MOZAMBIQUE

 

READ

It took me awhile to get through The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy, written by Paulina Chiziane and translated by David Brookshaw. The problem wasn’t lack of interest, but the fact that the book was almost five hundred pages long. I guess the author needed that many pages to tell the story of Tony, a police chief in Maputo, and the women and children he accumulated without any thought for the damage caused by his faithlessness.

Tony and his wife Rami have been married for twenty years and have five children. Rami is unhappy that Tony is never home, and she has heard that he has another woman. She goes to confront the other woman, Julieta, and they end up having a brawl, which Julieta wins because she is younger and fitter. Julieta tells Rami that Tony seduced her when she was a young girl, and only after she first became pregnant did he tell her that he was married. He swore he was going to get a divorce, but that never happened. Now Julieta has five children by Tony, and another on the way. What’s worse is that Tony is never around anymore, having moved on to another younger and more beautiful woman.

Rami finds that woman – Luisa – who has two children with Tony. They also get into a brawl, which temporarily lands them in jail. But then Luisa tells Rami that Tony has already moved on to a fourth woman, Saly, and Saly tells her that he has left her for a fifth woman, Mauá. Overwhelmed, Rami first turns to a wizard to help her win back Tony’s love, but doesn’t want to use the witchcraft he prescribes. Then she tries religion, but that doesn’t help either. She comes to a realization: “The worst of it is that God doesn’t appear to have any wife. If he was married, the goddess, his wife, would intercede on our behalf.” She laments the low esteem in which women are held in the part of the country where she lives and tells her herself: “But the goddess must exist, I keep thinking. She must be as invisible as all of us. No doubt her space is limited to the celestial kitchen.”

A man that Rami meets through Luisa tells her, “I think all women should unite with each other against the tyranny of men.” That leads to Rami’s decision to call a meeting of all of Tony’s women to hatch a plan to ensure that they are all protected under the law and that they all have a fair share of Tony’s time. Rami throws a big 50^th birthday party for Tony and invites all the other women, who all dress alike, and all of Tony’s children, who all dress alike as well, so that everyone at the party will know what Tony has done. The upshot is that Tony is forced into polygamous marriage contracts with the four women he’s not legally married to, and now they all have rights that they didn’t have before.

This doesn’t stop Tony from womanizing, but Rami and the other four wives form an alliance and help each other, so that they need Tony less and less. They discover that, “Women should be better friends with each other, show more solidarity. We are the majority, we’ve got strength on our side. If we join hands, we can transform the world.”

There are so many great quotes and insights in this book that I can’t possibly include them all in this post. The First Wife is not only Paulina Chiziane’s first novel, it’s the first novel ever published by a Mozambican woman. I hope she’ll keep writing, as I would love to read more of her work.

COOK

I was getting a little tired of making soups and stews, so I decided to make bolo polana, a Mozambican cake, for this post. This cake contains a couple of unusual ingredients – mashed potatoes and ground cashews – and I had my work cut out for me in trying to veganize this recipe, which I found on the 196 Flavors website. I replaced the butter and eggs with Miyoko’s vegan butter and JUST Egg; used aquafaba made from canned garbanzo bean liquid in place of egg whites; and replaced the heavy cream with Silk Dairy Free Heavy Whipping Cream Alternative. I was a little worried about how the recipe would work with all those substitutions, but it tasted great.

GIVE

There were lots of projects listed for Mozambique on the GlobalGiving website. Since my main focus now is climate change, I chose a fruit tree-planting project from Associação Esmabama. According to the project description: “Extreme climate events such as droughts, floods, and cyclones have been heavily affecting Mozambique in recent years, putting food security at risk. Agriculture is the main source of subsistence for the Mozambican families. However, in the past 3 years the production has been compromised causing famine, malnourishment and low income. Moreover, the access of students and the communities to fruits is insufficient or at unaffordable prices.”

The goal for this project is to plant 1,000 fruit trees, facilitated by the Medium Agrarian Schools. They will train 260 students to plant and nurture the trees, with the hope that the communities that are involved will then be inspired to plant fruit trees of their own, both for sustenance and for income. More information about this project is available at Plant 1,000 fruit trees in Mozambique - GlobalGiving.

NEXT STOP: MYANMAR

MOROCCO

 

READ

In the Country of Others, written by Leila Slimani and translated by Sam Taylor, is the story of a French woman and a Moroccan man who fall in love during World War II. Mathilde is living with her father and sister in Alsace when she meets Amine, a soldier from Meknes who is fighting on the side of the French, since Morocco is a French colony at that time. They fall in love, and when the war is over, Mathilde goes to live with Amine in Morocco.

At first, they live with Amine’s mother in Meknes, but eventually move to a house on a piece of land that had been left to Amine by his father. He works hard, but he has little success at farming until he finally settles on growing fruit trees. Even then, their family, which has grown to include daughter Aïcha and son Selim, never has much money. Mathilde also works hard, not only with all her domestic duties, but helping to care for local people who have injuries and illnesses.

