I call it coffee

I developed a taste for instant coffee with powdered milk and sugar while I lived in Niger.

I've never been a coffee drinker - first of all, it tastes gross. Secondly, I don't want to be addicted to anything. You never know when you'll be in a situation where you have to get up at the crack of dawn and function with none of your vices (be it coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, or crack) nearby. And it always bugged me how on Christmas morning we couldn't start opening presents until my dad drank his morning cups of coffee. Plus, it stains your teeth. So I always kind of had a negative impression of coffee.

That was before I woke to hearing animals squawking, the muezzin calling prayer at 5am, and random people showing up at my house before I was ready to get up. And that Nigerien sun is so hot that at times I would wake up with the sun in my face, sweating bullets.

Unexpected wake-up calls aside, I started drinking coffee because I liked the caffeine kick I got from the green tea my villagers drank.* However, by the time my lazy buns got up (at the late hour of 8:00), they were finished with their morning tea and were out in the fields. So I'd have to find my own caffeine kick - instant coffee.

*Green tea is a big thing in West and North Africa. It's brewed very concentrated, so that you get a cupful worth of tea (and therefore caffeine) in a tiny shot glass. The same tea leaves are brewed three times with sugar added each time - the first round is "bitter like life," the second round is "sweet, like love," and the third round is "light, like the breath of death." Past noon I can only drink #2 and #3, as the first round is so strong I won't sleep at night.

A tray with blue ceramic teapot, metal teapot, shot glass, loose tea leaves, and two metal cups for "foaming" the tea (pour it back in fourth and the tea gets nice and frothy).


My friend Feirodji drinking his morning tea. Notice the pot brewing on a charcoal brazier.


Issoufou's all, "have some tea. No, go ahead. Seriously, for the love of god, drink some tea!" (Typical invitation and what happens when you decline.)


So back to my tea replacement. You can get Nescafe just about anywhere, which is, as I'm told, a particularly horrible instant coffee. However, since I never drank "the good stuff," I didn't know what I was missing. I came back to the U.S. and saw some instant Folgers in my parents' cupboard that expired in 2006, so I've been working on drinking it. Last week my friend Issoufou called and I was like, "I just woke up and I'm still tired, so I'm going to make some cafe au lait," and he was like, "Oh, save some for me, I'm on my way over right now." And I was like, "okay, I'm waiting for you." We used to always drink coffee together. Actually, since it's more expensive than tea leaves in Niger, I was the only person in my village who drank it on a consistent basis, and Issoufou would come over in the morning not only for conversation but also for coffee.

Here's my coffee recipe. It's sweet and milky and weak enough that my heart doesn't start pounding.

Crystal's Sugar-High Coffee
Mix together in a mug:
1/2 tsp. instant coffee
2 tsp. sugar
Fill the mug halfway with:
Water
Fill the mug to the top with:
Milk, preferably 2%
Nuke it for 1 to 1-1/2 minutes on high. Enjoy!

Late-Night Cable TV

Since I have a TV in my bedroom, I like to watch those late-night cable TV shows as I'm brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed. That's also when they have their best shows.

I love catching Throwdown with Bobby Flay - that show makes me want to cook foods I've never imagined cooking, like Spanish paella or arroz con pollo.

The host of Man vs. Food, Adam Richman, has an enviable appetite and enough charm and creativity to make his show entertaining and also rev up my appetite. I'll admit, it's kind of disturbing watching him plow through a 5-lb hamburger - it's such a demonstration of gluttony and the overabundance of food here in America - but I do like when he visits restaurants just to try their signature entree. The way he moans and groans about it makes me hungry. He made a Philly cheese steak sound so tempting that my whole family wanted to eat it.

I'll sometimes catch an episode of Friends or Sex and the City, and sometimes I'll tune in to Millionaire Matchmaker or VH1s Celebrity Rehab. And sometimes when a new episode of a show is shown at 9, it'll be repeated later on, so I'll catch Project Runway or Launch My Line that way.

Niger Coup d'etat

Wow, I can't believe it. There's been a coup d'etat in Niger.

I googled it as soon as I heard the news. Today at midday while the President, Mamadou Tandja, was in a meeting, a group of soldiers came in and captured him. Now he and his cronies are being held captive at a military camp while a new military-led government reigns.

I hope the people are okay. I hope Niger will be okay. I hope my Peace Corps friends are okay. Is the Peace Corps going to be evacuated? We will have to see what happens. Sometimes Peace Corps doesn't get evacuated after a coup if it isn't particularly upsetting to the country.

