African Adventures: Food Fun!

Last week we went to FHE with the Young Adults here in Ikeja Ward. They wanted to learn to bake from the Bakers-imagine that!! It presented some interesting challenges as there is not a real kitchen or a working oven in the church building. Well, we backed out a little and asked our good friends and fellow missionary couple, the Meiers to teach these young people how to make banana bread--the ingredients are abundant here! Sister Meier makes wonderful loaves to give to the missionaries when we visit. So we had these wonderful young people mix it all up...then we fed them some already baked and took their dough home to bake for the missionaries. They loved it and had a great time--especially eating the final product! It is so interesting to me how such a simple thing can bring such happiness. It was a fun night!

Here they are getting started:

Working away.....with smiles!

Some of the group--fed and happy--and smiling!

Next, on Saturday I went to the RS Homemaking--or Activity--or whatever it is called these days. We don't get to go to the Ikeja Ward here on the compound too often as we have been travelling with the mission president to many different wards. But, dear Sister Gold invited us to the activity to make chinchin. I didn't really know what it was but decided I would find out! What fun we had! We discovered that a young woman from the ward, Rose, was getting married next week and the RS sisters had gathered to make a traditional snack for her wedding. Really--Relief Society is the same all over the world--sisters helping sisters! First they mixed a very stiff dough of flour, eggs and such and then the fun began......rolling and cutting!

Sleeping babies pose no problem here...just keep on a rolling!

They even allowed me to help out!

The expert (Sister Gold) at work:

Next comes the cutting--into very long strips with the knife

and then into very little pieces with the scissors!

The bride-to-be happily helping!

Some of the finished product--before frying!

Next--all those pieces have to be fried in boiling oil!

This was a pretty slow process with such a little pot and so much dough so...they brought out the extra "cooker". Can you imagine using this inside any church building you know???? The smoke was thick and I kept worrying that someone's skirt was going up in flames but it all seemed very normal to them. Soon it had a boiling pot of oil cooking on top of it too! And the cooking continued!

(The sink doesn't have any water, so the blue bucket you see is used to haul in water from the outside tap.)

Here I am with the mother-of-the-bride bemoaning the blister I got from cutting! They really thought I was a wimp! See what a couple of months of mission work does for you--soft hands!!

And yesterday we ate these delightful snacks--deep fried chinchin and fried peanuts (that I also helped make!) along with the meal of chicken and rice (what else is there in Nigeria??)

at the wedding of Rose and Daniel.