Spare Time

In the beginning especially volunteers tend to have a fair amount of spare time. People choose to spend their free time in many different ways getting more creative as time goes on I imagine. I choose to spend my free time reading and cooking. I’ve read 15 books in the six week at site making 20 books since arriving in country. Originally my goal was to read 100 books during my service. That may not be too impressive for some but I probably only read 10 books in a year prior to the Peace Corps. However, I’ve since upped my goal to 120…then to 150… then maybe to 200 judging by how quickly I’m finishing books. I’ve added a running list to my blog as a side note if anyone’s interested and I’m open to any book suggestions!

I also spend the majority of my time cooking, thinking about what I’m going to cook, or going to the market to buy what I need to cook. I’ve always liked cooking-mostly baking-but in the States I was too impatient or lazy. My meals were quick and easy-bowl of cereal, apple and peanut butter, mac and cheese, or else I would pick up food that was already ready to eat. I rarely cooked despite having an entire kitchen, oven, four stovetop burners, and all kinds of kitchen utensils (orange peeler anyone?). I can’t wait to have an entire kitchen when I get back to the States, and I plan to fill it with even more utensils (I dream about the day that I own a garlic mincer). However, that is not my reality now. I’m extremely lucky to have a separate kitchen and a stove with two burners. Most Malagasy in my community have 1-2 pots that sit on three bricks and an open fire beneath (hopefully outside!). So everyone is impressed with my stove top and gas tank when they come over. I have plans of making an oven eventually (giant pot, sand and 3-4 empty cans) but I’m still collecting supplies.

I try a new recipe almost every time I cook but my meals mostly consist of pasta and sauce (spaghetti, creamy spinach, spicy fresh tomato), (rice (curry fried rice, Spanish rice, leek and potato risotto), soup (tomato, potato and cheese), or bread and dip (guacamole, hummus). Everything is made from scratch of course and on average takes me an hour to cook. My lazy meal is a scrambled egg sandwich with green onions and tomatoes, with carrots on the side. The Malagasy think my cooking is crazy and are surprised every time I tell them what I’m making. However, there isn’t word I know of for spice so when they ask what I’m making, I say, “rice with green peppers and tomatoes.” They say, “That’s it?” click their tongue disapprovingly, and say “I’ll teach you how to cook.” What I can’t translate is that I add cumin*, cayenne pepper, and garlic salt to make it more flavorful. The conversation ends with me saying, “mahafantatra aho fa hafahafa” (“I know it’s/I’m weird).

*Cumin is one of my favorite things I packed and become somewhat of a prized possession.

 You know you’re a PCV when:
-You know how to make an oven out of a pot, sand and cans
-You impress people by telling them you’re cooking rice that day. Side note-people sometimes show off to me how much rice they can eat, ‘I eat 2 kapoaka (can sized amount) of rice for lunch!” As a reference point I eat about ¼ kapoaka of rice every few days. The Malagasy really love their rice!