Luk Insay Wi Sto [Look Inside our Kitchen]

Post by Lara

17th November 2013

Here's another photo post to show you what our kitchen looks like, and some of the things we keep in it.  In Sierra Leone, a "kitchen" is a place you cook food, usually made of thatch and sticks. The place you store all your cooking utensils and food items is called your "store".  We just had a kitchen built last month, so we have an outdoor place to cook over wood fire where the smoke won't "humbug" (yes, that's a Krio word) us too much. The store is where we prepare food, keep our water filter as well as water storage, and lock everything up safely when we're not using it.  Here's a view of the shelves in our store:

The first shelf is home to 3 big bottles of oil (palm oil, canola oil, and coconut oil to be specific), sugar, honey, rice, Nescafe, and a number of other items we use pretty much every day.  The second shelf holds dry goods, spices, and sauces. Between the two we've hung a used fishing net to hold our onions, ginger, okra, garlic, and other produce. We also have a nifty little blue shelf for silverware and fresh fruit that we bought on the streets of Freetown.  Under the shelves you can see the tops of our water buckets-- they hold 3-5 days worth of cooking and drinking water in them.

By the window is one of two water filters we have-- it can hold 2.5 gallons of filtered water. We refill it every few days, and clean the ceramic candles once a month (or less often, if we're honest). Under that counter top you can see the giant aluminum pot we use as a Dutch oven as well as the brightly colored "bafs" (baths) that we use to collect rain water, wash dishes, and hold produce at times.  There's also a lovely pumpkin sitting next to the water filter-- we're saving that guy for a special occasion.

We keep 4 different "foot brushes," all labeled with their purpose: for cleaning the table, clothes, food (like potatoes), and ourselves. With all the dirt that manages to get on/in everything around here, these guys come in handy!

 With the help of some very strong concrete nails, we took advantage of all the space in the corner of the store for our pots, frying pans, and some utensils.  Before we did this, the pots cluttered the store and made it very difficult to use the counters for anything.

Finally, here is a nice sampling of the special foods that we keep. Most of these were bought in Bo or Freetown. The Skyline chili and Parmesan cheese came from the states.  Usually at least once a week we'll incorporate a can of fruits, veggies, or meat into a meal.  The last meal we made with Bo food was hot and sour soup with canned mushrooms.  We're excited about the 2 cans of corned beef we scored for about $2.00 each last time we were in Bo, as well as the Butterscotch syrup that cost us about $3.00 and is still unopened because we know once it's open a) we will put it on everything we eat until it's gone and our blood sugar is through the roof and b) if we take too long finishing it, the ants will come to help us. 

That's our kitchen! Please let us know if you have any blog post requests-- we're hitting a lull again and we like to keep the blog updated at least weekly. Thanks in advance!