Normally, I feel like Calvin when I eat what I cook.
The key to improving cooking skills: raise the stakes. I invited my colleague and his cousin over for a Sunday lunch. Equipped with a recipe for roasted chicken from my dad (the first time I’ve ever used a recipe he sent me), lunch was a success. It was the first time I’ve tried roasting anything. It won’t be the last.
I started reading However Long the Night: Molly Melching’s Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls Triumph. I never heard of Molly Meltching before last week, but a short reference to the book and a quick google search of her name convinced me to buy it. So far, I know Melching played a pivotal role in ending female genital mutilation in parts of Senegal. The book started off slow, but the rhythm and flow picks up after the first chapter.
Lines I liked:
-What was the point of taking up space in the world if you weren’t going to do it with zest?
-After all, if you can’t control the world and make it perfect, if you have to live with all that is irrational and inevitable about life, if you have to endure war, poverty and depression, you could at least construct the perfect living room
-Most people I grew up around were seeking out that which was familiar. i was always attract to things that were different
-In the evenings, after the empty dinner plates had been cleared from the tables, with his hands shaky from too many cigarettes and a past he couldn’t forget, he spent hours answering molly’s questions about this painful time in his life
-“This was my first lesson in understanding the best way to really help others,” Molly recalls. ” people have to be listened to, involved, and engaged from the very beginning.”
-Inside, the air was thick with smoke and possibility
-She’s come to feel that her mother’s desire to mold her in a certain, specific way was like trying to mold a piece of wet soap in your hands. Try as you might, the soap can’t take the pressure; eventually it slips and falls away
-“Looking back, I’m not sure how I convinced the university to allow me to stay,” she says. “I just kept showing up at the offices saying, “i can’t leave. I’m here. We need to make this work.”
-Seeing a bare bottom at the beginning of the day brings bad luck all day long
-“What do people do for fun?” she’d ask. “is it hard to live without electricity? What’s the food like?” You should just come see for yourself,” Ndey suggested one afternoon. -“Come home with me for Tabaski.”
-Is it ok for us to spend the night with a family no one knows?” Molly whispered to Ndey, as she followed the others. “of course. This is Africa, Molly! People help each other out when they’re in need. You will better understand this the more time you spend here. Who knows? One day we may help out one of her children.
-Everyone was committed to making her feel comfortable.
-I’m against it, but the tradition is stronger than my will
-The way you dress in American reflects your individuality and how you feel about yourself, Carrie explained. The way you dress here reflects how you feel about others.