* Counting Down - or Always Fresh, Never Frozen

Other than the travel to Ghana the area of most concern to me last year was the food. I am almost a picky eater. I like plain food, with no unidentifiable things on my plate. It occurred to me that I may have to eat something I did not like during my trip last year. Eating in Ghana not being optional. This turned out to be a very pleasant and unexpected bonus. Not only was the food tolerable, but it was excellent. I am actually looking forward to this portion of the trip and have at times craved the flavors I experienced while staying at the Village of Hope. We are provided three meals a day, cooked fresh for us by some precious people, Leticia being the main cook.

What has occurred to me is that the food is amazingly fresh. They live near the coast, fishing is a local industry. They have a self sustaining garden, because self sufficiency is essential to their survival and a skill they work hard to instill in the orphans housed there. We miss out on the fresh flavor of food, a concept some of my crunchier friends would agree with I know. In my need to over photograph everything - as well as not knowing if that would be my only trip to Ghana I took pictures of every meal served.

The highlight was a dish called "red-red" which is almost a chili type of food only based on tuna, the red is from something local and not at all like chili.... The slice of white bread came with every meal, made fresh on site. The fried plantains were also a common side dish, along with fresh pineapple. Not a big fan of bananas myself - I loved their fried cousins. You use the bread to wipe up the lovely unidentifiable red sauce. This is one of the few bean based dishes I would eat on a regular basis. The other dishes didn't have cool names but were absolutely yummy...

















The yellow dish is potentially a curry chicken. The brown is a "classic" meat and potatoes dish with some steamed vegetables (again due to their freshness and my hunger, amazingly tasty). The sandwiches were awesome. The light color is a tuna although flavored differently than we do here in the states. I can not identify the dark one but I don't really care. I had some other pictures but didn't want to over do it. Did I mention that we also get homemade oatmeal and rib sticking pancakes for breakfast?



We go to be a blessing, but are so blessed ourselves. The food is just symbolic of what they offer. Their love, their lives, their friendship.. always fresh and never frozen. ...2...