a taste of africa

people who know me know that there are really only two things i drink a lot of – water and tea. one of the things i miss about my old job at hopkins is doing a “me latte" run with my co-workers, usually for a tall cup of british breakfast with milk. in fact one of my biggest regrets about living in the u.s. is the lack of availability of a good cup of chai. on the other hand, there’s plenty of starbucks’ “chai lattes”.

in india, however, i lack for nothing when it comes to caffeinated pleasures. chai is not just readily available, it’s ubiquitous. and the coffee! though indifferent to it in america, i constantly crave it here, and suggest a visit to cafe coffee day every time satyajit and i go out. i would gladly replace every starbucks on the planet with a cafe coffee day. it’s just too wonderful. in the heat of summer, go there and try a kaapi nirvana, a cold drink made with delicious indian filter coffee. or do as i did today and watch the rains over a cup of ethiopian qahwah. it’s the best coffee i’ve ever tasted – incomparibly rich and smooth. i’m already thinking of when i can go back and have another cup.

on my first visit to mumbai last year, satyajit took me out on my last night before i was to fly back home. it was the night of our engagement party. we left our own event a little early and went out for a movie - “life in a metro”. after that, despite the lateness of the hour, we decided to drive all the way across town to south bombay, to the taj hotel. there we had the tastiest, most expensive, and most romantic cappuccino we’d ever had. we finally came home at four in the morning, and actually got in trouble for neglecting to inform anyone we’d be out so late, and for not answering repeated calls on satyajit’s mobile – as he’d accidentally dropped it in the car. his parents had stayed up waiting for us, angry and worried.

and yet now i remember that incident with fondness, because things have changed so much since then. i’d give anything for my father-in-law to be home waiting for me on the steps of the house, even if it was with a reprimand. (although to be honest he was only really angry at satyajit, and only really worried for me.)

now my visit is entirely different. so far i’ve been staying at home all day, exceptions being my daily walk whenever the rains stop, or at least lessen. i’m hunting for an internship, but in the meantime i do have things to keep me busy, including some online volunteering with reaching hearts for kids. we just added another country to our work – the democratic republic of the congo. we are going to finance a newly built school and orphanges’ much needed access to water. until i did a little reseach on it, i had no idea how many name changes this country had gone through. but i did know that this is a place where, in some areas at least, brutality towards women and children is a daily occurrence. it’s going to take a lot to stop such insanity, but providing orphans and disadvantaged children with education and a future is certainly one part of it.