Things We Do For Africa

We are preparing for our big Africa/iKODI benefit, and since R is on the board, our involvement is perhaps more than the average Joe. This, of course, means that yours truly will be working hard over a hot stove for a day or two, which is okay, because it’s for a good cause, right? A little hard work is a good thing when you're trying to provide clean water and an education for kids in need.

This year, in order to raise more funds, they decided to sell food in addition to the raffle and donations. This, of course, is right up our alley since we’re food-vending mongers after the infamous Grateful Dumpling adventure of last summer. In fact, one of our dumplings is very reminiscent of Northern African food, so we decided, with some trepidation, to make them. We also made yam stew and two types of desserts.

This entailed going into the basement and unearthing all of the market equipment. It is way too cold to cook them outside, so I won’t need the stove, but pots and oil and utensils will have to be located. Ah, the memories.

We ended up making about 130 dumplings, and doing just one batch is reasonably painless, though it sure did rekindle some memories, both good and bad. I am still not clear how we managed to pull off the farmer’s market. The amount of time and effort that it took was enormous, but that explains why we got nothing else done all summer. After making them, however, I don’t have too much of an inkling to do the Winter market any time soon, and I feel sort of bad about that, but not too bad. I’m waiting for PR to invent the Rube Goldberg Dumpling Maker that will make him a hero, en par with Genghis Khan, in the Asian sub-continent.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.