But there are tensions between Amine and Mathilde. She finds him dour and brutal, and he thinks she’s capricious and frivolous. Mathilde is troubled by how differently women are treated in Morocco than in France. She tells her sister “what it was like to live in a world where she had no place, a world governed by unfair, repulsive rules, where men never had to justify themselves, where she was not allowed to cry if her feelings were hurt.” But somehow they muddle along, projecting a united front when they need to.

To a large extent, the whole family is caught in a sort of no-man’s-land. When a movement begins for Moroccan independence from France, there is uncertainty as to how Amine and Mathilde will be perceived. Will their sympathies lie with the French colonizers or with the Moroccan nationalists? One old laborer tells Mathilde that she must never open the door if he knocks on it because, “If I come, it will be to kill you. It will be because I’ve ended up believing the words of those who say that if you want to go to heaven you must kill French people.” But the true test will come the night that the nationalists set fire to the farms owned by Europeans.

Many different themes are addressed in this book – colonialism, miscegenation, the treatment of women, and racism, among others – which provide much food for thought. I enjoyed Slimani’s storytelling, and hope to read more of her books in the future.

COOK

During the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Ramadan is celebrated, requiring fasting from sunrise to sunset. After the sun goes down, there is a feast, called iftar, that breaks the fast. When Mathilde arrives in Meknes, she decides to fast during Ramadan out of respect for her husband and his family. Her mother-in-law spends every day cooking, and Mathilde wonders “how anyone could deprive themselves of food while spending their days amid the aromas of tajines and baking bread.” So I decided to try making a vegan tajine using a recipe I found on the Cuisinicity website. The main ingredients were potatoes, sweet potatoes, olives, and chickpeas, simmered with a variety of spices. The recipe made a ton of food, so I’m glad I like it well enough to look forward to eating the leftovers.

GIVE

GlobalGiving had several listings for Morocco on their website, many of which are projects of the High Atlas Foundation. According to their website, the High Atlas Foundation is “[c]ommitted to furthering sustainable development & supporting Moroccan communities to take action in implementing human development initiatives.”

The project I chose to support would help to build and maintain an argan tree nursery and forest in the city of Essaouira. If you’ve ever seen pictures of trees full of goats, it’s likely that the trees the goats had climbed were argans. The project description states that “[a]rgan trees are endemic to Morocco and are vital to maximizing prosperity, food security and biodiversity in the nation’s region of Essaouira. Its processing into oil and sale conducted by women’s cooperatives empower them and their families, and provides markets a medicinal and delicious food product in high demand.”

More information about this project is available at Argan Nursery and Forest in Essaouira, Morocco - GlobalGiving.

NEXT STOP: MOZAMBIQUE

MONTENEGRO

 

READ

Montenegro was hard. Finding a book to read was a challenge, as was finding a recipe I could veganize and an organization for my donation. Fortunately, there are lots of other people who are doing a reading-the-world project, so I checked to see what some of them had come up with. Lillian and Henriette, who write the Stories of the World blog, had discovered a book called Hansen’s Children, written by Ognjen Spahić and translated by Will Firth, so I ordered a copy.

The title, Hansen’s Children, refers to people who suffer from leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease. The book’s unnamed narrator lives in the last leprosarium in Europe, located in Tichileşti, Romania, isolated along with several other people afflicted with the disease. When he arrives at the leprosarium, the narrator “realised that I was not being sent for treatment but being prepared for a different journey to somewhere outside the rules of this world, which could more appropriately be termed ‘illness in isolation’ than a medical treatment.”

The narrator’s roommate is an American from Georgia by the name of Robert W. Duncan. The narrator says of Robert, “He bore the cross of leprosy with dignity, refusing to be a disease in human form, like so many others, and insisting on being a human infected with Hansen’s bacillus.” They get along well, and Robert spends a fair amount of time plotting ways for them to escape from the leprosarium. He believes that the International Red Cross driver, Martin Smooth, who brings them periodic care packages, will help them get away. Of course, the real problem is figuring out where they will go and what they will do once they get there. Leprosy is not a disease that can be hidden from people, at least, not for very long.

When a small group of people is forced to live together in close proximity to one another, with little or no interaction with people outside the group, there is always a question as to how they will react. Will they take care of each other? Prey on each other? Both? In the leprosarium at Tichileşti, the residents work cooperatively at the chores that fall to them, and the narrator and Robert look after some of the older people living in their midst. Many residents seem to keep to themselves as much as possible. But there are also times when things turn nasty, as happens when the narrator, who is the de facto leader of the group, is challenged by another resident at a time when the narrator is ill. They are essentially self-policing inside the leprosarium, which requires acceptance by everyone concerned, and that acceptance is not always forthcoming.

While the residents have practically no interaction with the outside world, they can see a factory nearby where the workers are starting to get caught up in a rebellion that’s occurring throughout the country – dissatisfaction with the rule of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. The eventual arrest, conviction, and execution of Ceauşescu and his wife in December of 1989 bring about changes in Romania and somehow trickle down to disrupt life at the leprosarium as well.