Greetings from sunny Cali

I'm in California, visiting my sister Becky, her husband Fonsi, and their kids Chris and Angie. Our brother Joe is here too, so it's the three of us here together!

So far we're having fun. The kids are really cute, ages 2-1/2 and 1-1/2. Becky and Fonsi look as beautiful as ever. And I'm eating yummy foods, like strawberries, blueberries, and Thai food (more on that later.)

Joe's luggage got lost and the airline said they'd reimburse him for $80 worth of clothes, so yesterday we did a little shopping at Old Navy. I found a pair of black jeans and a black fleece to go with my red K-Mart vest. You would not believe how cold it is working in a big store like that. The personnel manager told me to dress warm, so my first day I wore a shirt and a sweater. It wasn't enough, I froze my buns off, so now I wear two pairs of long underwear, a shirt, and a sweater.

Today we went to Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. The parking lot was full so we parked further down the road and walked uphill to the place. The kids really wanted to walk (and we wanted them to get tired enough for their nap) so we spent most of our time getting there. It probably took 45 minutes to walk from the car to the observatory. Once we made it there, we just hung out in the grass, soaking up the sun, and the kids ate snacks. They were tired enough to allow us to carry them back down the hill.

Walking up the hill with Angie. That girl can move!


Then we went to a Thai restaurant, Sapp Coffee Shop in Hollywood. Becky had watched Anthony Bourdain sample their food and recommended the Boat Noodles with Beef. So that's what I ordered. It was rice noodles and pieces of beef, tripe, and liver meatballs in a rich, spicy beef broth. There were a few pieces of fried skins, like pork rinds, in the dish, too. It was delicious!


Joe and I got the Thai iced tea. It was very sweet, cool and refreshing.


Angie eating her yogurt appetizer.


Chris with his buddy Uncle Joe.


Tonight Joe and I babysat while Becky and Fonsi went to a birthday party. Surprisingly, things went well. The kids didn't get too upset when they left, then we had fun playing with toys, then ate dinner, which they only threw a little bit of on the floor, then successfully got their diapers changed, jammies on, teeth brushed, and off to bed with no crying. Yeah, baby! Tomorrow Becky and the Fonz have a dinner date for V-day so Joe and I get to do it all over again. I hope it goes as well as it did tonight.

Joe took me through some YouTube videos that were talked about while I was in the Peace Corps, like David Goes to the Dentist and the rollerskating babies commercial. Now he's watching the Olympics.

Okay, I'll be back tomorrow or the day after.

Just bumped up a size...

I seriously feel my butt growing. All that hard work, exercising with Gilad every day (or so) and watching my desserts, just went out the window.

I ate a paczki ("punchki").

Like a filled donut on steroids, this special little pastry comes to local bakeries about a week before Fat Tuesday, as if we Americans need to get any fatter.



I got the chocolate one. It was like eating a cup of chocolate frosting in a tiny little donut shell. My god, I didn't realize a paczki had so much filling.

While I was in the Peace Corps, wasting away from a limited diet of starch and losing weight by having frequent diarrhea, I dreamed of eating a paczki. This was part of my reasoning for eating one today - "just think about how much you wanted one while you were in Niger."

All I can say is alhamdulillah.

For you late arrivals out there...

From a letter to my former colleagues on my last few weeks in Peace Corps and what it's like to be back in the U.S.

It started November 15 (I remember that date because it's opening day of rifle season in Michigan and we'd get the day off from school. Once a hunter, always a hunter.) I had just returned to my village after spending a week in a village further north, staying with my friends the Wodaabe nomadic cattle herders and attending their annual Geerwol festival. I had just been in my village one night. Usually when I get up in the morning I turn on my cell phone to check my text messages, then turn it back off to conserve the battery, since there's no electricity in the village to recharge it. In the afternoon a guy from the neighboring village about 3 miles away pulled up on a motorcycle and gave me a note. The note was from my friend Jessie, a fellow Peace Corps volunteer, telling me "there was an attempted kidnapping and we are on consolidation. Come to the Peace Corps hostel in Konni." After waiting four hours for a car I finally made it to Konni, which is only 20 km away. I know, I could've made it there faster by walking. Welcome to transportation in Africa.

