Our refrigerator, 'frigo' en Francais, decided to quit three days ago. Or maybe since I'm in a department of France I should say that he is on strike. That seems more fitting.
Frigo is saying nothing, doing nothing, holding nothing but a few scraps of stray dry lettuce leaf and strawberry flower, a dried up spill of apple juice. Now, a few things come into effect here. First, there is Gwada time, which is lengthier by the hour than any other time on earth. So the time it will take to have this repaired is two days normal time=three weeks Gwada time. Then, there is the fact that I'm actually enjoying the small challenge that is living without Frigo. In fact, I'm finding that the challenge is different than I thought.
I assumed that the difficulty would lie in not having anything in the fridge: what do we eat? What can I cook? What about all that stuff that's always in there, and even the stuff we end up throwing away, even though we have a perfectly good place to keep it until we want to eat it....
I realize now that there is opportunity in this seemingly unfortunate event. I've been meaning to get to the big outdoor markets that happen all over the island, but have only managed to get to Carrefour and to stop at some of the trucks on the roadside selling produce. Now, I have to go to the markets, a few times a week at that, if I want veggies, fruit, and fish. The climate on Guadeloupe is humid, and bugs are a plenty. Everything is open air. No Frigo in that setting, well, you do the math.
At the same time that Frigo went on strike, I came across my cousin's latest updates. He's embarking on a great adventure with his girlfriend: they are quitting their jobs in San Franciso, arguably one of the best cities in the world, and going to southeastern France to mind a farm for half a year or so. A working farm, with chickens and growing food. How cool is that?! And so I was reminded of just how interested I am in food. What I mean by that is actually how far we can be from our food sources. Many people, myself included at one point, have no idea what happens between the cute yellow baby chick and the boneless skinless breast in plastic packaging.
Without beginning some sort of big ripple at this time, I'll just leave it here for now. I've been thinking about food and what's involved with food: farming, hunting, production practices, waste, cooking, ingredients, processing - for quite some time now. As a suburban raised American, I have my own perspective, and I'm just a regular 'joe'- no special degree related to the environment, or food, or animals. I've read a few good books that I think would spark interest in any average joe. They're not books for experts, but they hold information that makes you want more. I'm trying to gain knowledge as a regular joe. Living in a new place adds to the desire to find out more. It's fun to explore. I'm looking forward to having enough French to go talk to the guy who was looking for his pigs in our apartment complex the other day. He works an enormous piece of land right next door, all by hand, and grows a variety of trees and plants. ...and occasionally loses his pigs.
And so, a big focus of the blog moving forward will be the entity of food. Of course, I can't resist posting about half eaten frogs that were thrown up on the patio by the cat because well, that's just gross and kind of funny. French cat throwing up frog legs?? Come on, there's something there. I'll keep reviewing restaurants and things to see on tripadvisor, but right now, I'm going to cook up some French green lentils and veggies and rice and drink some sun tea - all without the help of a fridge. Oh, and I need to clean that half eaten frog off the patio....awesome!
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