Today after work I decided to have a house-warming party/game night for some friends and the girls I live with currently. I had the brilliant idea to cook for everybody on my tiny little kerosine stove - which is one burner. I made pasta salad with vegetables and tuna, and then I decided I would cook fish. I asked my friend to buy fish in the market on his way over to the hospital, and sure enough he did. They showed up at my front door holding a bag and presented it to me. The bag wiggled violently and I realized with a slight feeling of horror that the fish was very much alive. The fish was a large catfish-like creature about 20 inches long…so we’re not talking tiny or easy to manage. 

I told him I didn’t want to deal with a live fish, so he asked me for something to hit it with. My neighbor kid friend found a stick and I retreated into the house while my friend beat the fish to death with a stick. I thought the worst was over but I still had to deal with a huge fish that continued to move even though dead. Thankfully Mama Anne did most of the cutting up and gutting. I couldn’t have done it properly without her. Hannah and I dealt with the rest of it and then I cooked it up, removed as much of the skin and bones as possible, gave away the head, and mixed up tomato sauce and spices to add to it. 

Eventually I had everything ready for dinner, my guests had not arrived yet, and I got called to Maternity to see a lady, and then to the Emergency room to help pay for a kid who’d whacked himself in the head somehow and needed stitches.

I eventually ended back at the house with Faith, Esther, Arwen, Paige, my friends Rufin and Berchavie, their daughter Molly (named after my mom), my other friends, the kid who’d just had his head stitched up, the motorcycle driver who’d brought the kid to the hospital, another guy named Anderson who used to work at the hospital, and the three Kimwanga kids: Adonai, Mervede and Benonie. It was a party. 

There was enough food to go around and for seconds - and afterwards we washed the dishes and played games. It was a pretty fun evening.