@Daria 20 March 2022

My Sunday, today. Date: 20th of March, 2022. Happy Sunday y'all! What did you do today? It's the lord's day for those who worship on Sunday and it is rice day for my household. Today, I had to prepare palm fruit stew (ofe akwu or banga) as against the usual tomato stew. It is actually more complex to prepare than tomato stew. Firstly, we boil the palm fruits till it's soft after which we extract the oil from it. There are several processes of doing this but we do it the more traditional way with a mortar and pestle. The hot palm fruits are placed in the mortar (section by section to avoid overcrowding) and they are pounded hard enough to separate the chaff or the skin from the nuts. After the separation is done, we place the whole content in a thin sieve and place the sieve over a pot. Then we squeeze out the oil with the help of warm water. This oil is then boiled till its thick enough and then the other ingredients are added such as pre boiled meat, dry fish, stock fish which will be left to boil before adding a blend of crayfish, pepper and locally processed Castor seed (okpei) before proceeding to add salt and onions. After the ingredients are properly cooked, we then add the African basil (scent leaf). This is made to eat with rice. There are also other ways of cooking it. Also, the extracted palm oil used for this has less saturated fats than regular oils and it has its own rich flavour. Obviously, this is not a step by step guide on how to prepare this, just a quick run-through. So yeah, I started my day with cooking and church came later. My mum was the last to return home today because the group she belongs to in church decided to stay back to talk to people about depression. This one topic that is going around but it is still surprising to find out how less or wrongly informed about it people are. What is was is those who throw the word around, claiming to be depressed when they are just sad thereby diminishing the struggles of those who are actually going it. Depression is serious and it is not a switch that can be turned off just like that. If you know someone who is depressed, don't claim to know how they feel, instead, offer a listening ear and let them know yor are there for them, don't force them to share their feelings either, you can also provide them with counselors in your area or online if you know any. Well, before my mum returned from church, I decided to sleep off again this afternoon. I woke up past 2 o'clock and I checked for my mum but she wasn't back from church so I enquired from my dad to know if he had heard from her and he confirmed that she was on her way back. She was hungry when she got back and started eating immediately before even changing her clothes lol. After she ate, she told me to get dressed so that we would visit my maternal cousin who's wife gave birth over a week ago. My mum shouted at me not to waste her time, saying that we young ladies always took our time to dress up lol. I must admit, I do take my time. It's usually not necessarily on make up but I just don't like to rush, which is why I usually start my preparations at least an hour before I'm meant to. I didn't take time to dress up though. I just picked up a big shirt and trousers too wear, and I let down my hair before setting out. I got to my cousin's place and met his wife and the beautiful little baby. She looked like an angel as she slept and when she occasionally sucked on her tongue. She wasn't crying as much as most babies in infancy but it's too quick to tell if she'll not be a crier because some babies change with time. In all, today was a good day. I'll like to think I got some well deserved rest and I'm ready for tomorrow. Thank you for reading!!