Life Lately in Cameroon: Corn, Safou, Plants Drama, and School Prep
Hi Radiants,
Hope you are doing well.
Can you believe that the first month of the long holiday is almost over already?
The other day, I suddenly realised that June is coming to an end soon, and before we know it, we'll be in July, then August, and then it will be time to go back to school again.
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the next school year.
Registration starts next month, and I'm already planning how to prepare the kids for school. Sometimes it almost feels like parents never really get a holiday. As one school year ends, you're already thinking about the next one.
You get a few weeks to breathe, and then you're back to budgeting, planning, and figuring out how to put everything together for another academic year.
Speaking of holidays, if things were different right now, I would probably be planning a trip to visit family.
There's something about going home during this season that I always enjoy. The food alone is enough motivation. Fresh roasted corn, boiled corn, groundnuts, mangoes, and plums (which is "safou" but we call them here in Cameroon plums). Just thinking about it makes me smile.
But right now, my focus is on preparing for the next school year and managing my budget carefully. So travel is something I'll have to postpone for now.
That doesn't stop me from craving holiday food though.
Since I can't travel, I've been bringing little pieces of the season home whenever I can.
The other day, I bought a good quantity of corn, some groundnuts, and a few plums. The corn and groundnuts disappeared quickly, as expected.
The plums, however, caused excitement in the house.
Whenever I buy plums, the kids immediately want to eat them. They love them almost as much as I do.
What surprises me every time is how expensive plums have become. One plum can cost 200 or even 250 francs. I usually end up negotiating a little, hoping they'll add one small extra plum to make my 500 francs feel worth it.
Still, once in a while, I give in because I genuinely enjoy them.
On the plant side of life, I haven't been as present as I would like.
For those who have been here for a while, you know that plants are one of my hobbies. I love seeing things grow. If I had more space, I would probably have a proper garden by now. For now, my container garden is doing the job.
One of the plants my grandparents sent me recently started developing some strange white patches on the leaves. I wasn't sure if it was a fungus, lack of sunlight, or something else entirely.
Thankfully, after taking care of it, the new leaves seem healthier and the plant is growing again. Seeing fresh growth always makes me happy.
Then there's my yam experiment.
I planted part of a yam that had started germinating, hoping I would eventually harvest my own yam from a bucket, lol.
As I write this, the dream seems to be fading.
The leaves are drying up, the plant looks weaker every day, and honestly, I don't think this one is going to survive. It makes me laugh because I had already started imagining my future yam harvest.
Another plant has been surprising me in a much better way.
There were originally two plants growing together. One died completely, and the second one looked like it was heading in the same direction. At one point, I pulled it out because I thought it was finished.
Then I noticed the roots still looked somewhat healthy.
For some reason, I decided to stick it back into the soil.
To my surprise, it started growing again.
Since then, it has been producing new leaves and even new shoots from the main stem. Every time I look at it, I'm amazed that the plant I had almost given up on is now one of the healthiest ones.
Life is funny like that sometimes.
Overall, I haven't been giving my plants the attention they deserve lately. Work has been keeping me busy, and I haven't intentionally created time to care for them.
My snake plants especially need attention. They have produced so many new shoots that the container is starting to feel too small.
I need to divide and repot them because I would love to place them around different parts of the house. I enjoy having greenery indoors.
The problem is that repotting requires time, energy, and soil—three things I don't seem to have enough of at the moment.
I've even considered putting some of them in water for now until I figure things out.
We'll see.
For now, I think I simply need to clear my head, slow down a little, and intentionally create time for my plants again.
Another little thing that has been making me happy lately is a recipe I accidentally came up with and ended up loving.
A few days ago, I had a craving for bread and sardines. But when I got the sardines, I didn't feel like eating them the usual way. I wanted something a little different. Not necessarily fancy, just something with a bit more flavour and texture.
So I started experimenting in the kitchen.
I added a few ingredients that I thought would work well together and mixed everything until I got a creamy sardine bread spread. Honestly, I wasn't following any recipe. I wasn't checking online or trying to recreate anything. I was simply adding the things I felt would give me the taste I wanted at that moment.
The result was surprisingly good.
The kids loved it too, which was a pleasant surprise because I wasn't completely sure how they would react to sardines. We had it for breakfast one day, and another time we had it later in the day when I didn't feel like cooking a full meal.
I enjoyed it so much that I ended up making it more than once.
One day we had it with juice, and other times we simply enjoyed it with bread on its own. It was filling, easy to make, and rich enough to keep us satisfied for a while.
Of course, I shared the recipe here on the blog because I know I'm not the only person who occasionally wants something quick, simple, and tasty without spending too much time in the kitchen.
If you'd like to try it, you can find the recipe below:
A little content update.
I've been editing a few vlogs that should have been finished last month. Work got in the way, and I kept postponing them.
I'm finally getting back to editing now, and my goal is to publish them over the next few weeks.
So if you've been waiting for a new vlog, one should be coming soon.
In the meantime, you can visit my channel to see my previous vlogs using the link below:
That's life lately.
See you in the next update.
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