Cakes, Beans, and Chaya in Kotido

 By Sara:

While Anthony and George William were training about-to-be-TLT-graduates in facilitation skills, I had the opportunity to meet with a group of women from the main church in Kotido to share about baking cakes, how to grow and cook chaya, use a fireless cooker, do Bible study, and some components of nutrition. 

Since my chaya has grown so huge at home, I was able to bring a lot of leaves and over 60 cuttings with me to Kotido.  We started out by preparing the leaves as part of lunch, cooking them the same way as cowpea leaves mixed with peanut butter - a very common dish - so everyone got to taste it, including the TLT participants.  Then, I went over how to grow it and all of the ladies went home with cuttings to plant.  One of them even shared some of her cuttings with a neighbor that very night, after telling her about all the benefits of chaya for nutrition.

Cutting a giant pile of chaya leaves:

 Boiling the greens:

Making the peanut sauce:

We also used the fireless cooker to prepare beans.  Some of the ladies came late and needed to be taught about what we did, so here are a couple videos of the initial participants explaining to them how it works:

We also made and decorated some cakes: banana cake, maize cake, and a new recipe for banana cake made with cassava flour.  The banana cassava one was everyone's favorite.

It was an enjoyable few days and I look forward to the next time I go back to Kotido, hoping to see chaya growing in peoples' gardens and fireless cookers in their kitchens!