell the difference between bananas that get yellow when they’re ripe and bananas that stay green when they’re ripe. Oh well, they only cost 30 cents, and maybe I’ll find someone that wants to bake banana bread today.
PS-we ended up making banana milkshakes, too yummy!
The other day I was leaving town and didn’t have time to eat lunch. The public transportation doesn’t run on a schedule here, vehicles leave when they’re full. And when they are, I’d better be ready to go!
So, off I went, kind of hungry, but glad to have found a way to get to town, about 20 miles away. We stopped on the way out to pick up the other passengers. While they were loading, I noticed a woman taking little bean flour donut holes out of the oil they were frying in. Joy! Excitement! Great luck!
You see, once bean beignets have been out of the oil and waiting to be sold for a while, they’re a little bit risky to eat-a fly could have walked on them, for example. But, if you can catch them straight out of the boiling oil and you have your own clean container to put them in, they’re totally safe and pretty tasty. I even had a brand new baggie in my purse!
Then, the safest kind of street food walked past carried on a woman’s head-bananas! The fruit is all nicely wrapped up in the peel, packaged by God for those living in the two-thirds world, and completely safe to eat. We don’t often get them up where I live, it’s too far north and too dry for them to grow. Bananas are a real treat.
So, while the other passengers (which happened to be 16 sheep) were being loaded, I got my travel food and then off we went. It was a really good day-almost as convenient as driving through McDonald’s.
This is lunch for two-the white stuff is kind of like instant grits, and the stew is goat with tomatoes and onions. Usually there are some local greens that are a lot like spinach. Good eating! Really! And, almost as convenient as driving through McDonald’s, because I get it at a little restaurant across the street. It costs me about 50 cents a meal.
When I first got here, I brought everything home, dumped it in a pot, and boiled it for a half hour. I’ve gotten over that-it’s a clean place, they keep everything covered and the stew is boiling all day long.
Going there is great language practice, too. I greet everybody and order in mmm-BELLY-may. My latest feat is understanding the price! More later about the fun way they do numbers when it comes to money.