ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Fun category.

It Rained Today

It rained today as soon as the day warmed up enough. Or maybe I was deceived by the wetness on the ground. For all we know, the snow could just have melted and given the appearance of the after effects of rain. The undeniable fact is that it felt wet and warm, and the air smelled fresh and beautiful. Like spring. No, like the beginning of the raining season in a tropical place.

How do seasons operate? Smells of rain stays the same wherever you go. One day you’re running in shorts in the mud of loam in the back garden of a big house, planting corn and peas and swatting roaming bees around your head, and on another, you’re looking behind your back in a lakeside house in the winter aftermath of rain with the eerie feeling of having smelt this before. The humid air, the smell of leaves and the general atmosphere of creation.

So, back to that garden, there was a notable incident that had the little boy staring for long moments at a black heap of loam where he had just buried two pieces of corn. And with a feeling of satisfaction at the work gone before – clearing the little garden, making the required ridges, adding humus from a nearby poultry farm – he stared at the ground and felt proud of himself, until a voice sounded from the house. It was his mother, peeping through the window. “It looks like you’re waiting for it to sprout already. Give it a few days. It doesn’t grow immediately.”

It is the smell of rain that usually defines those times. After months of dryness, the first few days of rain comes with a freshness that can’t be described. Add that to the pleasure of tilling the soil in an innocent attempt at farming, and you have the poetry of the season. It is sweet to the senses. The flower I tried to raise in my apartment a few weeks ago however has not survived. It may have to do with the house warmer and the absence of sunlight. Yet, life’s pleasures endure.

It Rained Today was published on January 18th, 2011, with the tags , , , under the Fun, Observations, Soliloquy category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

It Begins

It begins with a step, and everything else follows. The last time I had this much fun entering a new year was a few years ago. 2010 though was different though. Alone in an apartment in the height of winter in a small town, I counted down into the year through my snores and a wish that I had means of transporting myself to the centre of all the attraction. Alone and almost out of my mind, I resorted to sleep. When I woke up, the year had already begun, and I just followed it. In some places, that is the worst possible way to begin the year. And look how fabulous that year turned out. I visited places I’d never been before, met many nice people I’d never met before, lived and loved voraciously, and now I’m back to almost the exact same spot, continuing the journey.

And so yesterday began very promisingly, with a visit to a Chinese buffet. I figured that if we’re going to eat into the new year, we might as well do it at the expense of someone else. Not being in the mood to cook all morning, I starved myself into the evening, and headed out when I could with a bunch of friends to the nearest buffet. The countries present at the table were Benin, Morroco, Nigeria and Indonesia. A few hours and many helpings later, we were on our way to another get-together of Nigerians in the United States, but not before finding out that the fortune cookie had a very personalized message for me, again: “You shall step on the soil of many countries.” There couldn’t have been a more auspicious beginning.

After many hours of dancing and listening to Nigerian highlife in the presence of grown folks from Nigeria many of whom haven’t been home in three years, we set out again this time to the bar where the countdown to the new year took place. The bar was Erato, one of the most cozy bars in Edwardsville. In there was my friend the blogger from Ukraine, and her husband. They had a lovely gift for me – a cool ornamented cap to keep my head warm, and an Amazon gift card. Three glasses of mojito, plenty loud guffaws and wine-induced railleries later, we were done.

The countdown was loud and cheerful, as should be in such a place. When it was over, we hugged and smiled, and welcomed ourselves in to the new year. Then we went to the last spot of celebration: the house of the same cool couple to eat the most delicious dessert: cake and champagne, and to laugh, argue, discuss, disagree, learn and mostly to share. By the time we got back home at 4 am, it was hard to summarize the experience as anything but a perfect welcoming into a year of promise.

And all through the night, I kept remembering the text of that message in the fortune cookie.

It Begins was published on January 1st, 2011, with the tags , , , , under the adventures, Fun, Uncategorized category. There are currently 3 comments on this article so far.

