Indeed, sir

Wow, so many stories.  I went to America (it was awesome).  Andy and Dan visited (it was awesome).  I helped catch and cook and eat! an iguana (it was awesome).  I witnessed a mental breakdown in the jungle (not awesome).  And I've recently been nailing down money for projects like I was...dang it who was that guy with the hammer?  You know the song I'm thinking of?  Children's song.  Something about a button factory?  I could have gone the John Henry route, but I was thinking the button factory song. 

But yeah, instead it's a post about life.  Yup, reflection time.  We just had our midservice training and it drove home the fact that we are past the halfway point.  I'm done in less than 9 months.  As part of the training, I re-read my Aspiration Statement. 

The Aspiration Statement is a part of the application process - the unoriginal but ever loved "why do you want to do this" essay.

......

Yeah, I started writing this three months ago.  Weak, I know.  What can I say.  Sorry?  So I'll just pretty much ignore the above, but I won't delete it (posterity).

You get a lot of time to think out here.  In a way, that was partially the point for me.  Take the time to see the forest (and all the trees!)  Smell the roses!  Contemplate my navel!  Or at least consider life in a place where it isn't exactly simpler, but it is more....connected.  What I mean by that is, out here, there are fewer excuses.

You can see the connection between what you reap and what you sow more clearly, because there is less clutter.  If you work hard and live well with people, stuff generally goes well.  If not, then less so.  I'm not just talking about me personally, but what I observe in my community.  The ability to see that relationship between cause and effect is important.  It means people have to take responsibility for themselves and make choices about their priorities.  Many people out here do not have the priorities you and I might, but it's less likely to be a "failure" out here.  It just is.  They make their bed and then they sleep in it.  Content.

Perhaps even more impactful, it is also easier to see the lack of connection. What you do does NOT always determine what you get.  We in the West often have an illusion of control - or a need for it - that means we think we can and must do more than is possible. People here are far less likely to have that luxury, or that burden.  If it doesn't rain, your food doesn't grow.  If it rains too much, your stuff gets wet. You confront that reality every day here and so you are more likely to accept it and live in the present in a way that is impossible for many of us.  Of course, do too much of that and you lose your visionaries, your planners, your entrepreneurs.  That queen of England really had it right, huh?

What I mean to say is - this is a pretty good place to think about life.  Because it is so different - while still being so much the same - that you get a pretty good perspective and the time and space to consider it.

I also recommend hammocks for that purpose.

So what I have done with all of that opportunity and perspective? Well you think about all those big, soul searching questions.  It's pretty cool because you do actually get a few answers. Without getting too into it,I think I'm finally ready to make myself a home.  I'm not looking necessarily to settle down, put down roots, or junk like that.  But still - Ithaca is kind of home, Ohio is definitely home, and here is surprisingly home.  Temporary or whatever, but still.  I've made this my home.  I want to do that again in an apartment or whatever somewhere.  Preferably NYC or DC, you know.  It doesn't have to be literal, but I'm ready to do it conceptually.  And I need to literally change my permanent address away from my parents'.

Pretty mushy, I know.  What can I say, this isn't the self help section - it's the jungle!  And an adventure!  But still, it's valuable. And it's nice to spend your time feeling like you are adding value to your own life and others.

Later,

Evan

(Belated) Happy New Year!

Hey guys!  Happy New Year to everyone or, as they say around here, Yai Yai Yai Yai Yaioooooo!  Last year I did Christmas in the village and New Years in the city – this year I switched it up.  And this was definitely the superior way to do it, let me tell you!

Christmas in the city was great.  Some former Peace Corps Volunteers-turned-new-embassy-foreign-service types (really awesome people, and still closer in age and outlook to Volunteers than foreign service professionals) threw a semi pot luck party to start it off.  Dude.  You have no idea how good the food was.

