Africa on my Mind
Last week I shared a blog on Lemon Meringue Pie with new friends Debbie and Rich Basham. They were visiting her father who is at the Lodge where Kit is working on mobility rehabilitation. She wrote back, “Family, friends, food, and robust conversation make our world a better place. Can’t wait to make a lemon meringue pie and share it with friends. You have inspired me.”
Before long, the four of us and her father Chuck were sharing a conversation about Africa on the garden patio at the Lodge as if we’d known each other for a lifetime. Again and again our intersections have revealed circles of fascinating connections and shared interests. I am no longer surprised that this happens when kindred spirits bump it one another and rich conversations get underway about family, books, food, and travel taken though not together.
One evening Debbie and Rich mentioned that they’d just seen the film Where the Crawdads Sing based on a novel by Delia Owens. That led to me mentioning Cry of the Kalahari—an earlier book by Delia and her husband Mark Owens. Arriving in 1974, the Owenses conducted zoological research on lions and brown hyenas for seven years in the Kalahari Desert. That experience of survival in a remote region of Southern Africa helps explain the seeds of the storyline of Delia’s novel written almost half a century later.
When I asked Debbie if she’d ever been to Africa, she said it had long been a passion of hers. When she finally had an opportunity, she joined a small tour group to experience animals in the wild. Her stories unlocked my own memories of Kenya 35 years ago when I flew from Washington, DC to Frankfurt and many hours later landed at Nairobi’s airport. Exiting the plane onto the tarmac, I was at last on the ancient continent of Africa. Debbie and I agreed that our Kenya experiences had been magical and life altering for both of us.
In 1988, my friend longtime friend Chomsri had suggested that we fly to Kenya to visit my sister Molly, her husband Jim and their 5-year-old son Christopher while they were on assignment in Nairobi working for the Agency for International Development. One of the highlights of the visit for me had been a visit to Nairobi’s large, open air downtown market. It was filled with gorgeous handwoven baskets, fabrics, flowers, and all sorts of delicious fruits and vegetables.
In the journal I kept on that visit, I found a picture postcard of Old Nairobi circa the late 1890s. There are also sketches and drawings that Christopher and I drew on the pages. I recalled exploring the extensive garden on the compound they lived in that included vegetables, banana trees, a rabbit hutch and chicken coop all tended by Jim and their resident gardener who I believe was married to their cook. During their long career with USAID—one that took them on five-year postings in Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal and a second tour in Indonesia— Molly packed along favorite recipes like this one for Tabbouleh Salad that I’d copied into my travel journal.
Molly’s Tabbouleh Salad
Ingredients:
1 cups bulgur
2 cups boiling water
2 tomatoes finely chopped
1/3 cup green onions
3 tablespoons fresh mint or 2 teaspoons dry mint
1/2 cup parsley (freshly chopped)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Directions:
Remove 2 cups boiling water from heat.
Add one cup of bulgur.
Cover pan and soak bulgur in the water for one hour.
Drain well.
Combine all remaining ingredients.
Chill 2 hours.
Serve alone or on a bed of romaine lettuce leaves. (Also delicious with slices of avocado, cucumbers, chickpeas, red pepper)
This week my niece Aliya and her daughter’s Zehra and Saira are staying me here in Nevada City and visiting Kit at the “Lodge” in Grass Valley. In addition to exploring the sights in and around Nevada County, the four of us will be cooking together in my galley kitchen a world away in time and place from their Aunt Molly’s kitchen in Nairobi. During shared meals, conversations will weave together our collective memories of Molly, Kenya and events that first brought us together as a family.
That is the power of time, place, food, travel, and robust conversations that keep stories alive.