Malcolm was looking forward to the birthday party for Heidi, Judith and Dieter. One of his favourite cakes is Coffee cake, with coffee flavour and coffee cream icing. So when he heard that Heidi, the American Peace Corp volunteer, had made some coffee cake, he was really excited.
Except - American Coffee cake has no coffee in it!!!!!
What!! It’s more like a Madeira Sponge cake rather than a coffee cake. Heidi explained it is intended for eating with a cup of coffee. In his disappointment Malcolm decided the Americans are missing a trick. They could market exactly the same cake as:
American Chocolate cake – for eating with a cup of hot chocolate
American cheese cake – to go with a slice of Cheddar
American cola cake – for eating with a soda
American Big Mac cake – as sold by MacDonalds
He now also assumes American apple pie has no apples in it and American cars have no engines.
He was a bit concerned whether the same fault could be found with English tea cake – until an expert explained that a key process is to soak the dried fruit in a cup of tea overnight. At least in England you get ‘what it says on the tin’!
Anyway, the American Coffee cake, (which has no coffee in it), did taste very nice. Which is more than can be said for Malcolm’s attempt to make a ‘real’ coffee cake with coffee icing etc as a farewell gift to Heidi as she returned to America. He bought all the ingredients, followed the recipe carefully, put it in the oven. It rose a treat. But then there was a power cut which lasted all night. We decided to rename the cake a ‘sticky coffee fudge crunch’ and agreed it was not fir for public consumption (so we ate it all!).
On Saturday we went to a ‘Gifting Ceremony’ which takes place whenever a couple are to get married. The central feature of it was the ‘bride price’ paid by the groom’s family – traditionally paid in cows but in this case symbolised by six crates of soda. The negotiations were carried out with humour throughout and included a section when the groom had to choose his bride from about 8 young women. We don’t think he changed his mind although there was a time when her family didn’t seem too pleased with the quality of the coca cola offered.
This week we were also allocated our office which signals the start of work proper. Irene has started to meet the students from the Vocational Training Centre to discuss their career plans and Malcolm has started assisting the Diocese accountant.
Next week:
- big celebrations for Irene’s birthday
- we find out more about the area and our work
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