I mean, Thanksgiving at the Ambassador’s maaaybe beats it.  Maybe.  And one of the Peace Corps bosses (also a former Volunteer – and in Suriname, actually) threw a burrito party once.  But I mean.  This was pretty close.  Maybe for the win.  Hard to say.  There was a full turkey, salad, Mexican something, a variety of vegetable platters and whatnot.  And for dessert – THERE WERE BUCKEYES.  Yes.  I know.  Buckeyes are not the ultimate dessert; that is and always will be cheesecake.  But that’s at least partially because Buckeyes can qualify as a sweet snack, appropriate for tea parties and…shoot.  I just learned something about myself.  I can’t spell…that French word that means little finger food thingies.  Dang.   Anyway, Buckeyes are the best in the candy/cookie category hands down.  And if cheesecake knew how to lose, that’s where my money would be.

So that was a fun Christmas party.  Hanging out with a gang of expats and Peace Corps folks, eating good food, and…well we may have watched some Monty Python clips on youtube.  Not sure why, but always appropriate.

On actual Christmas, a different member of Peace Corps staff and a good friend of mine threw another party.  This one featured Tur-duck-en.  If you don’t know what it is, look it up.  It’s ridiculous.  I respectfully request that someone attempt Tur-ba-duck-en soon.  If they haven’t already.

Anyway, the Christmas week in the city was meant to be pure relaxation, but pretty quickly it became work.  Because I got free stuff!!!  Yay!  Free stuff!  That is to say that the money for my river landing project finally made it into Suriname!  The cement donation also came through. 

So I sorta took a break from the break and worked feverishly for a few days.  More on that in a separate post, however.  I thought about coming back to site with the stuff, but there wasn’t really room in the truck for me and they weren’t likely to start work right away anyway….so then I went back to taking a break!  And I’m glad I did, because that’s when all the above food stuff happened.

On New Years Eve Eve, or so, I came back to my village.  I am so glad I did.  It was AWESOME in the village.  Just a constant ongoing party with fireworks, food, drinks, dancing – everything.  It was a super fun couple of days.  There was also a boatload (literally – they were on a 45 meter sailing ship for 3 months) of Dutch high school students and their teachers, and they turned out to be super cool.  So just all sorts of fun social adventures.

On actual New Year’s Eve, I baked cakes and prepped drinks and then went wandering with my main posse of dudes.  We went from house to house, including mine, and basically just ate and drank and danced our way through about half the village.  Then we jumped on a boat and did the same thing in two other villages.  It was super fun.  Really just super fun.  There was significant silliness.  Yes, silliness.  So much so, in fact, that I took a nap after that.

And then it was time for fireworks!  There is no other way to describe it except as an orgy of fireworks.  More than three people, no socks, and fireworks everywhere.  Just lucky no one lost a finger or something!  So much fun though.  Most of the village gathered at the ball field and set off as many firecrackers as possible to welcome in the New Year.  At some point there was a concert, but I was tired and couldn’t really hear.

But an absolutely awesome couple of days!

Media Presence

So I’ve been doing a lot with the media recently – relatively speaking.  I’ve helped guide two different PR trips organized by the Surinamese government, one similar trip by the US embassy, and I was asked to do a couple of interviews/whatever for Peace Corps.  I know, I’m kind of a big deal.  Like supersized.  Check out the magazine article if you are interested!  It’s a bit melodramatic, but pretty cool.  And the girl pictured in it is the dancer from my village (also the head of the day care center.  Also 19.) http://www.caribbeantravelmag.com/files/_attachments_articles/suriname_article_caribbean_travel_and_life.pdf

I really enjoy that type of work – suddenly you have a group of people that are hanging on your words and you seem really cool and smart and all of that.  Who would have thought?  It’s fun and probably highly useful for the country.  Any little bit of positive exposure to a North American audience which I can encourage is a pretty big thing, especially given how few of my gentle readers had heard of Suriname before I went here.

So PR work is fun, valuable, and you often get free stuff out of it – lunch, cold drinks, pretty Javanese girl’s phone numbers (she’s a model!), etc .  On the other hand, it also feels…just a bit off.  I think guiding people about like I was doing is probably a bit like mining.  It’s necessary if you want to get some good stuff introduced to the wider world and the market, but you know you are losing a bit of yourself and the environment in the process.

Showing people around spends social capital.  I have a lot of it, because building it is basically my job, but still you feel yourself spending it when you walk around a group.  Especially when that group wants to take a million pictures, no matter how respectfully they do it.

