I think...

Jose` has found a possible solution to keep me busy.  The office often gets visitors from other countries who end up staying for lunch.  The local cook, Sarah, only knows a limited amount of recipes.  So, he asked me to come to the office and teach Sarah some new recipes.  He has given me the use of the quad-bike when it is available and I can come and go as I please.

 

Jamie and Sarah

Some visitors are arriving today (Wednesday) and there are no ingredients in the office kitchen.  I was sent yesterday with Sarah, Jamie the cleaner and Isaac the driver to Atebubu to go and stock up.

 

The three of them gabbed away in their local dialect and the only time I understood what they were saying was when we passed the local "force" and the words "bribery and corruption" were blurted out at least 6 times. (I had to smile to myself.)

 

We spent more than an hour at the market and managed to get some of the items required. (John, the other driver, had to go back to Accra, so he also went with a list.)

I gave instructions to Sarah to make a chicken dish and to start it when she got to work (at about 7am) this morning as the food here needs to be cooked for ages if one doesn't want to break ones teeth.  I said I would come along later to help and to check up on the flavour.

 

I arrived at 9.30am and she was still cutting the onions!  I helped her with the bread and butter pudding and then told her I was leaving.  She was quite upset and concerned about who was going to taste the food.  I told her that if she had listened, then I could have done so then and that I had to go home and prepare for my visitors tonight.  

 

I did go back at 11.30am to check but I now have an inkling of how frustrating it is for Porks working here sometimes.

Luckily I did as she had added far too much ginger and that's all I could taste!  I counteracted it with a little honey and it seemed to work.  She tried hard though and is keen to learn so we will keep trying.

 

It takes me about 5 minutes from home to the office on the quad and it is fun although hot and sweaty underneath the full helmet. The dust as a car passes or comes towards me just billows and blocks my view.  Benji helped me put the helmet on and the strap was loose so I asked him to tighten it as "I am a very precious person....I have two children that I love and that need me to stay safe!" (Tiki and Scruffy!)

All bluffs...............................Kelly and Andrew!

 

Another really disappointing thing happened!  The fresh vegetables at the Accra Mall were either too expensive or of poor quality, so we bought three packets of McCain frozen vegetables.  We placed them in cooler boxes with ice for the trip on the way home.  I used one packet the other night and they were rotten!  I want to try the other two packs but if I find that they too are inedible, then I'll be disappointed again so I am in denial and am pretending that they are fine. Hold thumbs!

Thursday:

 

Hans (from SA) and Benji (from Israel) remember? came for supper last night.  Jose` was also invited but he wasn't feeling well.

 

I made a beef stew and some home-made bread!

Are you as impressed as I am?

 

Here they are "proving" but I am still trying to work out what!

 

 

 

 

Here they are cooked (?).  My gas oven either bakes from the bottom or grills from the top, so when the dish is cooked, it is still pale on top unless I grill it for 5 extra minutes.

 

Then I made Robbie's pudding that flopped.  So I had to make a quick chocolate cake that took 10 minutes! (That is why I would never enter Master-chef......oh, I just thought, I might enter Master-chef Ghana though!)

                                                          See the great presentation?

 

Kelly sent up a dish with Hans that can go in the micro-wave.  I have a 6-minute chocolate cake recipe so while the guys were showering I quickly made one and it was ready by the time they were finished, iced nogal. She also sent up some icing sugar and knitting needles - Hans was concerned that the authorities would think it was cocaine and some traditional weapons.

 

He managed to squeeze a few things into his luggage, including Kelly's Christmas presents for us. Last night was the first night that Porks has read before going to sleep......."Zapiro", from Kell, his favourite! (Book that is and daughter!)

She sent up Trevor Noah dvd's for me and we are waiting for this weekend to watch! Thanks Kell! Look at how happy Dad is!

 

When Gundi wants to get down from the couch, she mews at me.  So I built her a ladder out of a piece of plank so that she can climb up and down at her will.  I will try and get it on video but she is so quick that it is difficult to capture it.  Here she is climbing up.

 

 

 

 

 

and getting ready to "slide" down.

 

and down she goes!

 

If she is on the couch with me and I get up to go to bed, I have to run as she is so quick that she catches up with me and gets in between my feet.  She looks up, realises that I am going, runs to the plank, slides down and takes off after me, squealing along the way.  I'll get Porks to try and get it on video one night.

                                    Here Gundi is stealing a notebook out of Porks' pocket.

 

I think that Porks thinks that you think that I think that Gundi thinks that I am the only special one here, so he sometimes asks me to take a photo of him and Gundi so that we can all stop thinking that!