Once I made it to the hostel I heard the news about what had happened. There was an attempted kidnapping in our regional capital, Tahoua, about 130 km away. At first I wasn't fazed; it seemed like every month we heard news about attempted kidnappings on the border of Mali (presumably by AQIM, a North African terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda.) However, this one was different because Tahoua is not near the border of Mali and the kidnappers were specifically targeting Americans. Peace Corps wouldn't tell us exactly what happened, but through the grapevine I heard the following: A group of nine American Embassy workers was staying at a hotel in Tahoua. The kidnappers, a group of men armed with AK-47s, came into the hotel, pointed a gun at the front desk clerk's head, and demanded that they give them the Americans. Apparently a hotel employee heard what was going on in the front room, quickly alerted the Americans and escorted them out the back door. This affected us Peace Corps volunteers in the region because Tahoua isn't far from most volunteer villages, and if AQIM can go to Tahoua, they definitely can get to Konni, where the Peace Corps hostel is. We were consolidated at our Peace Corps hostel for about six days. No one could leave the property by himself and we had armed police in the compound to protect us from any intruders.

After five days of the Peace Corps and U.S. Embassy deliberating, it was decided Peace Corps would be shut down in our region. None of us could return to our villages, even to say goodbye to our friends or grab our belongings, and we had to move to the capital, Niamey, as soon as possible. I am so lucky my village is only 20 km from Konni because my villagers got to come and see me and we said our goodbyes. A Nigerien Peace Corps employee was given a list of belongings to grab from everyone's house, so at least I could get some of my stuff. The goodbyes were hard; after crying for hours my villagers and I sat around in a depressed, catatonic state.

I went to Niamey, did a bunch of paperwork, saw the doctor and dentist for physicals, got a lot of blood drawn to check for parasites, was given liver-cleansing pills to take in America (for any leftover "aliens" that might be hiding in my gut), and left town November 29. After a chilly layover in France (I didn't have any warm clothing) and a quick layover in Detroit (I ate a Wendy's hamburger!), I finally met my mom in snowy Traverse City, Michigan. I had called her ahead of time to have her bring me a warm coat and some real shoes. The first thing she did was take me to Kohl's, as she had a coupon and it was only good for that day. She wanted to buy me some sweaters but I seriously couldn't pick anything out because of the reverse culture shock I was experiencing. Everything looked the same. Everything looked fine. I let her pick it out.

The first month in the U.S. was strange. I often felt disoriented and confused. Was I really in Africa for 23 months? It all felt like a dream. I couldn't believe how much meat people eat here, I caught myself using the Hausa language a few times, and I refused to wash my hair more than once a week. I remember waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and throwing my legs over the side of my bed, searching for my shoes. Then, every time I went to the store, I saw a bunch of things I wanted to buy for my villagers and other friends. I signed up for an account on Skype (internet telephone) and bought a headset, and ever since I've been calling and communicating with my Nigerien friends. My best buddy Issoufou is in Ghana right now, earning money for his family by doing street manicures and pedicures, and he calls me about once a week. I just sent a package to him including gifts for our villagers (developed photos, keychains, whistles, makeup, jewelry, perfume, and candy). I also taught him how to use my film camera while I was in Niger, and bought him his own camera and sent it to him. It's a good way for him to make money and it benefits the village. And I am so grateful that I can speak to my villagers whenever I want. I just call someone in the village and they pass the phone around. It's wonderful.

I started looking for work and am finding ideas for my next adventure. I've applied for some Peace Corps recruiter positions, but the jobs are on a continuous open basis so who knows when I'll hear anything from them. I'm taking a class at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) in Napa Valley this May for people who want to explore their options for a career in baking/pastry arts. And I got a job at K-Mart, which because of my low living expenses (living with mom and dad) I should be able to save some money to fund my future endeavors. Today I tried my first announcement over the speakers - "Attention K-Mart shoppers..." I've been baking a lot (cakes, bread and cookies), some of which are experiments and some are by request from family members. And I'm arranging to give talks at the local schools and library.

Wish me luck, and salaam alaikum.

Crystal (aka Zeinabou)

My first day of work

I started my new job at KMart yesterday. It was kind of a disaster and I left feeling discouraged and not sure I can handle working there. It wasn't that the store was a problem, it was just watching those ridiculous training/orientation videos that make you want to shoot yourself in the head. Not only is there text on the screen but you have to listen to someone read it to you and since you read faster than you hear, that voice just drones on and on and on...

And it was freezing in there. I was told to dress warm so I wore a long-sleeve shirt under my sweater, but I wasn't warm enough and wore my coat the whole time. And sitting in the training room, a sad-looking, dark-wood-paneled, poorly-lit little dungeon in the corner of the store... well, let's just say it wasn't warm and it wasn't inspiring.

But hey, at least I got through it.

Today was better. I did a little bit of computer stuff, then learned how to work the cash registers. There's a lot to learn and I certainly didn't learn everything today, but otherwise it went pretty well. The lady training me was really cool and we seemed to hit it off, so that helped, too.