When I show outsiders around, I can often help them see and understand so much more than they would otherwise – and the same for the villagers they meet.  At the same time, I feel like I risk being lumped in with those outsiders as someone there to exploit or export.  And I honestly don’t know how I feel about the exploitation piece.

Take that picture of my friend Jacintha (the dancer from that link).  Yes, she was paid for that performance.  More than usual, even.  But tens of thousands of people will see that picture of her, read about her, maybe even see videos of her – and she will never realize any direct benefit from that huge increase in exposure.  That doesn’t seem fair.  Especially for an activity that has so much cultural weight, with elements of sex, religion, and the echoes of ancestors escaping into the trees wrapped up in it.

On the other hand, she may have encouraged those tens of thousands to come to Suriname – people that never would have heard of the country otherwise.  So she and every other cultural performer will very much benefit from that.  It IS exploitative…but that is the point isn’t it?

It’s something I’ve not decided how I feel about yet.  But I do enjoy guiding people around.  Especially if it is just a small group of one or two friends.  So come visit!  There’s still time!

Peace Corpsing Across the Universe!

So,

Umm let me explain.  No, there is too much.  Let me sum up.  Not quite gonna go through it.

Hitting the year mark was hard.  Felt good about a lot of milestones, want a lot more.  Set the goal of being a better part of my community and of accomplishing a couple major projects.  Doing well on that.  More soon.

Had toe surgery.  Was rough - don't recommend surgery in the third world, but hey.  I survived.  Went to America, it was awesome.  More on that.  Andy and Dan visited - double awesome.  Finally started to get some major traction on projects, also awesome.  Doing really well on community (village and Peace Corps) integration stuff - really feeling at home here at an all new level.  Had some awesome adventures in the village recently and things are on a good track.  Even making some progress on jobs for when I get back!

Basically, it got really busy and the internet was broken at site for awhile and there was a lot of travelling and then for awhile I was just emotionally exhausted so I didn't post.  That was a bit of a down time, but not a big deal - just a slump from the combination of passing the middle mark, getting back from an awesome vacation, and some other junk.  But the slump has passed, yes my friends the slump has passed!

So let me sum up some of those adventures for you!

Did you know I killed and ate an iguana?  It dug a nest in my garden, but I could see it's tail!  And so I called  bunch of my friends, we dug it up, and we ate it!  You cook it like a chicken...that is if you would cook a chicken in a big pot with all of it's eggs in there with the machete-chopped-up meat!  And it was delicious!  The eggs have a leathery shell you kind of splooshslurp them out of and are nearly all yolk, but they are good in a heavy way.  And the tail meat is the best, but it's all good!  That's the first time I've really fully been involved in the kill and eat process.

I called over the friends who hadn't helped me kill it and we just sat on my porch and had an iguana feast!  Now that is a pretty cool day!

You DID know I went to America.  You may also know that America is AWESOME.  Ahh I want to keep posting because I'm finally in a writing mood...but it is late and I have a cold and I'm travelling tomorrow.

So more soon.  I promise!

Ah!

Camp BILT Write-Up

Peace Corps Suriname is proud to announce the successful completion of its sixth youth development camp based on the Camp GLOW model.  Over the past two years, Peace Corps Volunteers have worked with over 200 students and local mentors to bring life skills education, youth empowerment, and HIV/AIDS prevention education to underserved populations around Suriname.  These local leaders have carried the camps’ lessons back to dozens of communities and spread them through youth clubs, school activities, and other community education events.  The offering has improved with each camp, in terms of impact and sustainability, as organizers strive to put more responsibility on community partners, include more local mentors, and reach a broader pool of communities and students.  With our post soon closing, we are now working to push this evolution to the next stage – completely handing off a strong, durably youth development concept to local partners.

The latest camp, held May 18-21, continued this process.  It was also the second youth camp to include our biggest change yet: applying the GLOW model to boys.  Camp BILT (Boys Improving Lives Together) brought together 30 boys and seven local male mentors from some of the villages furthest south on the Gran Rio and Upper Suriname River.  While Camp GLOW in Suriname remains focused on female empowerment and HIV/AIDS prevention education, Camp BILT has adapted the message for boys to focus more on personal responsibility and teamwork.  This most recent camp also included several structural modifications from our other camps, generating significant positive feedback from campers, local partners, and Volunteers assisting with the event.

