2 Months???

So I guess it's been 2 months since I posted anything. I don't know. My life in America is definitely not nearly as exciting as life in Sudan. I kind of feel like I set the bar a little high with all the weird, crazy African stories and that anything I write on here now will be a little disappointing. But I'll try.

Last week I went with a friend to visit a Sudanese lady. I'd never met her before but she was sweet and we got onto the topic of sudanese foods, which ones she makes here, which ones she misses the most, which were my favorite, etc. She talked about how she makes fool all the time (the mashed up bowl of beans with lots of salt, oil and tomatoes) and when I was in Sudan I looooved fool, ate it quite often and have been craving it lately but haven't been able to find the right kind of beans anywhere. I was instantly intrigued and asked her where she buys the beans. Of course she just said 'the market', like I was a little stupid for not knowing that you get beans at the market. So I asked 'which market' and she waved her hand in the air and said 'that one, over there.' Obviously we weren't getting anywhere so I dropped it and we moved on but I did NOT forget. The minute I left her house I was on the hunt for fool beans.

There are tons of Indian stores around my part of town so I started with those. They had all kinds of beans but not fool beans. So I moved farther south to an Indian store that is in the same little shopping complex as a muslim sweets store. This little store didn't have the beans but they do have a few plastic tables and chairs that serve as a restaurant and, just as I was ready to give up, I heard a man speaking Sudanese Arabic. 3 years ago before I went to Africa I would NEVER have done this, but I guess I'm a different person now (or a little crazy from the fool craving) because I totally went up to their table and said 'excuse me but are you Sudanese?' They were a little shocked and probably a little weirded out too but they said they were and I went through how I really wanted to make fool but can't find the beans and asked 'do you eat fool?' He laughed and said 'um, of course.' So I said 'In America?' and he said 'yah' and then he pointed me to the only store where he has found the beans.

Then there was that awkward moment where they invited me to sit down to eat lunch with them but I declined. And then the questions of 'how did you know we were sudanese?' and 'how do you know arabic?', etc. I answered quickly and then left to go get some beans, leaving them with an odd story about the one time that American girl asked them about fool. Sad thing though, the store had the beans but they didn't have any of the motor oil (the oil that they put on top. I call it motor oil, really I don't know what kind it is except I think it's sesame seed oil) so I finally had the beans but no oil. Now I'm on a search to find sesame seed oil. In Sudan I used to buy it in 5 cent increments. I would give the guy in the shop a coin, any coin really, and he would get a small plastic bag and put the appropriate amount in the bag. Same thing with the beans. I would just give him 50 cents and he would fill up a plastic bag with the correct amount of beans...they were cooked and I found carrying a plastic bag full of beans a little strange, but you do what you have to, right?