Supermarket Sweep: And The Super Bonus Is Dried Fish

            Once a week Adam and I put together a grocery list and make a trip to the store, but just like much of the rest of my experience here in Angola, it isn’t just an ordinary shopping trip. The grocery stores in Angola are a lot different than those in the States. As mentioned in my previous blog, many food items have yet to find a home on the grocery store shelves here. And if they do have a spot in the store, it is often the last place you would expect to find it.

            In the States it is easy to locate the milk and egg aisle because it is found in the refrigerated section of the store. However, the milk and eggs aren’t located in the refrigerated aisle here, but instead are found at room temperature on an ordinary shelf. I was extremely surprised and a little concerned about my finding, but the fact that Adam has been eating the eggs and drinking the milk off of the room temperature shelves for the past five years without any problems offered a little bit of comfort. 

            The milk and eggs are not only located in a different section of the grocery store, but they also look very different from the milk and eggs consumed in the States. The milk comes in cardboard boxes with dotted lines outlining the flap that must be cut off to open it. A pair of scissors is my weapon of choice when opening the milk, while Adam chooses a more manly approach with a sharp knife. The eggs are also very different. They are slightly larger and brown in color instead of the typical white eggs found in most grocery stores in the States. They are also sold in cartons of six, twelve, fifteen, and thirty. 

            We refrigerate the boxes of milk and eggs before consuming them, but the differences in appearance and location on the shelves is still a very weird concept that I have yet to fully grasp. The milk and the eggs here haven’t made me sick, so the fact that they are stored at room temperature is hardly reason enough to remove them from my diet.

            Besides the milk and the eggs, there are other items that seem rather out of place such as dried fish. I don’t think that I have ever seen a section at the grocery store in the States that is for dried fish. Fresh fish and frozen fish, yes, but dried fish, no. I am not even sure if it is healthy to eat dried fish, let alone how one would go about eating it. And although I haven’t checked, I highly doubt that there are too many dried fish recipes on Pinterest.

            As if the sight of the dried fish isn't bad enough, I can’t even begin to describe the absolutely nauseating smell that it emits either. I don’t usually mind the smell of fish or seafood, but the odor that seeps out of the stacks of dried fish is enough to knock a person over. And if the smell isn’t enough to keep you away from the dried fish aisle, the swarm of flies that surrounds it will certainly do the trick. 

            Trips to the grocery store are always an adventure. Each time we go, there are new products on the shelves and more items that I find are out of place. And even though I have adjusted to room temperature milk and eggs, I don’t think I have the cast iron stomach necessary to handle the dried fish. Not yet anyways.

Just Call Me Betty Crocker

            My cooking was definitely not one of the many reasons that Adam married me. I’ve never really been much of a cook at all. It wasn’t that my mom didn’t teach me, but it was the fact that cooking didn’t always fit into my lifestyle. During college I lived in the dorms my freshman year and then the sorority house for the remainder of my time in Manhattan. I lived on my own while in Omaha and Wichita, but to be completely honest, cooking for one is often times more work than it is worth. Like many Americans, I always found myself sticking to the quick and easy recipes or the take-out that was just a short car ride away.

            Since getting married and moving to Luanda, I have started the process of experimenting in the kitchen and have taught myself a lot about cooking. Not having the temptation of fast food restaurants has also pushed me to dust off the ole apron. It hasn’t been easy considering cooking in Luanda and cooking in the States are two completely different tasks.

            For example, our oven isn’t nearly as fancy as those that you can find in the States. And when I say fancy, I mean we don’t have a dial or a button that we can use to set the temperature. We have a gas oven that I light the flame in the bottom of it with a match. And instead of having a temperature dial, we have a dial to control the size of the flame. I find myself monitoring the cooking process extremely closely because a timer just won’t do the trick here.

            Besides the fact that our appliances are far from being high tech, we also don’t have many of the same foods or ingredients on our grocery store shelves. Finding a specific item or a complete recipe at the grocery store can be somewhat challenging. I’ve taken the trial and error process to a whole new level here but have managed to come up with some tasty treats.

            And lets not forget the absence of some of my favorite things. Growing up during the Ranch obsession era, it has been really hard for me to adapt to a non-salad dressing society. I have used the Internet to find a few simple homemade salad dressing recipes that don’t require very many ingredients, just a little bit more work in the kitchen. One of our favorite recipes that I found on TLC’s cooking website is the Ginger Ponzu Sauce. It includes:  

• ¼ cup soy sauce 
•  ¼ cup lemon juice 
• 1 tablespoon of peeled and crushed fresh ginger

            When combined with a plate of fresh greens and mandarin oranges, it is absolutely delicious! And although none of the recipes will ever compare to Ranch, I can’t complain because they still add a burst of flavor to my greens while being extra friendly to my waistline.

            Salad dressing isn’t the only item I’ve learned how to make. Adam often brings home fresh fruits and vegetables, some of which I have never made or even heard of before moving here. One week he brought me home a bag of homegrown sweet potatoes. An extensive Google search taught me how to make a very delicious batch of homemade sweet potato mashed potatoes. Each your heart out folks!

            I am certainly not the best cook in the kitchen, but I have slowly started to find my way around it. It is probably a good thing that I didn’t come here as an expert chef because I’m sure I would have been extremely disappointed and frustrated with the differences between Luanda and the States. Instead, I’ve learned on what I have available to me. And based on what I’ve learned, I don’t think that Adam and I will starve anytime soon.