Blackie the Cat's latest obsession is a piece of paper that's on "his" couch. It's actually some crochet instructions I printed up, but he's totally taken it over and sits on it whenever possible. He will also bat at it to move it to the right place to maximize comfort. I think he likes how it crinkles beneath him, must make him feel like he's crouching in the underbrush.

Blackie on his favorite piece of paper. Notice his fleece blanket and red pillow - yes, he owns this couch.

New job!

I am going to be a working woman. With a little help from Joe the HR Pro (my brother), I applied for a job with K-Mart using their online applicant screener (basically you take an exam). Some of the questions were no-brainers: "True or false: it is okay to steal because you see your manager doing it." Some of them were more difficult: "You are assigned to train a newer employee who is always talking about other employees behind their backs and it bothers you. How do you deal with the situation?"

a) Tell your boss you won't train him.

b) Train him, but when you hear him talk about other employees stop training him.

c) Train him, but beforehand tell him you don't want to hear his negative comments.

d) Train him, but when he says a negative comment tell him you don't appreciate it and ask if he'll stop.

e) Just deal with it and get the training over with.

Which would you actually do? Which would you pick to make a good impression on your employer?

Apparently I did a good job on the exam because today I scored an interview and was offered a job on the spot! Not bad for Grayling, where there is no industry and very few jobs. :) I start orientation on monday at $7.40/hour (again, not too shabby considering my low overhead.)

Also, my passport came in today so now I can travel anywhere in world I want to. I always had government-business passports before.

Yesterday's Dinner:
Barley risotto with parmesan
Roasted vegetables - potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, red onion, and button mushrooms with fresh rosemary
Dirt cake

Root beer and dirt cake

My brother Tom and I have been talking about making homemade root beer since December. He has root beer extract so all we needed was the yeast. For making root beer (and other sodas, and maybe wine and beer?) you need Champagne yeast. I googled it, bought some for $1 each on ebay (with like $5 shipping for a tiny little packet, grr), and it's been sitting in the cupboard for over a month.

Today we finally made the root beer. First we gathered our ingredients:


We poured the yeast and sugar in the empty pop bottle, added the rootbeer extract, then filled it halfway with water. Tom shook it to dissolve the ingredients.


We filled it all the way up with water.


Now we let it sit at room temperature for three days. The yeast will produce the CO2 needed to make it fizzy. Then we just have to refrigerate it so it's cold. We plan to open and sample our homemade root beer monday night. We're also thinking of trying cream soda and orange cream soda.

Tom also requested that I make dirt cake with gummy worms. I found this recipe and went from there, but decided to make homemade chocolate pudding instead of using a mix.

You're supposed to combine cream cheese and butter, then add the prepared pudding. This morning I cooked up some chocolate pudding (using a combination of 2% milk and whipping cream), let it cool to room temperature, then mixed in the room-temperature cream cheese and butter. It came out really rich and chocolatey. Layered with the Oreo crumbs and gummy worms, it was an excellent dessert, though somewhat guilt-inducing (butter, cream cheese and heavy cream, plus all those Oreos?). Since we don't have a trifle bowl I put it in a glass casserole dish and it didn't look too sexy. (don't you like that? "Sexy" to describe a dessert?) I will have to invest in a trifle bowl for when I attempt tiramisu (which will, of course, be made from scratch. I don't do storebought ladyfingers. Not that they'd have them in Grayling anyway.)

Package to Ghana

I'm preparing a package to send to my friend Issoufou (my best buddy from my village in Niger), who is in Ghana right now. I bought him a camera - this is because while I was in Niger, he used my film camera to take pictures of people for profit. That camera was like $300 when I bought it and there's no way I was going to let him keep it, so I got him a decent camera off the internet for $30.

Next I included a bunch of developed photos for the villagers.
Also, I packed:

• Camera batteries (2 for $6 at Meijer).
  
• Christmas candy (on sale at Walgreens for $.50).
  
• Keychains (found around the house).
  
• Whistle keychains for the kiddies (found around the house).
  
• Old pocketknives and nail clippers (found around the house).
  
• Makeup, lotion and soaps for the ladies (makeup and soaps donated by me and my mom, lotion $.50 at Meijer).
  
• Three cute red pleather purses I got from the dollar store for Issoufou's wife, my bff Rabi, and Ma Mouda, Issoufou's friend in Ghana who is picking up the package at his P.O. box (3 at $1 each).
  
• Cell phone holders that fit onto a belt w/attached keyhook (5 at $1 each).
  
