Hot Pepper

During the training program in Thies we ate in the manner of the Africans, squatting around a large, communal bowl filled with rice and other goodies, and eating with our right hand.  It was considered very rude to use your left hand.  In fact if you did happen to stick your left hand into the bowl, everyone else would leave.  You see, the left hand is used for wiping after using the facilities, and for other "dirty" things.  The right hand is used for eating, shaking hands and "clean" things that require contact with others.

Among the Mandinka there is one exception to that rule.  When bidding someone farewell as they leave on a long journey, it is customary to extend the left hand.  This is an ancient tradition indicating that you wish the traveller well.  Apart from that exception though, the Mandinka also followed the tradition of shaking hands and eating only with the right hand.

One day early in the training in Thies I was squatting around the communal bowl with my classmates and a couple of Senegalese who were teaching us.  I did not recognize all of the vegetables in the bowl and so was trying each of them.  I would reach in with my right hand, grab a clump of rice and a veggie, squeeze it into a lump and stick it in my mouth.  I came to a vegetable that looked sort of like a flacid bell pepper.  I pushed it around a bit with my hand, looking at the Senegalese teachers for any reaction. Seeing nothing, I picked it up and mushed it around in my handful of rice, again looking up for any clue whether this was something I should or shouldn't be eating.  Seeing no reaction, I popped the rice ball into my mouth.  The vegetable had a sweet taste, much like a nice, ripe bell pepper.

At least, it did until I started to swallow it.  Then it started to burn.  The fire in my mouth and throat got steadily and rapidly worse until my whole head was on fire, steam was coming out of my ears, and tears were pouring from my eyes.  Every pore was gushing sweat as I looked around desperately for relief.  First, I guzzled what was left of the apple flavored soft drink called Apla that I was drinking.  Then I started grabbing any drinks nearby, to the surprise of their owners.  Having drunk everything in sight, I started cramming large handfuls of rice into my mouth to stem what was now a very, very intense pain.

My last memory is of giving up on the rice and deciding to go to a refrigerator in another room across the courtyard to find more soft drinks.  As I stood up, my vision went gray.  It looked like an iris was closing until I could see only a tiny circle of light in front of me.  Then, even that disappeared and I passed out from the pain.

Apparently I did not fall down, but continued on my mission to find more soft drinks.   The next thing I knew, my vision irised open again, I was covered with sweat, standing next to the refrigerator with my head tilted back and a bottle of Apla at my mouth as I guzzled the cool drink.  Looking down I noticed several empty bottles at my feet.  The refrigerator had been secured with a padlock, which it appeared that I had broken off (the latch was hanging forlornly off the door, having been bludgeoned with something - presumably the rock that was lying at my feet.)  As realization dawned that I had obviously made it across the courtyard and into the break room with the refrigerator only to find it locked, and had then broken the lock off, I noticed another volunteer standing next to me, head back and swilling a soft drink.  I croaked, "hot pepper?"  He nodded, finished up his drink, reached for another and whispered "half."

When I had finally recovered and returned to lunch, I glared at the African teachers and demanded to know why they hadn't said anything.  "You saw me pick up the pepper, and you saw me look around.  Why the hell didn't you say anything?" I demanded.  One of them looked at me with a large grin and said, "I wanted to see what would happen.  I've never seen anyone actually eat one of those before."

As something of a prankster myself, I had to admit that I may have done the same thing if our roles had been reversed.