Guestblogger: Dinner at Ega's House

(GUESTBLOGGER: Randy’s Mom, Judy Vaughn)

Randy and Kelly had tried to prepare us for our adventure to Ega’s house for a meal. They told us it was a tiny room where we would all sit around a table and be served a 4 or 5 course meal of typical African foods. They said it would take a long time to eat it. Of course these people don’t have indoor plumbing and no outhouses (which is not a very big step up anyway in my mind) so the answer to your problem is out in the bush. So much easier on a man than a woman! We decided to have no intake after 1:00pm hoping that would help us.

We arrived at Ega’s about 5:00. He is the crippled man who scoots around on his bottom. He was eagerly awaiting us at the front of his house. I waved to him as we drew closer and he flashed a huge grin of beautiful white teeth. We were greeted by any number of people anxious to see the Americans. They were all smiles and handshakes. We went into Ega’s house and oh my, it is about 5feet by 12feet with half of the 12feet being the store! And HOT! I have been hot a lot here but that was a dirty, cramped hot!

The food. And you might want to picture this…the woman serving us who is a friend or relative of Ega, is topless part of the time. Well, the first course was a very hot (temperature wise) cornmeal mush molded like Jell-O. You pull off a piece as soon as it was cool enough to touch and dip that piece into some slimy okra sauce. I could not do the okra sauce since I am not fond of raw okra anyway so I “pretended” to dip mine. I think Ronnie actually ate a little of it. Each bite was washed down with a slug of warm coca cola (no such thing as ice here). By the way, these portions are HUGE so we only made a polite dent in the pile of mush. Second course was 2 large bowls of fresh picked pineapple which we could have eaten all of but Randy advised us not to because we couldn’t get full…there were more “delicacies” to come. Third course was a big bowl of pasta, tomato sauce of some sort, and 2 boiled eggs on top for each person. There was also a pan of small pieces of beef on the bone for us to eat. Tori really liked the beef and ate enough so I didn’t have to. I put some of her bones on my plate. And finally, we had more of that cornmeal mush but this time it had some tomato sauce in it, and squares of fried cheese (NOT the fried cheese we get as an appetizer for sure) that was fried in something that made it look red???? The cheese was actually not too bad. The other part of the meal was turkey pieces. Tori, being the good little helper even ate some of that and I again put some of her bones on my plate.

After eating and being so glad that part is over, we shopped in Ega’s store. Remember, we are sweating and poor Jonathan (8 months old) has really had enough of the bush by now, so we tried to speed things up a little. It was dark and I felt as dirty as I ever have. We paid Ega, gathered his children around him and Ronnie prayed for his family. We took pictures and said our goodbyes and left after about 2 ½ hours. All I can say is you can read, you can see pictures, but until you SEE this poverty there is no way for you to understand. The people are starved in so many ways… for food, for money, for spiritual guidance, and for attention.

Praise God, the abstaining of food and drink from 1:00pm did work and we all made it without having to go out into the bush! When we got back to R/K’s we passed around the M&M’s to regain our spoiled life style…

Thankfully, Randy and Kelly now have a family living here in Aplahoue with them. The Prices. They were kind enough to babysit Timothy and Lael for us. I cannot imagine how we would have all fit into that little room at Ega’s. Nor can I fathom little Timothy being confined to a 5x12 space for 2 ½ hours! Jonathan was a trooper and Tori is the most amazing little girl. She ate the food, and then went out and began to teach some of the kids how to play soccer!

It turned out to be an adventure and a very rewarding experience. You were so right on, Donny.

I will end this by telling the saddest part. This sweet man had people taking him all around including other towns looking for the food for us. He spent more money than he could afford. The meal was prepared by his 10-year old daughter, because as I have mentioned before, Ega’s wife died last month. He told us they got up at 4:00AM to start preparations for us. They had worked for 12 hours and spent their money to honor us. That kindness is hard for me to take in. Amazing.

Judy