Local Beer & Our Lodgers

The ‘local brew’

One of the staff here who lives on site said that he had to go back to his home town on Friday and promised to bring back some of the local beer that is brewed in the villages for us to try. When he returned he invited us all over for a taste. This sounded great so off we trotted to next door for a sample. ‘We’ is Misha and Sarah (my German housemates) and I.

The local beer is brewed from millet, a very small hard grain. The brew is ready to drink after about 7 days of fermenting. We were advised that it can be taken with either hot water or cold water, but that people who drank it with cold water get drunk very quickly.

The beer is poured from a large canister into a clay pot and this is topped up with either the hot or cold water – we all opted for hot. Each person is then supplied with a very long drinking straw. The ones we had were about 4 – 5 feet in length, so that you can sit in your chair and sip the beer from the pot. The end of the straw is covered in a tea bag like filter so that the solids in the bottom of the pot don’t get sucked up into the straw. Traditionally the mouth piece is made from a turkey quill, but the ones we had were made from plastic (I think).

We did take some photos on Misha’s camera but unfortunately I could not load them onto my laptop.

The beer was not quite what I was expecting a beer to look like. It was thick grey brown liquid (a bit like cement) and had a slightly chocolaty, gritty, sharp flavour.  We did not really drink very much and I hope we didn’t offend our host but it was very different to what we are used to as a beer. 

Our host told us that back in the villages, when a person has had enough to drink, they are not expected to say anything but to quietly remove themselves and go off on their way. He said they often look around and wonder where people have gone. He also said that once the brew has been drunk the millet in the bottom is eaten in areas where they are short of food.

We have had offers to go over and finish the container for the last couple of nights but have very politely declined. I wonder if they really like it that much – they seem very keen to give it away!

Our Lodgers.

The volunteer’s house has a concrete base and is a construction with wood cladding. There are four bedrooms, a kitchen, shower room and sitting area. There are currently three of us living in the house but I thought I would explain that we are not alone.

We have lots of spider’s webs around the lights and in the corners of the ceilings, but we don’t attempt to get rid of these because they eventually catch the mosquitoes and other flying creatures.

In the roof above the kitchen we have some creatures that make a high pitched squeak. We think they might be bats but are really not sure. We can hear them moving around a bit but we don’t see them and they make more noise in the day time.

We have quite a lot of lizards about 4 inches long with very big bulging eyes. They are very shy and quickly disappear if you manage to see one.   We think it is these that leave a trail of droppings each morning on the worktop in the kitchen.

I haven’t seen any snakes yet but Misha keeps a blanket at the foot of her door to make sure she doesn’t get one in her room. The staff here have said that there are quite of lot of snakes in the long grass by the school of nursing. There is a better internet signal up there and we previously toyed with idea of sitting on the bench up there at night to be able to get the signal – but you won’t catch me up there now I know this. Apparently they are bright green but ‘only a bit poisonous’.  There was also one in the office the other day which caused a bit of a fuss. Having looked then up on the internet there are several green species of snake so I’m not sure exactly what it is. Most likely a green tree snake.

The green snake isn’t the only one that is seen around here; a short while ago there was a very large snake (probably a python or a boa) found in the guest house – glad I wasn’t around then.