A Typical Day

So many people ask us what a typical day in Nkwanta is like for us – and we can never come up with a good answer.  But being here in the US for these few weeks has helped us to explain how a typical day is different from your typical day here at home.

We have found that we were craving hamburgers and french fries almost every day while recently in the USA  – and we are not big hamburger eaters.  We began to analyze the reason that we wanted hamburgers and what we came up with is that we are craving it because of what a typical day with hamburgers and french fries might look link at our house in Nkwanta, V/R Ghana.

This typical day becomes a three day event!  Let’s look at what you need for a hamburger – buns, ground beef, mayonnaise, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and cheese.  Cheese is nonexistent in Nkwanta – so if we are fortunate enough to have had a guest from the US – we might have some in the freezer, if not – we have to decide to wait until we go to Accra or do without cheese.  So let’s do without the cheese and move to lettuce – we will have to drive to Hohoe for that; 2 ½ hours away – which means we’ll do that the morning after we decide we want hamburgers and pick up other produce while we are there – including bread flour.  Did we mention Jan will have to make the buns??  OK what about mayonnaise and mustard – well, Jan will have to make both of those.  Better make sure we have eggs, sunflower oil, salt and paprika for the mayo .   For the mustard – we need to make sure we have mustard seeds and mustard flour – we always have the other ingredients on hand – and it has to sit for a minimum of 8 hours before use.  WHEW!!  — We’ll wait and buy the boneless beef early in the morning of the day we want to eat the burgers – and bring it home to grind – unless the electricity is off, in which case – well, let’s not go down that road.  OK – so it’s two days later and we can finally make hamburgers!! YAY!!!  OOOPS!!! Potatoes!!!  Well, looks like we’ll wait again – because potatoes are in Accra!!  So now that Hamburger and fries becomes beef stew until the next trip to Accra.  But we will say that when we finally do get that burger it is better than anything you’ve ever tasted.  And then we need a nap!!!