One of the most impactful changes was an explicit focus on the camp’s theme of leadership, responsibility, and teamwork.  This was illustrated by the camp motto, “Na wan kodo maun sa hai boto, subi dan.” (One hand alone cannot pull the boat through the rapids.)  The lessons – leadership, environmental protection, drugs and alcohol, careers and goal setting, HIV/AIDS prevention, and life decisions – educated students about how these characteristics support positive outcomes in many different arenas and offered opportunities to practice their skills.  At the same time, the camp was organized to allow explicit and implicit tie-ins to that theme each day.  The capstone was a daily closing ceremony that brought the boys, as one large community, physically together to silently consider how they could become better leaders using the lessons of the day and the opportunities coming up the following morning. 

To further support the theme, Camp BILT gave the children more responsibility for themselves and each other in the camp’s team structure.  The camp still divided students into teams for lessons, activities, and trust-building activities, with local adults and Volunteers assigned to guide each team, but asked the children to take on the bulk of team leadership responsibilities.  Two “kid captains” each day were responsible for assisting adults with keeping their team in order and supporting lessons. All children were given the opportunity to be a captain and constantly reminded of the leadership challenge issued on the first day – be a leader who takes responsibility not just for yourself, but for those around you. 

Camp BILT also continued the trend towards greater local partner involvement, a critical piece of any sustainable project.  Every lesson was planned and executed in partnership with a local mentor, increasing ownership for the host country nationals involved and providing strong role models for the boys to see standing at the head of the class.  Local mentors also slept in the cabins with the boys, taking responsibility for discipline and nightly de-briefs with the boys to help them digest the camp and generate feedback.  This increased bonding between mentors and boys, while leaving Peace Corps Volunteers free to focus on organizational and logistics preparation, as well as keeping energy levels high.

Between the constant evolution from camp to camp and the underlying strength of the Camp GLOW model, youth development camps are a shining success story for Peace Corps in Suriname.  This type of investment in the youth of the interior is unique to Peace Corps and offers children and adults a look at a type of education they otherwise never see.  As our post nears closing, however, the organization faces the same challenge that Camp BILT put to the boys every day – how can we make the lessons learned take root in communities to flourish and spread on their own? 

Peace Corps Suriname is working with community partners as well as the government to hand off parts of what the Camp GLOW model has to offer to youth in the interior, but there is no simple solution.  We depend on the diverse group of Volunteers and their local partners to look constantly for more ways to transmit the knowledge and excitement that comes from these camps.

Here for pictures.

Peace Corps Professional

Gentle Readers,

You didn't think I would forget, did you?  An elephant, never forgets.  Of course, that has nothing to do with me since I am not an elephant, but it's still a good saying.  I guess.  Maybe elephants disagree?

Anyway, hi!  It has been a raucous couple of weeks, let me tell you!  Seriously, there has been some serious Peace Corpsing going on down here with yours truly.  I'm mostly going to talk about Camp BILT, but before that let me just talk about my Lampesi project, briefly.

Lampesi - the stairs down to the river where people go to wash, land boats, etc.  It's culturally and logistically a central, important chunk of infrastructure in the village.

I've been trying to get money to build one forever.  Interesting developments - may have found a company to give us the cement.  MORE interesting developments - may have found an organization that wants to help us build a floating one!  It's with a Suriname Lions Club - does anybody know any local Lions Clubs?  Did anybody realize how many international-ish service-ish vaguely-rich-people clubs there are out there?  It's actually pretty cool - and they are dragging their feet a bit, but it could be super cool.

The problem with cement lampesi's are that they are expensive, not exactly green friendly (though they do help prevent erosion), and generally require at least some outside assistance and some major inside organization and commitment.  Wood lampesi's are quick, local, and easy.  Of course, they only last a couple of years.  So it's kinda two different theories of sustainable.