• A couple of wallets/change purses ($1.50).
• Men's bodyspray, 50% off at Walgreens (3 at $2.50 each).

Hopefully I can get this package out tomorrow. I've been working on it for over a month.

Issoufou with his wife, Omeima. His first wife died from pre-eclampsia while she was pregnant, then a few months later he married Omeima. She had been married before but the husband was psycho so she divorced him.


Ma Mouda, who hooked me up in Ghana - gave me a place to crash, fed me good food, and kept me entertained.


With my best friend Rabi. She's a petite little thang! Notice the sweat spots on my shirt - it was over 115 degrees out.


Taking Buddy to the water pump is always kind of crazy - he gets nervous because it's kind of an enclosed space, not in the middle of a field like the well. He sticks his big ol' head in that little bucket and slurps up all the water.


Tonight's Dinner:
Italian sausage, tomato and fennel sauce served over penne.

A few small successes

Hey, it's the little things that count.

• My dad is a scoutmaster for a local Boy Scout troop. He collected a box of "gently-used" items as prizes to the scouts - things like foam balls, tote bags, tshirts and hats, and Boy Scout pens. He also added an old Goosebumps book that was laying around the house, from when we used to read them. I said to him, "if you want more books we have tons of old Goosebumps books upstairs we could add," and he was like, "I'm not sure how much these kids are into reading so let's just see how this one goes." Well, the kid that won a prize this week immediately snatched up that Goosebumps book, saying how much he loves those books. I was so happy to hear that - kids still read, and they like the books I used to like - and there's plenty more where that came from.
• My Dingo shoes came in from Zappos and they're perfect - they fit well, are comfortable, and look great with my jeans.
• I'm starting a used-jewelry drive for my women in Niger, starting with having my parents post signs at work asking people to donate their old jewelry to me so I can send it overseas. The reason for this jewelry drive is that I am working on sending a couple of care packages to my village, and while it's easy to get stuff for the guys (perfume, cell phone holders), the only great thing I can think of for the women is jewelry, especially earrings. I stopped by the local K-Mart to see if there was any cheap stuff on sale (the cheapest costume jewelry here is still 100x better than what they have, which is crappy earrings that tarnish in three days, fall apart, and may even contain cadmium), but the earrings at K-Mart were about $3/pair, even on sale. So collecting old jewelry will not only help Americans get rid of their old stuff but also prevent African women and girls from being poisoned. It's a win-win! Email me if you want to send something my way. :) Today was good because one of my dad's colleagues actually donated something.
  
• Last but not least, I found a way to pursue my baking career. I'm going to enroll in the CIA (Culinary Institute of America)'s Career Discovery program for Baking and Pastry Arts in April. The class involves:

Create a variety of baked goods, from classic Italian biscotti to the Indian staple chapatis.

Study the ingredients, equipment, techniques, terminology, and recipes that define contemporary baking and pastry.

Enjoy chef demonstrations featuring specialized baking and pastry techniques.

Discuss the wide variety of careers available in the baking and pastry field.

I'm excited because maybe this will help me get to the next step of working in a bakery or starting my own business.

My friend Mariama, a Wodaabe girl. Whenever I visited my friend Darey's village we'd hang out together.

Last week's adventures

Last week I boycotted the computer.

I had worked on job applications and done some shopping and research and I was so sick of staring at the screen, I couldn't bring myself to do it again. So I took a few days off and let my eyes rest.

Today I feel energized (from the coffee? Or is it the sunshine?) and am ready to start blogging again.

I ordered a pair of Dingo shoes from zappos. I don't normally consider myself a "western" kind of gal but I like these because they are two-toned and have a low heel. They're supposed to come in tomorrow so I'll see if they work for me. The great thing about zappos is they have free shipping both ways.


Last week I went to my mom and Tom's karate test. They're testing for the red belt (the belt before black belt). Here are some photos:




The judges are deliberating. Only one can continue on towards becoming America's next top karate kid.





Here they broke a board. On Tom's first try he actually kicked the bottom edge of the board and got two deep cuts in his foot and a sprained ankle. Now he's hobbling around on an air cast and I keep teasing him about looking like House.




Last night I made black strap molasses cookies, a family favorite (for everyone but me, that is). It's a depression-era recipe with no butter, eggs or milk. It calls for normal molasses, but my dad prefers the taste of the black strap molasses and my mom has been making these cookies for years.


Today Tom was showing me his Boy Scouts stuff and we decided to put the hat on the cat and see how he looked. Here's Blackie the Boy Scout.




Tonight's Dinner:
Jambalaya with polish smoked sausage