Two years ago I spent a summer volunteering in Ghana. The experience was overwhelming, I grossly miscalculated my ability to deal with small children on a daily basis, and I still absolutely loved it all.
I put being vegan on pause while on this trip, but I had some vague idea that vegetarian would be possible. You know what Ghana interprets vegetarian as? Feeding you the same food as everyone else but with hard boiled eggs on the side. After living on a diet consisting of plain rice and hard boiled eggs 95% of the time, I can quite easily say I am cool with never eating another hard boiled egg. Foods I miss as a vegan: not hard boiled eggs.
But the food wasn’t all bad! What I do miss are the simple palm-oil stews and the presence of yam (not sweet potato) in everything. And so I decided to try making (horribly unauthentic) Ghanaian food myself.
I found fufu at the international market, and I knew I had to buy (and make) it.
The women I cooked with in Ghana (by “cooked with,” I mean they let me stir the stew sometimes) scoffed at the city women who didn’t have the time to make fufu from scratch (a process that involves hours of pounding yam), but I’ve gotta say–this five minute boxed version was pretty darn easy.
I beefed up the classic dish Red Red by adding some less than authentic chickpeas. I also didn’t have palm oil–which is a brilliantly red oil that makes it’s way into almost every dish in Volta–the region of Ghana where I stayed. I used 1T veg oil and 1T sesame oil instead. Almost the real deal.
The stew was great hot–simple, tomato-y and delicious–and I love the mess of eating with fufu (and my fingers). This also made great leftovers-on-lettuce the next day.
I can’t wait until I can travel again.
Let’s pretend I have all the money in the world–where should I travel next? Where would you love to go?
You should hit up Italy!
I went once with the family and it was AMAZING, I would love the chance to go again!
Wow! How wonderful and brave!!
I want to go to Europe. Yep. Europe.
I could do with a trip to the whole continent as well
Cooooool! Good for you for all that volunteer work. I bet that was a really enriching experience. I have a few places on my to-see list: Brazil, Ireland, and Czech Republic. I’ve already been to Greece, but I want to take the hubby with me to see it.
I’ve heard great things about Greece! I love the idea of a Mediterranean vacation (sounds pretty romantic too ;D )
I love that you did this. It had to be such an eye opening experience! After I cross Italy off the list in May, there is still Thailand. We’ve been talking about going to Brazil for the next World Cup, too. Andrew now has friends in Napal who would love us to go visit. I’m seriously all for any kind of international travel!
Ohh, Thailand is definitely on my list! I’ve actually never been ANYWHERE in Asia, so I’d love to be there some day. And Brazil for the World Cup would be insane, you should do ittt!
I think its important to let go of some food restrictions when traveling so that you can really experience the culture.
Agreed, that’s why I didn’t worry about the vegan business, and ate a few meals where I handed pieces of chicken to a friend but ate the sauce/stew they’d been in anyway.
I have actually tasted fufu once in my life and it was good
Wow, you volunteered in Ghana? That´s so cool! Well, if you ever get incredibly rich, please travel to Norway-Sweden-Finland-Island and pack me to your suitcase, thanks in advance 
Heey, awesome that someone else knows what I’m talking about, haha. Felt like I’d throw everyone for a loop with the white mystery blob that is fufu. And as soon as I win the lottery, I’ll invest in an extra-large suitcase
Oh, I am rather small and very flexible, I would fit in some normal suticase, don´t worry about it
Actually once I even cooked fufu for a dinner party me and my friends had. And I have to say they didn´t enjoy the taste that much… but I did 
What a fabulous sounding experience! We love to travel, but we tend to stick to pretty popular spots. One place I would LOVE to go to is Bali!
Bali would be so beautiful!
Wow so neat that you lived in Ghana! I’ll bet it was really incredible experience. Though I would have had an awful time dealing with kids everyday too haha.
Yeaah, once a month is too often for me. Luckily I figured out I could take a heavier laundry/construction/cooking load and spend less time “playing” after a week or so, or I would have gone crazy.
That sounds like such an amazing thing to do :] I looked at volunteer work overseas to fill this ‘post graduation, pre employment’ gap in my life but all the schemes I could find cost more money than I actuallly have at the moment. Italy is amazing, and England is pretty nice too
I won’t tell you where I want to go as I just wrote about it haha. I would love to see Africa but feel a bit bewildered by it if I’m honest.
I was surprised how expensive volunteering ended up being–but it is worth the price, and a lot of the money goes to the program you’re working with. And Africa IS bewildering, I definitely would never go there on my own, I wouldn’t even know where to begin–but would love to go again and do a guided tour-type trip (and, I’m sure that’s the big $$).
Yeah this is true, it’s not as though I would resent paying the money, it’s just that I actually don’t have it to spare right now. I’d love to do a tour thing as well. I have a friend who spent a lot of time travelling around Africa on her own and it sounds like she had the most amazing time but I’m just not sure I have the balls.
Oh wow, I didnt know you once was an volunteer in Ghana! That is so cool, and must have been so so interestin! I really want to volunteer too! I feel like I could learn so much from it!
This dish sounds good!!
What a cool experience!!! You are so awesome for going!
I would love to go to Russia or Hawaii… two total opposites haha
Yummm that looks so good! Go to the Dominican Republic! I loved it!
Ooo, a friend just got back from a wedding there and said it was great, but she stayed at a resort–not quite the same thing
I’d love to go!
Wow, what a brilliant thing to do; would love to hear more about it at some point…
There’s a charity I’ve covered for the paper which uses light aircraft to fly emergency aid into developing countries and there’s been talk of me going with them for a while – everything crossed!
I saw fufu the other day and was intrigued – what is it?!
And I reckon Australia or New Zealand for your next trip
Oh, I hope you get to go, that sounds fabulous! And fufu is a starchy-vegetable product that is play-doh like in consistency, and you use it scoop up your food. I like the taste, but it’s fairly plain and a different texture, so the volunteer group was about 50/50 as to whether it was good or not.
Thanks – I might have to try it!
I would really love to go back to Ireland to bag a man, but seriously, I’d love to go to Africa.
I recommend it, it is absolutely different from anywhere in the U.S.
I’d love to go anywhere in Africa. I’m praying my mom lets me go on a volunteer program to help nutrition to women with HIV in Cape Town, South Africa this summer… but I’m trying not to get my hopes up on that one. I’ve love to also see all the famous places from Biblical times (Israel, parts of Turkey, Greece, Egypt), but it doesn’t seem like the best time to go there. And then I’d love to go so some wonderful South Pacific place because it’s just beautiful and different and across the world!
I’d be avoiding some of those more turbulent countries, too. South Africa is pretty darn stable right now, so I hope you get the chance to go!