The reason that wood ones don't last, I'm told, is because the water level keeps changing.  If they were always above or always below the waterline - and made with the proper woods instead of whatever is lynig around - they should last a mad long time.  If Lions Club decides to help us at all, it will be to make a floating one.  There are some cultural barriers there - wood lampesi's are viewed as low class and there are NO floating lampesi's on the river.  But it's also an awesome opportunity - we could have the first floating dock on the river!

If either the Lions or the village decide they don't want to go that route, I will most likely right a Peace Corps Partnership Project (PCPP) - that means I ask the internet (and thus you, sorry) for money.  It's essentially an opensource grant request.  That is less than ideal for several reasons - I have to ask my friends for money and it does nothing to improve the village's access to local, sustainable project-oriented resources.  On the other hand, if I can't find another possible local funder - at least the village would end up with a lampesi.  That is a durable piece of infrastructure and the community organization required to build it would make for a strong model to sustain into the future - making future projects more likely. 

So yeah, we will see what happens!

Now...on to Camp BILT!  Boys Improving Lives Together (guess who came up with that.  yup.)  Man that camp went well.  It was a giant success, really just giant.  I couldn't be more happy with it, to be honest.  There were a lot of un-anticipatable challenges but the team just rolled with them and kept making it happen - and with a smile, which is all the difference when you are doing it in front of an audience of impressionable 12-19 year old boys.  I'm going to write a bit more about it from a personal view, here, but then I'll include a write up we were asked to do about it for a seminar involving other Peace Corps posts that do similar activities.

BILT was exactly what I hoped it would be and it was exactly what I like doing.  I got organized, carried the money, and ran around putting out fires and keeping a complex group of 30 boys and almost 30 adults moving towards the same goal.  It was that really good, gritty leadership, management, and motivation stuff that I just plain like - all set in the context of really making a difference in people's lives.  Basically, it's what I want to figure out a way to get paid to do.  Maybe not running youth camps specifically, but that basic concept. 

I'm in no way taking entire credit for it - we were a three person committee and it really did take all of us - but the camp was almost a text book case study in effective management.  Stuff keep trying to go wrong, but because we had a well defined planned, a clear overall vision, and sufficient buffer for a resources (the most important being volunteer motivation, which meant planning ways to boost it as needed) - we were able to swallow them all without stumbling.  So I'm really happy with it, and everyone I've talked to was as well.  A few of the more experience Volunteers who have previously planned and ran camps - and who were instrumental in helping us plan and run ours - were among the most complimentary.  And those are the ones that meant the most, since they really know what they are talking about.

So, all in all, not a bad couple of months work.  I'd probably even be willing to do it again...after a bit of a break.  That document I mentioned is the follow up post.

Food Post2

As I said…food!  My previous cooking post seems to be the one that creates the most felicity and positive comments among my readers (doesn’t that sound silly?  My readers…ehhh hennhh hennnhh!  All posts from now one will begin with “Gentle Readers.”  You know, except not) and so this post will attempt to recapture that glory.

Brief aside – if you check the comments on that previous post, you’ll see that a representative from the Peace Corps Cookbook recently reached out to me for assistance!  Yeah.  Uh huh!  I’m kinda like a big deal!  Am I that high on the google search return?  Anyway, I’ve taken the intelligent step of forwarding them to a different Volunteer who can actually…you know…cook.  Especially local dishes, which is what they want anyway. 

Anyway, gentle readers, let us return to the subject at hand.  The delightful meal I delighted myself with earlier this week.  I call it…darn I can’t think of anything clever.  Love Fruit Stew?  Sappy.  Tomato Stew?  Unimaginative.  Intergalactic Red Chunky Soup?  I guess it wins by default.

So, like most of my cooking, I didn’t exactly set out with a plan to make IRCS…it just kinda happened.  I don’t make soups or stews that often at all really, but sometimes the overwhelming urge to just throw things in a pot hits me and…well the results can be intergalactically good!

As I let my hands browse through my buckets, stacks, and piles (the equivalent of cupboards in my life here), I realized that all of the things I was picking had a certain significance, though.  And that is how we arrived at this post!  So it's food - with a purpose!

