Solar cooking in Kinshasa village, Day 2

The next day I explored more of the village area in the morning (see pictures), and then learned how to make mpondu to put in the solar cooker. Mpondu is a local dish made from ground cassava leaves cooked in palm oil. The French teacher showed me the different steps. First she dried the leaves by tossing them continuously in a pot over an open fire. It’s still a mystery to me how she managed not to burn her hands while doing that. She was far more agile and her hands were a lot tougher than mine, I guess. The leaves eventually wrinkled and shrank. We dumped them in a bucket and soaked them in water. She then wrung the water out of the leaves, which required far more strength than I had, and used a large mortar and pestle to crush them. It seemed like at least half an hour of pounding and crushing. This is really hard work – that stick was not light. I tired myself out after about 5 minutes. I let the teacher and other woman do the rest – you can see from the pictures how strong and healthy these women are from doing these chores on a daily basis. No need to go to the gym when you’ve got mpondu to make!

It was past noon when we put the cassava leaves in the solar cooker with the palm oil. The sky was cloudy again, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try. Before eating lunch, they showed me how they use the cassava tuber. Cassava is a major staple in many developing countries, but it must be properly processed in order to destroy cyanogens (substances that trigger cyanide production when eaten – cyanide is a potent poison). There are different ways of processing cassava, but the tubers are usually peeled, soaked in water at least overnight, then laid out in the sun to dry. They can then be finely ground in the mill to make flour, which is used to make all kinds of meals and pastries. Cassava can also be fermented to make alcoholic drinks.

We then had lunch – some fish fried on the charcoal stove. The smoke was asphyxiating – it burned my throat and lungs, and I had to walk away coughing. The women sat right beside it – they had to, to turn the fish over every so often. Either they were less sensitive to the smoke because they were used to it, or they were just doing a better job of hiding their discomfort than I was. According to the World Health Organization, someone dies from wood smoke inhalation every 20 seconds, and respiratory infections are the biggest killers of children under the age of 5 in developing countries. Feeling that smoke attack my lungs, it was easy to understand why.
At the end of the day, we opened up the mpondu pot we had put in the solar cooker. I was half-expecting it not to be cooked – after all, the pot was larger than recommended, more shiny-grey than black, and it had been pretty cloudy all day. But we had left it facing the sun all afternoon, and the mpondu was well cooked. One of the women there took the mpondu back home, balancing the pot on her head, and encouraged all the villagers she met on the way to try the solar-cooked food. They all did and said it was quite good. This is a picture of her family with the French teacher. For video, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyfYwwDth5g&list=UUWGPGJGy3gox06Isu9MBLNQ&index=1&feature=plcp

My ride back to Kinshasa arrived soon after, and we needed to leave as soon as possible to get back at a reasonable hour. I said goodbye and thank you to everyone and took some last minute pictures of people which I promised to print out and send to them later on - these would be the first pictures they would have of themselves. I had talked earlier in the day to some young men who had asked me where they could find more information on how to make and use solar cookers. I gave them some website addresses which they could check out when they went into town, and my email in case they had more questions. I left the pots and solar cookers with the villagers. I unfortunately left the country soon after and have not been in touch with all the kind and friendly people I met in Menkao. I don’t know whether they decided to try solar cooking for themselves, or whether the men I talked to ever even researched solar cookers. But at least they know about the sun’s power to cook food. And who knows - If any of them should become important figures in public policy, they will at least know enough about solar cooking to consider including it in health and environmental programs.