Peanut Butter Goat Soup

My host, or should I say his girlfriend is a wonderful cook and I enjoyed a traditional African dish this evening of peanut butter soup and rice. The rice being cooked to perfection and the peanut butter soup initially reminding me in a slight manner to the taste of a Chinese curry. But only initially as the soup was by far tastier and hotter than the takeaway curry back home. The dish is served with a spoon and not a knife and fork. No, there are no Peanut Butter jars involved. There is one type of jar that can be used in the UK but apparently the taste is not as good and you must never use a jar that contains sugar. This is a traditional recipe and while eating the meat I noticed that I had never seen bones like the ones that I removed from my dish. I asked about the meat and you can guess by the heading that some poor army somewhere is without its regimental mascot. But Peanut Butter Goat Soup and Rice all washed down with a very large bottle of beer is a meal fit for a king.

WallJecko

The trip to the University of Ghana in Accra was wonderful as my hero Norbert Elias was the Head of the Sociology Department at the University between 1961 and 1964 and I was able to visit the faculty and chat to one of the Professors. Lunch was a stunning array of rice, beans, pantain [spelling may be wrong], noodles and chicken washed down by Orange Fanta. Yoghi and Jess showed me around the campus and joined me for lunch in the Refectory. I encountered a multicoloured Lizard outside of the Sociology Department and five Vultures at the back of the campus. Seagulls are bad enough on the seafront of Aberystwyth back home in Wales. But can you imagine Vultures? It is almost like a trip to the zoo, in that I found my host has a pet Lizard. He lives in my bedroom and is two inches long. He is not really a pet, he/she is a wild one that lives mainly on the walls high up like a spider and is known as a WallJecko. I freaked - a spider will never faze me again after bumping into Mr Jacko this morning. I have been humming THRILLER all day, and intend to sleep while standing upright in the lounge tonight. No we didn't capture it, it's too fast and we were all too tired. The African wildlife story includes two chickens that flew into the garden this morning and were promptly chased by the guard dog. Boy he moves fast, and these chickens should have been used in the CHICKEN RUN movie as they made it over the high railings through sheer determination as the hound bore down on them. Woof, woof readers.

Breakfast and then Uni

The raspberry jam and slices of Chelsea bread without butter went down a treat. The coffee and Frosties, but not in the same dish, were grreaaaAAT! as well. The problem occurred when I finished the meal. The mains water had been shut down and the dishes and other things had to be cleaned. I did the best that I could and left Jeff a note. But I had missed the many large drums strategically located throughout the inside of the house. Remove the lid and hey presto, water for washing and cleaning whenever the mains are switched off. So does dim 'shower' oer am fi yfory, [no cold shower tomorrow] as I am washing with a cold bucket of water and a flannel instead. Yep all over, and there's a lot to cover so it's a big bucket and a modest flannel and I bet it's colder than popping under the cold shower. As Mr Frostie reminds us, gr8. I could write a bit more but the frogs are singing loudly and I am worn out after all that sun, mind you I did sleep on the reclining chair between 9pm and 10pm while listening to African music. Jeff told them to turn it down, but they took the hump and turned it off instead. See, in many ways it's the same the World over and ASBO's could work in Africa as well.