I learned a lot from Hansen’s Children about the impact a diagnosis of leprosy has on the person who receives it. Between the effects of the disease on the human body and the ostracization by society, leprosy has been responsible for taking away from those who have it so much of what is important in life. Things appear to be changing as doctors and scientists learn more about the disease. Treatments are available now, and leprosy has been discovered to be not as highly contagious as had been thought previously, which means that a diagnosis of leprosy doesn’t necessarily lead to banishment from society. Even so, as of 2019, there were still nine inhabitants of the leprosarium in Tichileşti.

COOK

Meat and cheese seem to be staples of the Montenegrin diet, so I was happy when I found a cream of mushroom soup recipe on the 196 Flavors website that didn’t involve either of those ingredients. I veganized the recipe by substituting a combination of soy milk and cornstarch for the heavy cream, and I finished it off with a dollop of Trader Joe’s vegan sour cream alternative. I’ll definitely want to make another batch of this when the weather gets a little cooler.

GIVE

I had a terrible time finding an organization or project in Montenegro that I could contribute to. GlobalGiving didn’t have anything in Montenegro, so I turned to the Internet. When a Google search of Montenegrin charities didn’t turn up anything useful, I started looking for GoFundMe projects. That’s where I found Pristaniste Foundation, which is helping Ukrainian refugees who are coming to Montenegro to escape Russia’s assault on their country, as well as “people from Belarus and Russia who are fleeing persecution because of their anti-war beliefs.” The Pristaniste Foundation is using the money raised through GoFundMe to provide temporary housing, food, medicine, SIM cards, and other financial assistance. More information on this project is available at this link.

NEXT STOP: MOROCCO

MONGOLIA

READ

 

The Blue Sky, written by Galsan Tschinag and translated by Katharina Rout, is an autobiographical novel, the first in a trilogy. The author, a shaman and a tribal chieftain, grew up among the Tuvan people of northern Mongolia.

The book follows a young shepherd named Dshurukuwaa as he and his nomadic family eke out a living in the unforgiving Altai Mountains. He lives with his parents and his older sister and brother, but the beings he cherishes most in the world are an old woman that was adopted into the family to be their grandma, and his dog Arsylang. They live in a yurt in a small community made up of other family members, moving their yurts “through the four seasons and across the four rivers, from the mountains into the steppe, over to the other mountains, to the lake, and back.”

Dshurukuwaa’s job is to mind his family’s sheep, taking them out in the morning to look for food, observing their behavior, watching out for danger, and bring them home safely at night, always with Arsylang at his side. This is particularly difficult during one especially harsh winter, when food for the sheep is scarce and the freezing temperatures devastate the flock.

When the older children leave for school, where they will stay except for occasional school breaks, Dshurukuwaa’s existence becomes quite solitary. He misses his sister and brother and can’t understand why his father sent them away. “And so I cried, and in crying, I knew that I, too, would have to go away one day.”

While Dshurukuwaa and his family worship Father Sky (Gök-Deeri), their earthly dealings are guided by their socialist government, which has strong ties to the Soviet Union. Mongolia had allied itself with Russia after Russia helped Mongolia gain its independence from China in the 1920s. The government introduces the people to the concept of money, and tells them how they may get more of it – “by hunting wild animals and birds and delivering the kill to the district. Or by cutting tall, straight trees and rafting them down the river to the district center.” The attempt to kill wild animals – in this case, wolves and foxes – results in a tragedy for young Dshurukuwaa and causes him to reject Father Sky.

The Blue Sky is a fascinating look into a way of life that’s so different from our own. There are many heartwarming moments, especially with respect to Dshurukuwaa’s love for Grandma and his companionship with his dog. There are also horrifying moments, particularly those involving the suffering of animals. The book is an intimate, authentic account of life among the nomadic Tuvan people, and Dshurukuwaa is a character who will stay with me for some time.

COOK

While bread, dumplings, and pancakes are mentioned in The Blue Sky, it’s clear that the mainstay of the Tuvan diet is meat. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I searched the Internet for a vegan or veganizable Mongolian dish, so I was thrilled when I found a recipe at The Viet Vegan website for Vegan Mongolian Beef. The “beef” is made with soy curls, a product I’d never used before and didn’t even know where to buy. I found Butler Foods Soy Curls online and ordered several packages.

I have mixed feelings about the dish. On the one hand, it was pretty terrific and I’m glad it made a big batch so I’ll have leftovers. On the other hand, it was so much trouble to make, and clean-up afterwards was such a chore, that I’ll probably never make it again. I’ll be looking for easier recipes for my remaining packages of soy curls!

GIVE

In looking at the three projects GlobalGiving listed on their website for Mongolia, I knew immediately which one I wanted to support – the one that involves protecting snow leopards. I’ve viewed them with awe ever since reading Peter Matthiessen’s masterpiece, The Snow Leopard, many years ago.

The project, which is being undertaken by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, seeks to end the killing of snow leopards by farmers protecting their livestock, and the capture and killing of snow leopards for the illegal wildlife trade. The project includes “community-based income-generation initiatives designed to support both wildlife and local communities who share a common habitat, education to raise conservation awareness, and rigorous research towards gaining a better understanding of snow leopard ecology. More information about this project is available at Protecting Snow Leopards - GlobalGiving.

NEXT STOP: MONTENEGRO