baking in Bambara

Charlotte comes to our house two days a week to cook and clean for us. She is wonderful. We pay her $6/day plus her transportation costs, which is a good wage for her, and a clearly a good deal for us, too. (It is expected here that foreigners have house-helpers. It is considered stingy if you don't have one, and you aren't willing to give someone a job!)

Charlotte is amazing. I am blown away by the amount of work she can accomplish in one day!

Now the problem is that Charlotte speaks only Bambara and a few words in French. And I speak only English and a very few words in French. But I am learning Bambara. Slowly. So when I have my Bambara lessons, I ask the tutor to write down all sorts of cooking-related terms in Bambara for me. I'm slowly developing my own little Bambara dictionary!

The best part? I've learned the words to write out recipes! On Thursday I wrote out the recipe for Ginger Snaps in Bambara for Charlotte to make. I wasn't sure how they would turn out - both since you can't get molasses here, and I wasn't sure if I had written out the Bambara correctly.

Well, the cookies were a success!!


...and they are all gone, except the two I used in this photo.