IRCS is, at its base, a chunky tomato based curry.  I trace that basic concept to two people I love very much.  First, my sister Cara!  Cara provided me curry powder and many other wonderful spices.  And even notes about usages to make them less scary!  Unfortunately, I was still kinda scared (and lazy!) so until Ariel showed up (the second person!(not a complete list)) I hadn’t really started to tap that wealth.  But Ariel showed me how easy it was!  Apparently, to use curry powder properly requires a spoon!  And stirring!  You can see why I was nervous to start by myself.

Ariel also contributed the idea of using tomatoes (in this case canned, not ideal, but I’m not perfect) to make things more awesome.   Rice and lentils – good.  Rice, lentils, and some stewed tomatoes – amazing!  

Thanks, Ariel!  You know, for at lot of stuff.  But cooking with tomatoes is one!

The next part goes to my friends here in Pikin Slee who helped me plant my garden, because, remember, IRCS is a CHUNKY tomato based curry.  I don’t just mean stewed tomato chunks, I mean chunks!  Did you say chunks?  I SAID CHUNKS!

To provide some chunks I used…HOME GROWN EGGPLANT!  The green leafys are Tajawi and they cook kinda like spinach – good for you, tasty, and good to thicken something up or whatever – but THEY ARE NOT CHUNKS!  So you need the eggplant too!

For those of you following along at home, remember that you have to cut up the eggplant and Tajawi before you throw it into IRCS.  I like big chunks too, but we want lazy big chunks (who wants to make a million tiny slices?  Not me, that’s for sure!)  not crazy big chunks!  Crazy big would be like if you didn’t cut up the greens at all.  Yeah – it’s not recommended.  Did actually try it once...or twice.  Once might have been coincidence.

So soaking the eggplant and ‘wi and then cutting it up is your first step.  Well, actually picking it is.  Well, actually planting it I guess.  Clearing the ground?  Finding a hoe??  Being born???  Where does it end?!!!  Right here – just cut it up.  Don’t cut yourself!  Let’s just call this the beginning of PHASE ONE!

After that, toss it in your big pot (I’m assuming you just have the one, like me!) with a little oil, a little water, and a little salt.  My eggplant has seemed a bit bitter recently (I have no idea why.  Do you?) and so I’ve been cooking it a bit crispier.  That means I let it fry a bit more and steam a bit less.  So a bit more oil and bit less water and I leave it uncovered.  Saramaccans also tell you that cooking something uncovered lets the bitterness escape.  I don’t know if that’s true, but it is interesting!

While that is doing its thing on the stove (don’t forget to turn the gas on!  And light it!), go root around and find your can of tomatoes.  If you have real tomatoes and want to stew them first or something, good for you fancy pants.  If you’re like me, go find your can.  If you are really like me, you may not have the best organizational system so there may be some rooting around and some dust and stuff like that…so that gives the vegetables a minute to wiggle around and cook down a bit. 

Then go to your protein bucket (if you don’t have one, you should.  Protein is important!  Duh!) and whip out your good ol’ textured vegetable protein.  Thanks here goes to Ariel – Thanks, Ariel! - who introduced me to any number of non-meat proteins.  Not that I would have been scared of these slightly dog-food looking bits otherwise…but I probably won’t have cooked with them!  And thanks to Peace Corps Medical Officer, Doc, for making sure we knew where to buy them in Suriname!

Now you can do your TVP any number of different ways, but this time I’m guying to toss it right in with the veggies – are they cousins?  Is that mean? – and let it steam/fry/marinate/whatever.  It will certainly get done enough and it becomes just another…CHUNK in the INTERGALACTIC CHUNKY TOMATO SOUP. Toss in a healthy handful and stir.

At this point, it’s time to really start stirring things in.  I’m extremely good at that, which may explain why my cooking over-emphasizes this technique.  When food doesn’t quite taste right, I generally answer by adding another different spice or ingredient.  When in doubt, I’ve been known to just throw Barbeque Sauce (it’s capitalized because it’s great) on something and stir until it became edible.  So when I say good at “stirring things in”…well I guess it depends on your definition of good.  Anyway.

