Kuka

Since I have been in town with internet and have mostly had to stay in bed with my foot elevated above my heart, I have had a lot of time to look at pinterest. I don't even have a pinterest account, but my husband does- you can make fun of him later. Anyway, I like to go on there and find recipes for things that are hard or impossible to get in this country. Finding home made leave in conditioner and home made Febreeze have been life savers, but I have to confess that the stuff on Pinterest is getting a little ridiculous. Like this recipe for home made snickers.

Um? Do you know that you can go to any gas station, grocery store, or Super Wal-Mart and BUY snickers for less than a dollar? *Are Snickers still less than a dollar in America? I don't know- I haven't lived there in 2 1/2 years. 

I also like to get recipes and ideas for kids games and crafts. My kids would have totally forgotten what Play dough was if it were not for the simple and amazing play dough recipe I found.

But even the kid stuff is getting ridiculous. There are now things like make your own glow-in-the-dark rainbow sculpting spackle. All you need is a little flour, baking soda, and ammonium hydrothygleroceramide. Don't worry, if you can't find ammonium hydrothygleroceramide you can order it online. Sure it will get you put on the no fly list, but once you instagram this craft that you did all by yourself with your kids then it will be all worth it!

And then I found this.

These are funny tags that you can put on all the home made gifts that you found on pinterest and you are making for people. So, instead of spending the money on real things they actually want, you can make something that will look really cute, but be totally useless and spend the money on these tags to make the gift even cuter and more useless.


I know this seems completely off the subject and completely random, but I am getting there I promise. I mentioned in a few posts back (Life Choices) a little foul Hewa delicacy called "kuka".

It is gross and smelly and takes a lot of preparation, and it just reminds me of the all this craziness on pinterest. After all the steps were complete, I really wanted to just tell my Hewa friends, "You know you have like 23 roosters running around this village right? Seriously, a little snap of the neck, pluck of the feathers, and throwing in the pot and you have a delicious meal full of protein...And much quieter mornings." To me it seems just as ridiculous as making your own snickers. Just saying.

Anyway, kuka starts with a tree nut. You gather lots of them, break them open and dig out the inside like this...

 

 Then you have to soak it in water for four weeks or it will KILL YOU. Seriously, it is toxic without the soaking process. 

After you pull it all out of the water you get this disgusting smelly goo...

Dividing kuka goo up to take home.

Big community goo mixed with greens to enjoy together

Then you can take it home and eat it and smell like a dead animal for the next two months. If you can't tell already kuka season is not our favorite time of year. And luckily it is only once a year.

But the kuka season did teach us many new language and cultural lessons. My favorite one is how to tell someone that you do not like something and do not want to eat it.

I am from the South where you eat it even if you don't like it because to embarrass someone else is WAY more embarrassing for you than it is for them. Even if you have an allergy, you politely eat the food and then sneak off to the bathroom to shoot yourself with your epi-pen so you won't have to embarrass your host or inconvenience them with a trip to the emergency room. But in most of the rest of the United States, you can say something like, "I don't care for any, thank you, though." And everyone is ok and moves on with their lives.

In Hewa it is culturally appropriate to say, "If I eat that I will throw up." And everyone is ok and moves on with their lives. In fact, most are silently singing your praises because it means "more for me!"

We actually found a couple of people who agreed with us on kuka and taught us this phrase. It made me really happy to know I was not alone and I laughed at the thought of getting to use that phrase next year!

So, maybe kuka season will be fun after all!  Way more fun than home made snickers!