Epic Days and Nights In The Rondavel: Part I

[An account of the 15th May]

Zandile, what a legend!

Friday was a very happy day in the pharmacy when Christmas came early in the form of a massive delivery from our friends at the depot. The highlight was definitely the 1200 containers of D4T which solves that major crisis [see prev. blogs] at least for a week or two! We also received 50000 paracetamol tablets that have to be prepacked into packs of 20, does it get any better? Oh, and how could I forget the 15 boxes of TB drugs that we welcomed with open arms! The entire pharmacy was filled with boxes up to head height – the extreme level of excitement that this provoked in me is testimony to the fact that I have been here a bit too long!!! After a little raid through the boxes to see what else was back in stock, we left the piles of boxes for next week's work [why not spread the joy until Monday?].

The back room AFTER [!] we'd cleared most of the stock

Asanda came over mid afternoon to teach us how to make traditional Xhosa bread. Turns out it isn't that difficult, you just chuck flour, warm water, sugar, yeast and a tiny bit of butter in varying quantities until it makes a gloopy dough. We left it to rise for a while and watched some of the latest TV series that we have stolen from Anita, Rome [the BBC one]. I'm not sure there's ever been a more violent, scandalous and disturbing depiction of life in ancient Rome, but oh well! Eventually, Asanda decreed that the dough had risen enough and said we should start to cook it. The bread gets cooked on a stove by putting it in a pan lined with an oil/flour mix, most bizarre. Due to the unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of our little stove, it got a bit chargrilled on the bottom within about 2 seconds, but eventually we got it settled at a nice heat.







That was until the power went off. For the second weekend in a row. [Good times all round.] Over the next three hours, our bread went through varying stages of being left on a cooling stove, being ignored on the worktop, being blasted on a gas stove, being serenaded by Beyonce tunes, being toasted on a hot plate with stones on it...I suppose it’s no small wonder that it ended up completely black on 90% of its surface area! We were in stitches the entire time at how much of [yes, here comes my favourite expression] a complete EPIC FAIL it was. Asanda tried to stab it to see if it was cooked in the middle but the knife just bounced off the outer crust – is that enough of an illustration of how burned it was? Despite the burning, Sam and I were determined to make the most of our beautiful/hideous creation and it actually turned out to be really good in the middle. Once we'd sawn through the 4-5mm layer of charcoal, the inside was the Xhosa bread we had come to know and love during our stay at Coffee Bay over Easter :)

Xhosa bread fail :)