I’m taking a stab at the smells here in Ruhiira. I can’t say I ever tried to describe the smells in Brookline and Cambridge, but I know that the odors of my own house, my garden, my car, and Mt. Auburn Hospital are different than here. Although the rains are here, they are not enough yet to sustain any crop besides matoke so there is fear of famine in addition to the ongoing difficulty of getting water for cooking and washing. Yesterday it did rain to everyone’s great relief and the extraordinarily fresh smell of plowed earth and wet vegetation when the sun came out again, replacing the usually dry dusty smell of mid-afternoon, made me feel euphoric. I will not dwell on the pit latrines- I hated them at Girl Scout camp and haven’t gotten used to them since. ALL trash- including the ubiquitous plastic bags and water bottles- is burned here so there is the occasional waft of acrid smoke. Cattle and goats graze in town and along the road to the health center so there is that musty smell of animals. In the evening, skewers of goat meat are grilled and ‘rollex’ (an omelet between two chapatti) are fried near our compound. Over the weekend I picked out a beautiful rooster at the market and we slaughtered, plucked, butchered and cooked it (I was mostly an observer/learner) - all smells that many may be able to imagine (I will note that the taste of this free range local chicken was fabulous). There are smells to matoke and posho (a corn meal porridge) cooking but they are subtle. At night there is the paraffin smell of my candles. The most frequent smell that gets my attention is that of burning wood or locally made charcoal (wood put in high temperature kilns to carbonize it). People spend hours cooking here in the morning, mid-day and night. The cooking is either outside or in a small kitchen or part of the house that allows smoke to escape between the upper walls and roof. Sitting in a health center or walking down the road, the smell comes to me. I don’t know how to describe it- it is not harsh and I think of it as smelling ‘flat’, not like the woodsmoke from fireplaces or charcoal grill smells I’m used to. Despite the fact that I know that widespread use of charcoal and wood for fuel is not environmentally healthy (deforestation and CO2 production) I have started loving the smell. It always stops my thoughts to make me look around and enjoy the place I’m in at that moment. You will have to use your olfactory imagination with the photos: of the trash dump, goat, and bathing area on the other side of my wall, of Sam- a Ugandan intern housemate- with our chicken, and of an indoor kitchen.
Growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s, we were still allowed to rake leaves into piles and then burn them. It was a wonderful smell, probably hell on the environment but I miss it and do burn one ceremonial leaf a year just to bring childhood back. Smells we're getting here now include the last cookouts of the season, the first smoke from chimneys, the rich smell of leaf litter beginning to turn into compost, and, every once in awhile, a whiff of low tide in Boston harbor (way out here in Arlington.) I won't mention the litter box, that's a constant.
ReplyDeleteSometimes late on a Saturday night I have a little campfire out in back of my place in Brighton. I burn some leaves sometimes for old times sake. People who have not smelled burning leaves are really missing out. I even like the occasional smell of automobile and truck exhaust. And the smell of gasoline. When I was a kid there were all sorts of great smells. Now nothing except for no smells or bad smells. Leave those poor chickens alone.
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