The season of oranges arrived in December and I have been eating oranges non-stop since, averaging about 8 oranges a day (this is not an exaggeration). By the end of most days my tongue is sore from the massive amounts of citric acid (is it a bad thing to eat too much citric acid?), though with all the vitamin C I’m sure not to get scurvy (not to be confused with scabies, which I’m sure I will get again sometime). The way people eat oranges here is by peeling them and then cutting off a piece at the top and sucking out all the juice, it’s a juice box, really. The ground is littered with the “shells” of oranges – left for the goats to eat, or better yet, used as ammunition to throw at your little brothers like snowballs (we got in a orange/snowball fight in our front yard once and it was awesome).
Fruit is also a great gift. When I was in Yorokoguea at the end of December, the woman whose house I was staying in gave me a parting gift of grapefruit. 12, in fact. I was gracious, and I do love grapefruit, but 12 is a bit much, really. This was in addition to 5 oranges that someone else picked for me. When I had arrived home I thought that I could give some grapefruits to my family and neighbors in an effort to diminish the vast quantity of fruit in my possession. How wrong was I! When I offered 1 grapefruit to my neighbor Saibatou she was so thankful that she ran into her kitchen and came out with 10 oranges for me…It seems like everywhere I go I somehow manage to pick up fruit – other teachers give me oranges, students give me oranges, random ladies give me grapefruits, my friends give me bananas…
Soon the mango season will be here. The mango trees are already flowering (very beautiful). I call the area my house is in Mangeboui, which means under the mango tree, because in fact there are 9 mango trees in our front yard. It’s a good thing I love mangoes because I will probably be eating an average of 8 a day…
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