Here’s the devil’s row for this dish.  Oil and salt already happened (not too much, let’s be healthy please!).  Soy Sauce because I LOVE YOU MOM.  Siracha (sp?) because it’s great and a little spice is awesome.  Listerine is for later and just completely ignore the other stuff.  Oh, and I think I forgot to take a picture of Ketjap Mannis – it’s kinda like a sweet soy sauce…idk.  I threw in a spoonful because I thought it might also help reduce the slight bitterness of the eggplant.

So stir in all of that or whatever and by then phase one should be pretty much complete.  TVP is done enough and well flavored, vegetables are cooked down but still chunky, and hunger is mounting so it’s time to hit…

PHASE TWO

To be meal, food need 3 thing.  Protein.  Starch.  Vegetable.  Me keep things simple.  Me not gourmet, gentle reader (mispronounce when you read, please). 

So you could say that this food is already pretty close to meal status.  Still needs starch, but whatever.  Much bigger whatever is that it is still WAY FAR AWAY from being INTERGALACTIC RED CHUNKY SOUP.  It’s getting intergalactic and it’s got chunks, but where is the RED and the SOUP you might ask?

It’d be silly to ask because I already told you to get your can of tomatoes.  Seriously.

Now it’s time to crack that bad boy open an pour ‘er on.  And here we get another shout out for Mom.  About three years ago I had an interesting conversation with an older, married coworker of mine and we recognized that one of the most important changes in a man’s life is when the Woman of the House, in whatever sense that means whatever it means, changes from Mom to someone else.  We aren’t going to follow that thread anywhere right now, we are just going to agree that Moms are pretty important.

And my Mom gave me possibly my most important tool that I have out here!  My smile?  Maybe, but I’m talking about my CAN OPENER!

Dude, it’s key.  I don’t eat canned food super often out here, but it’s still about a million times more often than I did in the States.  And given that that is true for most people around here, you’d think they’d have good can openers.  WRONG.  You can barely find one in this country.  So my momma sent me one from home and let me say - Thank you, Momma!

Also, you might notice there is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figure on that hook also.  Thanks for that go to Gordon and Harrison I think.  Thanks guys!

So, presuming that any of our gentle readers following along at home also have a mom who loves them, whip out your can opener and your smile and get it going!  If you don’t have both of those, you should have thought about it sooner – by the time you get that can open with your knife, those lovely chunky bits might burn!  Hurry up!

So pour in the tomatoes and then let it all do that magical thing called simmering.  Simmering is key.  I’ve heard.  Admittedly, I mostly just use it to get all the water out of my pasta so I don’t have to drain it…but I’m kinda lackadaisical.  I learned that word from my 6^th grade soccer coach!  Also, no pasta involved here.

Once you have simmered suitably (I don’t know what that means.  Ask someone who is a better cook) it’s time for the final piece of meal.  Starch!  Here, again, my momma gets a Thank you! for providing me with an alternative starch approach.  Couscous!

Couscous is wonderful and has the advantage of kinda cooking instantly – so I didn’t have to use another pot to cook rice or something separately and I could just (say it with me if you want!) STIR IT IN!

I just used all of the box that was left, but I don’t recommend that for you at home.  You should probably measure or something – there might be more left in your box than there was in mine.  And, yes, if you were very sneaky you might have noticed it amounted to about half of a blue cup in that picture of Devil’s Row that I put somewhere above.  Did you scroll back?  Admit it! Do you have a blue cup?  I guess you’ll have to figure something out if you want your IRCS to be like mine!  And mine was tasty, so you do.  Trust me.

So toss it in, stir it up, let the whole thing hit a boil again and then cover it, turn it off, and don’t forget to turn off the gas too!

Give it a while, and then take a look.  If you did it right, it should look something like this!

Spoon it up and sit down to enjoy!  And thank you to my friends from Pikin Slee that made the table where I get to sit to eat it!  Maybe a good book from friends – Thanks Mom!  Thanks Saffers! – and you have yourself the real meal they call dinner!

And if you made your IRCS right, don’t you worry.  You’ll be a member of the clean plate club without a doubt.  Thanks for reading!

And thank you to all of you that made this meal possible!  Whether you got a specific shout out for the food part or generally made it possible through being a positive part of my life, you have my gratitude for all your love and support – past, present, future.  Thanks!  Later!