How to Eat a Ghanaian Mango

written on Tuesday, June 13th.

Mangoes are Magnificent! They are so sweet and big and juicy here that really they’re better than cupcakes, even. The best way to eat them is to go to a fruit stand on the street. They are run by what we like to call “Fruit Ladies” (the food stands are almost always staffed by women, as is most agriculture and trading here). I don’t know where the Fruit Ladies get their mangoes, but I’m sure glad they do. Anyway, they are incredibly adept with their big knives, and they can skin a mango and cut it into pieces, dump it in a bag, and then in another bag, without ever touching the flesh of the mango with their hands. This is how it works. You approach the fruit stand, which usually has a very decoratively piled pile of mangoes, another of pineapples (I like them too but they just don’t have the star quality of the mango and they get in your teeth even more), usually a big pile of bananas (nature’s immodium), sometimes oranges (the oranges are a whole nother story—have I mentioned them yet?), and papaya. If you’re like me, you especially like to try out your Twi on the Fruit Ladies, so you might wish them good morning (maachee), or good afternoon (maaha), and maybe ask them how they are (woHOtizein), in response to which she might smile or laugh, and say she’s well (muHUyay). Then you tell her that you want ¢4000 (about $0.40) worth of ripe/soft mango (some people like them harder and tarter). A ¢4000 mango is smaller than a ¢5000 mango, but still plenty for one person. Then your Fruit Lady will pick out a ¢4000-size mango, wash it off in a bucket of water, and then pick up a clear plastic bag (they call them rubber bags), put it over her left hand, and then hold the mango in that hand. With her right hand, she’ll pick up a big (approx. 9” long) knife, and very quickly slice off half the rind. Then she will cut up the peeled side of the mango in a grid, and slide those pieces off into a clean bowl. Then she’ll turn the mango over on the bag hand, peel and slice the second half. After all the pieces are in the bowl, she’ll slide the pieces out of the bowl into the bag she’s been wearing on her hand (but not on the part that’s been touching her hand), tie a knot in it, stick a toothpick in it, and put the clear plastic mango bag with toothpick all together. Delicious.

In my last post I think I mentioned that Ghana made it to the World Cup for the first time ever, but forgot to mention that last night (Monday) Ghana actually played in its first World Cup game ever. They are in the same round-robin group (whatever that is) as Italy, the Czech Republic, and the U.S. I gather that this is a tough group to be in, and that Ghana is not expected to win. Everyone is nevertheless very excited and if I hadn’t been sick I would have been watching it too. I plan on watching the Ghana-C.R. game on Saturday (perhaps in Kumasi?) for sure. And most definitely the Ghana-U.S. game next week. Anyway, we (Ghana) lost last night. Zach watched it with many many Accranians (?) in Independence Square, a huge, soviet-looking, nearly-always-empty square with gigantic bleachers downtown, and Kristin on the roof of a bar with many others. I wish I could have gone. But Saturday for sure.

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