Missive from the Congo 021

Feeding Canada House – A tale of two cities. Preparing meals and eating generally is something we take for granted. We all have our different routines at home but generally we shop, we cook, we eat. Pretty straightforward. However all of that is much more difficult here in the Congo. The first thing is to establish the division of labour. The people living in Canada House never lived with each other before. They are thrust together for a few months and have to sort themselves out. Who cooks? Who shops? And for what? All of these things need to be decided in a much more explicit fashion than back in Canada.

Shopping is a real chore. One reason is availability of ingredients. Although you can get quite a bit more stuff in Goma and Kinshasa than you could in Kisangani, it is still limited as compared to Loblaws, for example. Time and space is often an issue as well. Shopping is much more time consuming because you need to go to more places to get what you need and getting from A to B is generally a much slower process than it would be in Canada for similar distances.

Cooking is also a different process. Back home I know that my role is that of sous-chef and BBQ master. Here these roles have to be re-negotiated based on a new situation. The approach to this task is very different in Kinshasa and Goma.

In Kinshasa they have decided to cook supper for themselves (ie. no local cook). And because they are a large group (currently 9 but sometimes up to 12 with visitors) they have a posted duty schedule. The duty cook gets to choose what meal they want to prepare but they have to try and please most of the dinners with their selection. No really off the wall stuff (as far as I know). The cook has to identify the necessary ingredients and pass the list on to the clerk whose duties include grocery shopping. The cook then cooks the meal. This is generally the most challenging part. The kitchens in Kinshasa are small. I say kitchens because the residents are in two adjoining town houses. One of the houses seems to have become the de facto supper house though sometimes the cooks needs assets from both kitchens. The stoves are not the most powerful cooking appliances going. And you need to cook for a relatively large group. Hopefully you have good power when you’re the cook. Otherwise things go pear shape pretty quick. During my stay in Kinshasa I got tagged for one meal. I chose Indian butter chicken. We managed to get all of the ingredients. The meal turned out quite well but cooking it took considerably longer than I had expected because of quantity and equipment limitations. I’d say we ate about 40 minutes later than I had originally planned but I guess the others had a more realistic time appreciation because there was no complaining. The upside of being the cook is that you are excused from clean up duty. And of course you get to eat something you like.

Kitchen in Goma

The folks in Goma opted to get a cook. Our kitchen is somewhat bigger than the ones I Kinshasa. We have two butane powered burners and a small (24”) stove. Apparently the oven works now. And I purchased a microwave oven last weekend. We used to have one in Kisangani, which was purchased while I was there four years ago but I guess it gave up the ghost because it’s lying in pieces in the backyard. At least I think it’s the same one. Charlotte’s daughter Carmeli cooks supper for us. We check off on a sheet whether we will be there or not and she prepares a meal accordingly from a fairly finite set of meal ideas. I’d say there are about 10 meals on a rotation. Generally good but pretty basic. She and Charlotte do most of the shopping. On the weekends were on our own. In those cases we either go out or someone volunteers to cook something. It’s a much more informal arrangement but with a smaller group, we’re 5 in the house, it works.

Butane stove

One last thing about suppers. Meals in Goma are rarely a collective activity. The meal is prepared before Carmeli leaves and sits in the Kitchen. People go in and serve themselves. Some of us workout before supper. Others eat right away. I don’t think we all sit down for a meal at the same time more than three times a week. Again, a much more informal approach. In Kinshasa, they make an effort to all eat at the same time. They also always toast the cook at supper. Everybody has to acknowledge the toast of everybody else at the table, and you have to look everybody in the eyes. Eye contact is essential apparently. Nothing wrong with that I guess, it was just a bit weird. Those Kinshasa folks are eccentric.

As for the other meals, ie breakfast and lunch, the approach is the same in Kinshasa and Goma. You’re on your own for breakfast. Go to the kitchen. Find something and eat it. The maid does the dishes. For lunch people generally go out to a local restaurant. In Goma, the text messages start flying at about noon to see who’s going to be part of the group and where we are going to eat. There is a lovely patio with a fabulous view of the lake at the headquarters. We often eat there because it’s easy, relatively inexpensive, and generally good. There are a handful of other places we go to. The menus are generally similar and they are all uniformly slow. It took an hour and a half to get and eat a cheeseburger last Friday. There is no such thing as fast food in the Congo.