The Circus Is In Town And I'm The Main Attraction

            A few weeks ago, Adam and I decided to go to the cinema at the shopping center to see a movie. All of the hype on social media networks surrounding the movie We Are The Millers peaked our interest. Luckily for us, Trip De Familia, as it is known here, just happened to be on the cinemas play list.

            I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect at the movies considering most of my other experiences here in Luanda have been so vastly different from those in the States. But no matter what, I couldn’t have prepared myself for the experience that was awaiting me.

            Adam and I grabbed a bottle of water and a coke from our fridge to enjoy during the 45-minute drive to the theater. Of course, the beverages were mistake number one. By the time we arrived, I already needed to make a stop in the ladies' room. Adam ill-informed me that the theater did not have a restroom. If I needed to use one then I would need to use the one in shopping center before we went into the theater.

            I walked into the restroom and was shocked to find that most of the stalls didn’t have doors on them. Unlike most stalls in the States, the lack of doors didn’t stop people from using them. As I stood in line debating on whether I thought I could wait until after the movie or if I should just suck it up and join the rest of the Angolans, my bladder made the decision for me. I was going to suck it up and use the open stall just like all of the women in line before me.

            I quickly made it to the front of the line and headed towards the open stall. And this is when I discovered mistake number two. When deciding whether or not to use the restroom, I hadn’t considered the fact that I wasn’t Angolan and of course stood out in the restroom. You would have thought that the circus was in town because everyone in the bathroom was staring at me. It wasn’t that people here haven’t ever seen a person of my color before, but it was that most people here haven’t seen a pale skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed person.

            I tried to ignore the fact that I had about ten pairs of eyes on me while using the restroom, but when a three-year-old little girl stood directly in front of me in the stall and looked at me with her big brown eyes, there was no denying it. The movie theater was no longer the main attraction; instead, it was now me.

            I was so relieved when the bathroom experience was over with and was looking forward to enjoying the movie. Adam purchased two tickets, which were surprisingly cheap for Angola. The ticket prices were only $8 a piece, very comparable to those in the States. Next we went to the snack counter. What is a good movie without the right snack and beverage? Our selection was very limited with the only options being popcorn, M&Ms, and canned soda. Of course I didn’t mind that they only had 12oz cans of soda instead of the extra large fountain drinks that we have in the States because after my first trip to the bathroom, it certainly wasn’t something that I wanted to do again.

            We grabbed a popcorn and a couple of Coca Colas before heading into the theater. I noticed that other people were bringing in food and drink from outside and weren't trying to hide it. Apparently the theaters here don't have a policy against outside food and drink, which is probably why there was such a limited selection at the snack counter. But the outside snacks weren’t the only thing that I noticed. I also noticed a couple of bathrooms INSIDE the theater. Adam obviously noticed them as well because before I had a chance to point them out, he turned to me and told me that they were new to the cinema. New or not, the bathrooms probably would have saved me from the embarrassment I had experienced only moments earlier.

            Adam and I found a couple of seats and waited for the movie to start. The movie was in English but had Portuguese subtitles across the bottom. I expected the subtitles to be a bit of a distraction, but quickly became so engrossed in the movie that I forgot all about them. The only thing that reminded me that they were still there was the fact that Adam and I would laugh at something, and then about a second later the rest of the theater would erupt in laughter. Everyone else had to read the subtitles causing a bit of a delay in laughter. What a unique experience.

            My first time at the movies was more of an experience than I had anticipated and had no trouble securing a spot on my top ten list of uncomfortable/embarrassing moments. Although I am not sure when we will see another movie, there is one thing I am sure of, I will not be drinking anything before the movie starts.

A Hailstorm. In Africa. In Our Living Room.

            With the kick-off of summer, it is time to crank up the air conditioner. And yes, I said crank up instead of turn on because we usually use the air conditioner all year round. Most homes in the States have central air or window units, but homes in Luanda have wall units.

            Learning about the wall units has been interesting, to say the least. We have very high ceilings in our apartment with air conditioning units located towards the top of the wall. We use a remote controller to turn the air on and off, as well as to adjust the temperature. And of course since we are outside of the States, the temperature is in degrees Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. All those years of being thankful that they left the metric system out of the schools in the States has finally come back to haunt me.

            We have three air conditioners in our apartment, one in each of the main rooms allowing us to control the individual room temperatures. For example, during the day we leave the air conditioner in the bedroom turned off and the one in the living room turned on. We can also set different temperatures on each air conditioner which makes keeping our living room area at a comfortable temperature while keeping the bedroom slightly cooler for better sleeping much easier.

            Despite a remote to control the air conditioners, they seem to have a mind of their own. One afternoon Adam and I were watching television when all of the sudden I felt a mist of water on my arm followed by a dripping noise that slowly turned into a continuous stream of water running down the wall. I looked up and noticed that water was leaking out of the bottom of the air conditioner and forming a puddle on the floor below. No sooner than it had started, it stopped. We assumed that it was a one-time freak encounter and that we had nothing to worry about. We were wrong.

            A few days later, Adam and I were watching television again when we heard a loud clanging noise coming from the same air conditioner that had been leaking water previously. And before we knew it, we were being pelted by chunks of ice that were shooting out of the vent on the air conditioner. Who could have predicted that it would hail in Africa, in our living room? I guess I brought a little Kansas with me after all. There's no place like home. It took just a few phone calls and a visit by the maintenance man before our air conditioner was back up and running. We are just hoping that the next hailstorm we encounter isn’t in our living room.