MozamWeek

A plate of ntsima with cisai The Nyungwe word for food is cakudya. It refers to the food made from grain that is the staple of the Nyungwe diet. The corn that is growing now will be harvested in a month or so. It must stay in the fields so that sugars can turn starchy and the product will be heavy enough to fill grumbly tummies.  Arranging piles of dried corn for sale  Forget that tender sweet corn of our dreams. African corn is appreciated when it is hard and dry and tastes of a sun-scorched field. It will be shucked and stored all year – if they have a plentiful crop. It will be taken off the cob, pounded to remove the hulls, soaked in water and dried in the sun… then carried to the mill to be ground into fine flour. Only after the laborious task of planting, hoping and praying and tending, harvesting and pounding and carrying can the maize meal, ufa , be cooked into the much longed-for ntsima, a starchy, heavy, white paste served in flattened fist-sized balls –

Here in Tete, Mozambique, March is a month of hope. The rains have arrived in full force and the fields are green! The corn, a staple of the Mozambican diet, is tall and tasseled. The wells are full of water. People are no longer hungry. Cattle have plenty to eat. When you have a distinct cycle to life, as in this agriculturally dependent place, you can appreciate the blessings more than in places where technology makes abundance possible all the time. Here, hunger in November and December is real. Everything is dry. Water is scarce. It is extremely hot (averaging about 105F during the day for months on end). Energy levels sink as the heat saps our strength and robs us of patience. Cows and goats and mothers get skinny. Dust clouds rise with the hot breeze. It is a time of just hanging on! BUT, December… or sometimes January… brings rain. Rain brings a break in the heat and kills the dust. Rain means we can plant… and once the seeds are in the ground, we won’t be tempted t