DAY FIVE: MUSINGS OF A 34 YEAR OLD Sunday! Oh Sunday in my mother’s kitchen Many people have asked me if I have gone to catering school. They cannot believe that am a civil engineer, pursuing my doctoral studies. Many still wonder how I can cook all kinds of traditional Ugandan meals and several international cuisines. They think that Adubango is my name and that is the reason I can cook all meals from west Nile and the northern Uganda. You can imagine their shock when I tell them am a musoga, born of a musoga mother and a musoga father. What is my secret?: my mummy. Mummy loved eating out. And each time she had money, we were sure of a treat in the most recently opened hotel. But one thing was for sure. Whatever you ate at that hotel, mother would reproduce that meal at home the next Sunday. Sundays were special in mummy’s kitchen. We had brunch before we knew it was called brunch. There was so much variety. Not the same old tired buffet. Ours was not a very high class family; neither did mother grow up in one. But learning to use cutlery right was a must. She used to say that she does not want us to be embarrassed when we dine with kings, because we do not know how to use a table knife. What makes mother’s cooking extremely special is that she passed on the skill to each one of us. My sisters are all amazing cooks. Mother did not only pass on the skill. She passed on the love to cook. And I think that is the greatest asset she ever gave us. Mother told us never to approach cooking like it is a chore. She always said that we never know who we will marry; neither do we know who our children will marry. So she encouraged us not only to learn cooking my family’s favorite meals, our father’s favorite meal or our tribal meals. Of course each meal had one of daddy’s favorites. And in all this, mother was a career woman, with a master’s degree. I always find women in my kitchen who tell me “am not interested in learning this or that! See, MY husband does not like it after all. And we are ba….(fill in your tribe)” I always feel sorry for the generations after these women, and I always tell the women to not limit their children’s capacities and choices. You sure have no idea who your child will marry, or who their children will marry. Look way beyond yourself, and spread your wings. One of my kitchen clients is Kenyan, married to an Indian. She got to the cross roads, when she had to include some Indian dishes in her kitchen. You can say “well, we will find it in the hotel” the uniqueness about this woman is that her hubby does not mind the hotel, but her kids hate it. They want to eat at home. But then again, what happens on that day when you host all your Indian in-laws, and cannot afford the outsider chef? Do you cook for them lapena or luwombo and force it down their throat or do you go to tuskeys and empty the pre-cooked food section? My mummy’s training has helped me in more ways than one. I now can mentor other women, because one woman took her time to mentor me. I can cook for my family any cuisine, because I love to cook. I also concoct my own recipes, as mummy used to do. And today am earning a living teaching others the art of cooking. Am a mother of only boys, and some people usually feel sorry for me, mbu who will I pass the skill to. I usually laugh and say, well, am teaching my boys. Do you know how I feel when my hubby brings me breakfast in bed? Or when on that day when I am hard up I call and ask him to cover for me in the kitchen and when I come back I find well cooked food on the table? The boys too need the skill. But then again, as I pass the skill on to the little gals around me, I could be mentoring my own daughter in law :) I win either way. Am a woman on a mission to change the world for generations. My musings today 1. Look beyond yourself, and the present, even in the kitchen. 2. Be kind enough to mentor 3. If you have not been mentored, you can still get mentored. get knowledge and understanding. 4. It does not matter how much you have climbed the corporate ladder. You are not beyond the kitchen. That’s why you eat on a daily. 5. If you cannot get mentored in the kitchen, do your children a favor. Have them mentored. Enjoy your Sunday.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 04:52:26 +0000
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