Adventures in eating Grasscutter

Well- I can tell you now that my heart will be broken when I have to leave the children at the Orphanage. I have already fallen in love. The challenges at the orphanage are much greater than I ever expected. Limited books, I teach in a straw hoofed car port outside. The children in my class range from 2 years old to 10 years old. Half of them don't speak English. They are grossly malnourished. I went early last week to help bathe them and they were skin and bones. It truly is what you see on the Sally Struthers commercials. I was talking to the owner of the orphanage and she said that it cost them 20 pesowas per day to stay at the orphanage( 1.41 cedi = $1USD and a pesowas (sounds like peso ace) is like their cents). There is always a smell of urine in their rooms and they live out of draw string bags. It's so upsetting. They just love with you hold them and pay attention to them. You can tell they lack human touch and love. More on them later.

In terms of the cuisine. I have experience three very Ghanaian meals. Baku looks like mashed potatoes but has the consistency of play dough. It's fermented corn/cassava dough mixed proportionally and cooked in hot water into a smooth whitish consistent paste. Served with okra stew and a pepper sauce with fish. Everyone eats with their hands and from the same bowl. Strange. And then I also had Grasscutter. Grasscutter is a giant rodent but looks like a cross between a rat and a possum. Dela who is one of our drivers/house dad came home with it in a bag. He had just killed it. He proceeded to take it out of the bag, lay it on the counter with it bleeding from the mouth and put on a pot of water like it was nothing. Once the pot was boiling, he put the whole grasscutter in a big pot and poured the boiling water over it so he could then proceed to shave it with a cutlass. We looked on in horror and the poor dead animal was being mercilessly shaven in a pot of hot water. Joe and Dela explained it was good meat and that we were going to eat it for lunch the next day. The next day we ate grasscutter with pasta and red sauce. I took a small bite but I just kept having this mental image of it bleeding from the mouth and being shaven by Joe. I'm glad I did it but never again. HOWEVER- the ladies on the streets sell bowfruit (sp?) off of their heads. It is this amazing little ball of dough that kind of tastes like a doughnut but it's bigger, fluffier and not as sweet. God will I miss them when I leave. They are 7 for 1 Cedi! YUM

Sorry Don and John- I am not bringing back a recipe for grasscutter. I am, however, trying to get one for banku. And maybe bowfruit.

Christie- Just tell me if you want a boy or girl from the orphanage and I can pick one up for you. The family who just left started the processes for adopting the one little boy. I'm already to help you.

Son John- You are more than welcome to share this blog with your friend. I would love to hear his feed back.

Can't wait to show pictures when I get home. Tomorrow we are hiking Mt. Afajato at sunrise. Should be amazing. <3