On Friday night, we celebrated all the hard work that has been going into building and testing our prototypes with an international potluck of grand proportions (or hippopotamus-elephant-whale proportions, as Timo would say). More than 70 people coming together to cook cuisines from over 16 countries with limited access to ingredients, kitchen spaces and utensils can only be described as delicious chaos. It was a lot of fun to represent the different places where we are from (including a newly formed charcoal nation that eats charcoal), learn to cook new dishes, and enjoy good food together. Events like the barbeque and potluck are also wonderful for inviting our nearby friends from KNUST and Suame Magazine to join us. There is something about food that can really bring people together.
Team Cambodia hard at work making a dessert porridge from maize and coconut milk.
Tish and Ashley invite us to enjoy "American" classics like pizza and pancakes!
The Brazilians have a real sense of style, using corn shellers as molds for some of their dishes.
The Tanzanians also have a flare for presentation and came in beautiful traditional clothing.
Not to be outdone by how the Indians and Pakistanis joined forces to cook together, the Europeans and Sierra Leoneans created Team Sierra L'Europe!
And of course, no potluck in Ghana would be complete without its famous giant mangoes!
Good thing there was plenty of Ghanaian drumming and dancing for us to work off all that food!
Ghanaian Phrase of the Day: you are invited (this is how my Ghanaian suitemates greet me whenever they are eating – they are always offering food, even if they are finally sitting down to their lunches at 5pm after a long day of work)
Days 18-19:
After a wonderful week of testing and tasting, we found ourselves with a beautiful, sunny weekend to enjoy. Can you believe these were our first free days of the conference? Even so, many people chose to work, with some teams meeting in the project breakout room, building upstairs in the hostel shop (see Delia’s awesome post on workshop techniques), or going to work with the technicians at Suame Magazine. For some of us, this rare weekend provided a valuable time to try to rest and recover from malaria, but many others were able to seize the opportunity to get out and explore Ghana a little, from Cape Coast to the Black Volta River. Here are some photos to give you a sense of the excitement:
Several participants, including Ruben, ventured out to explore Cape Coast.
Harald beautifully photographed their Cape Coast adventures for those of us who couldn't go...
Another team went up to New Longoro and dared the Black Volta in mango tree canoes!
Twi Word of the Day: home (to rest, inhale)