September’s Children

It makes sense now, the glee of the New Year’s Eve either with wine, snacks, food, music, and revelry. A special night. What do you know? In an open space with souls of fun drinking to their hearts’ desire, and shouting as the clock counts down to zero, life will begin again with fireworks of the most spectacular kind. It makes sense. What am I even talking about? It is not just a coincidence that December 31 is one of the coldest nights of the year. In the tropics, it is harmattan with the cold dry winds blowing from the north. Here in the cold regions, it is the winter snow and its windshield factors across the night sky. Yet nobody cares, it is the 31st, and the street fills with great spills of joyous moments, and hugs.

Now I’m giddy. A few hours ago, today looked as promising as just any other day. Now not so much anymore. It feels like the end of an old world and a triumphant approach to a new one filled with promises. I already know where I am going to be, riding on the pleasant wings of a beautiful air with loud noises, and laughter, and drinks going down in measured installments. There are many precedents to this revelry, and each comes with the pleasure of remembrance. One of them does not, however, only because it couldn’t be remembered. It feels like the very beginning of a special day. Is there a hovering spirit of birth lurking around the corner? Not for me, but just a general air. Fertility? By September next year, many new children will be welcomed into the world – a result of the pleasantness of New Year’s Eve.

It all makes sense now. Father never was one to spend his New Year’s Eve in the bosom of a church. What do you know? In the space filled with people of fun drinking to their hearts’ desire, and shouting as the clock counts down to zero. There, life sometimes begins, with fireworks of the most special kind. We are called September’s children. And tonight, we celebrate our conception.

September’s Children was published on December 31st, 2010, with the tags , , under the Fun, Observations, Soliloquy, Uncategorized category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

The Social Network of Christmas

Merry Christmas to you blog readers. May the joy of the season delight your heart. Enjoy this video in within mouthsful of delicious food and conversation.

The Social Network of Christmas was published on December 24th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , under the Fun category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

The Pleasure of Swallowing

In the heart of the gastronomical art of the people south of the Sahara is the delight of swallowing. Around mounds of hot dough made out of yam, or rice, or potatoes, or corn, or even millet, bowls of soup lay spread on a mat in the middle of a salivating family. Dinner time is more than just the conversation that lubricates the passing of each balls of dough through the oesophagus into the waiting bellies, it is an appreciation of the craft behind the cooking, and the process of eating. Feeding is an art in itself. I see it now: bowls of pounded yam along with egusi soup, hot plates of amala on which ewedu and gbegiri compete for dominance, and all around the plate surrounding small reefs of fried beef. It is the pleasure to behold, and the pleasure to hold on the tongue before the final swallowing.

So a friend from Jamaica had encountered pounded yam for the very first time, and looked bewildered at the suggestion that each handful of a rounded ball of the dough already coated in soup had to be swallowed in entirety. “This is too large for my throat,” she said. I took another look at pounded yam today and discovered that she was right. Contrary to the suggestion that all you do is throw the ball of food in your mouth and swallow it, the process before the swallowing is actually a little more complicated. It starts with a swirling on the tongue of the food in order to separate what’s “food” and what’s “sauce”. A little teeth-work takes place afterwards to press whatever is necessary into the right shape for the throat. Everything else follows.

It is safer to say that whenever you get a delightful ball of Yoruba food (be it pounded yam, amala or semo) into your mouth along with accompanying spiced vegetables, you may just trust your tongue and teeth to sort out the rest of the job. It goes into the mouth as a ball of dough, but eventually relaxes into something smoother before a delightful passage into the warm embrace of the gut. The pleasure, eventually, is in the eating. Here therefore is a salute not just to the art of cooking and the long history of efforts behind it, but also to those who revel in its delightful consumption, especially across cultural lines. Feeding, after all is an artful exercise. (In other words, you could just say that I do terribly miss my pounded yam.)

The Pleasure of Swallowing was published on December 19th, 2010, with the tags , , , under the Art, Fun, Soliloquy, Uncategorized category. There are currently 10 comments on this article so far.