Soya, The New Bubba Gump Shrimp

Okay, so remember in Forrest Gump when Bubba listed out approximately 9 billion different things you could do with shrimp? That is how I feel about soy (soya, as it's called here) after today.



First, my day started with a few noteworthy scenarios:
1. Several schoolchildren passed me on the way to work without acknowledging me. I consider this a feat accomplished. No "mzungu!" No "how ah you?" in a cute small child voice.
2. My boda driver's phone rang while we were driving (riding?) to work. First, his ringtone was a rooster crowing. Story of my life. Second, he answered it. This may just be the New Yorker in me, but I was tempted to tell him as I clung for dear life while the bike swerved all over the road that it was illegal to talk on the phone and drive. Really, it doesn't seem safe.



But more importantly, today began the 3-day workshop on the processing and utilization of soya. The leaders (Community Resource Facilitators = CRF's) of all 25 women's groups in Kakamega (as well as two of WEAEP's vocational students) came to WEAEP to learn about how to make food with soy. They will then each return to their respective Literacy Centers to teach the other women what they learned. Margaret, a member of WEAEP's staff who facilitated the same workshop in Mumias last summer, led the workshop. We boiled the soya beans, shelled them, ground them to make paste, and proceeded to make soy milk (which we used for soy tea), soy sausages mixed with meat, soy vegetarian meatballs, soy nuts, mashed sweet potatoes with soy, cooked greens with soy...and that was just today. On tomorrow's agenda is soy porridge, soy chapatti, soy mandaazi, soy puffs, soy ugali, and soy food mixes. See what I mean? Garlic shrimp, barbecue shrimp, shrimp cocktail...it's incredible how much you can do with soya. And all of the food is so much more filling - I couldn't even eat dinner. I brought Mama Lucy a recipe book and some samples - I think it was a success, especially the soy nuts and the sweet potatoes.




I was again really pleased with the level of enthusiasm and participation from the women. Since Margaret did a lot of the talking, I got to observe more and participate myself. It's really nice to feel that I have become close with some of the women - there are several with whom I've now interacted on multiple occasions. At this point, I can honestly say I feel comfortable spending time with them as a part of their community, and not so much an outsider, a novelty imported directly from America, the land with streets paved in gold.




Needless to say, I'm excited for day 2. I did some work last night on the contract for the soy/vegetable garden, and Erica made headway today. I've done some more tonight, and I'm confident that we'll be able to pull this off. It has been a really busy week, only to get busier as we wrap things up.



I just left the girls' room; I climbed up on the top bunk to tuck Jacks in and tell her a bedtime story - she wanted to hear Aladdin. I think I did alright until the part when Jafar steals the genie lamp - serious holes in my story there. I think I had selective childhood fairy tale memory - I really only remember the happy parts of Disney movies, so my story went something like "Jafar stole the lamp, things got ugly, he was suddenly a big, red, evil genie, something happened at the ends of the earth, Aladdin somehow broke this hourglass and saved Jasmine (Jacky had no idea what an hourglass was, I spared her the explanation), he somehow saved the city, no way to be sure what happened to Jafar, and everyone lived happily ever after." When I was done, Jacks was like, "okay, byeeeeee." But I got a kiss on the cheek goodnight, so I think it was good enough.