I am on an impromptu trip to Lome because my Kpalime cluster mates, Nadia and Tristan, are ET'ing (early termination). And it's sad because now 3 people from my already small cluster have left in the last 3 months. But, on a really great positive note let me tell you all about my trip out to Notse and Avassikpe after my awesome pelvic exam required by Peace Corps after 1 year of service. Oh yeah, I have been a volunteer now for 1 year. Bon travail Antigone! So, in total, I have been in Togo for 15 months. Crazy, right? I went to my friend's village in Notse and it was quite interesting because there are about 9 bridges down in Togo, which is causing a lot of problems. List of problems: 1. There are really only 2 main paved roads (the Route National and the Lome-Kpalime-Atakpame road) 2. There are mother loads of semi-trucks that need to transport materials, food, gas etc 3. I live off of a dirt road that connects the Lome-Kpalime road to the Route National. List of solutions: 1. Re-route all semi-trucks through my dirt road so they can avoid the flooding and cluster of damaged bridges that are all concentrated south of Notse 2. Re-route people by making them walk ~1 km with all of their luggage and what-not to the other side of the Route National. I did this in order to get to Notse and it was almost like mass exodus, like the scene in "Fidder on the Roof" when everyone leaves Anatevka together. However, this is a problem and if the roads do not get fixed soon, then travel in this country may come to a halt. I saw 3 semi-trucks yesterday on the Notse mud road that had fallen on their sides and will probably be there for a very long time. No cars are allowed to pass that road now because they would only get stuck in the huge holes the heavy trucks have created day to day during the rainiest season Togo has had in a while. But, once I did actually get to Notse I spent 2 days lolly-gagging around and went to my friends' Moringa fields (see picture with sunset) and then did the same in another volunteer's village about 18 km away that we happily biked to. In Avassikpe, we made Moringa oil and I have attached the pictures. I love going to other volunteers' villages because I get to see how different they all are. Whether it's the reaction to the volunteer or the access to resources such as food, gas, or cold water (electricity, te amo). I also like to see how motivated people in the village are. It's given me a better perspective on my village. Anyway, all is well and as always I miss all of you. Adios Nadia and Tristan. If you read this, know that I just can't quit you two...I miss you guys already and you haven't even left the country yet. But, I'm a big girl and as Peggy once wisely said, I'm going to put my big girl panties on now...
Moringa Oil recipe
After removing the outer casing of the Moringa seed (initially using our hands, then teeth, then a garlic press), we pounded the seeds until they became...
this! Because it is rainy season, I don't think the seeds were completely dry, which made the powder more "gewy", but it still worked when we added that "powder" to hot boiling water...
and waited for the oil to start pooling at the top like this. We had to keep adding water in order to continue boiling the solution and allowing for more oil to pool at the top.
Unfortunately, this is all the oil we got. I tasted the seed and Ashley correctly stated that it had a "flavor burst". I had to drink a lot of water and add several of Danielle's Swedish Fish candies to my mouth to get the rubbery paste of the seed off of the roof of my mouth. The oil was also very bitter, but I would imagine that it would be good in a sauce. The process of making Moringa oil took a lot of time, so I don't know how useful making it for consumption would be, but I think adding it as an essential oil to a soap or lotion recipe would be nice. It smelled like fresh cut grass to me.
