Fried Catfish

Tuesday 21 May 2013
Fried Catfish

Again James arrived around 1000 Tuesday morning.  We casually walked around the village with more introductions to his large family.  By the afternoon, I had met at least 70 relatives ranging in age from 6 months to 80.  One house contained his niece, Stella.  Stella appeared to be operating a day care center.  Upon entering the yard, there were many young children playing around the house.  The children all congregated around me as we entered the house but they did not come inside.  Stella offered us hot tea with fresh ground cinnamon.  The children were in the 4-5 year old range and were all sitting on the small porch.  When we left, I stopped at the base of the porch and counted while pointing at each individual child as I pointed.  After #2, in unison, they all joined in counting with me in English till I reached 13.  

After leaving I was hungry and wanted more of the tasty fish asking James if we could rent bicycles to go back to the ferry to buy more cooked fish.  Within 200 meters walking through the village, we came across a small market where 2 stalls were selling fried fish of the same varieties seen yesterday.  I bought 5 smaller fish about the size of my flattened hand and 3 more catfish.  At another stall, I bought some cassava, a starchy root similar to potato.  Another stall, I bought a couple cups of raw peanuts then a couple bottles of water.  This was enough food to consume for the rest of the day.  Having a common refrigerator and kitchen for the 4 room dormitory at the hospital guesthouse, I had a place to refrigerate the fried fish.