Books for Comoros

In the courtyard of the university there is currently a 40-foot shipping container full of thousands of English books destined for many different schools and libraries, all thanks to the incredible work of my colleague and friend Andy Fuller, together with Books for Africa and the local association Yes We Can.

Andy is an English Language Fellow who has been here in Comoros for the last year working with the English Department at the University of Comoros, and we’ve been working together on the many areas where our assignments overlap since I arrived. In addition to all of his great work  teaching university students and training English teachers, he rose to the challenge of organizing this incredibly successful books project. He has been the driving force from start to finish, overcoming all kinds of obstacles along the way, as well as making sure that all of these books will have good homes in different schools and libraries where they will be both stored safely and actually used by those who want to learn English.

Now that the books are safely here in Moroni, all that remains is to coordinate the distribution to all the different villages. Different groups have been coming to pick up books, and soon there will be an outstanding foundation of English language resources all over the island. Improving education in Comoros is a huge task, and lack of resources is only one piece of the puzzle, but having these books available will be extremely helpful to the many highly-motivated students and teachers of English (including present and future Peace Corps volunteers) here in Comoros.

An Introduction to Comorian Food

Life in Comoros comes with no shortage of conditions of hardship, but thankfully the quality of Comorian cuisine is not among them. I have eaten every different sort of Comorian cooking that I’ve been offered, and I have yet to find something that I didn’t like. Of course, there are still many things that I still haven’t tried yet, but I look forward to discovering them, confident that the typical Comorian palate matches up nicely with my own taste in food. Here is a brief selection of a few of my favorite exotic Comorian foods.

I’ll start off with kokoteli, a delightful little snack that can’t really be called a dish, but that doesn’t stop me from eating them for breakfast whenever I have them. These sweet, crunchy little treats go perfectly with a cup of coffee or tea.Kokoteli are made of little morsels of dough that are fried in oil and then coated in simple syrup, and they often have a subtle bit of cardamom or vanilla. They are often prepared for funerals and other special family gatherings.

While rice dominates as Comorians’ preferred base for virtually any meal, there are a number of other locally-grown options like breadfruit (fruyapa), green bananas (mdrovi), and taro (djimbi) that are usually served fried to accompany fish, meat, or chicken.

Finally, no discussion of Comorian cuisine would be complete without talking about the national dish, madaba. When people here ask whether I like Comorian food, what they really want to know is whether I like madaba, and I’m happy to be able to honestly tell them that I like it a lot. It’s not the most visually appealing dish, but it more than makes up for it in deliciousness. The base ingredient of madaba is cassava leaves, which are mashed with a large wooden mortar and pestle. Another special tool is used to scrape the flesh of a coconut to extract the coconut milk. The mashed cassava leaves are cooked in the coconut milk and here in Moroni they usually also add fish. It is eaten with rice and sometimes topped with a spicy garnish of diced tomato and onion.

Making groceries à la comorienne

Shopping for food in Comoros is an interesting mix of simple and complicated. I’m fortunate to know many different Comorians who invite me for dinner or bring me different Comorian dishes to try, and I also have nice options for going out to eat occasionally, but I like cooking for myself (and it’s an important part of keeping my budget balanced). Living in Moroni, I have a fair number of shopping options available to me, but the concept of one-stop shopping is a distant fantasy, so I go to different places throughout each week to buy whatever I need at the moment. The climate and the lack of regular electricity means that I can’t keep food very long, so I buy most kinds of food often and in small batches so that nothing goes to waste.

The typical state of my fridge before a shopping trip

The big market here in Moroni is Volo Volo, but I don’t go there very often. It has a wide but incomplete selection of food, it’s crowded and noisy, and it’s on the opposite side of town from where I live. Since I have to do my shopping in multiple places anyway, I only go to Volo Volo for things I can’t get anywhere else, and I do most of my shopping at places within walking distance. Just around the corner from my house there is a nice little informal market along a bumpy little side-street, and that’s where I get basic fruits and vegetables, as well as bread and a few other basic items.

Assorted local fruits and vegetables at my neighborhood market

My little neighborhood market is super-convenient, but fish is not one of the options there (nor would trust in the freshness of any fish that did somehow show up there). The best option for fresh fish is to go right to the source, so when I want seafood I walk over to the port, where people line the road with buckets of fish sell different types of tuna, barracuda, octopus, swordfish, and the rest of the catch of the day as soon as the fishermen bring it in. All the fresh fish is my favorite thing about eating in Comoros!

Fresh tuna at the port

The other main element of my food buying circuit are the different shops that sell packaged food, almost all of it imported from other countries. Compared to buying food at the market or the port, it’s an experience that much more closely resembles shopping in the US.

The shelves at Sara Market, one of the stores in Moroni that sell imported food

Although the variety is impressive (soy sauce and Tabasco!), each of the stores has a limited selection, and when something runs out it may be a long time before a similar product is stocked again. Finding specific things can involve trekking to multiple shops all over town, but I’m happy to have two of the main shops for imported food just 5 minutes walk from my house. My first stop is usually Sara Market, and its small size is actually an advantage, as they cycle through products quickly enough that the things on their shelves usually haven’t been sitting there for an eon and half.

I try to balance a healthy core of things like eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocados, breadfruit, bananas, pasta, and fish with occasional indulgences like cookies, nutella, French cheese, ice cream, and chips. I came here prepared to cope with conditions of hardship, but a little brie goes a long way towards softening the challenges.

Snorkeling in Comoros- Undiscovered Magnificence

Comorian people sometimes ask me what I like to do here in my free time, and they never expect my answer to be snorkeling. They are always pleasantly surprised when I explain that there are few places on Earth that can compete with the brilliantly clear water, vibrant coral reef, and incredible diversity of beautiful fish and other sea life here in Comoros.

While it’s natural to expect that an archipelago of volcanic would host some amazing snorkeling spots, Comoros has massively exceeded all my expectations. I fell in love with snorkeling in Indonesia, but nowhere I’ve been can compare to the places I’ve swam here. I continue to be blown away by the sublime contrast of the shimmering blue water, the black volcanic stones, and the green forested slopes of Mt. Karthala towering above it all.

The coral reef extends all around the island of Ngazidja (Grande Comore), and while there are many sandy beaches, it’s also quite easy to find spots along the rocky portions of the shore where you can jump right off the rocks into prime snorkeling territory. There’s an absolutely amazing spot just 30 minutes’ walk from my house, and I take advantage of it as often as I can. Whenever I’m frustrated by any of the different challenges of living and working in Comoros, I remind myself of my incredible good fortune to have world-class snorkeling pretty much right outside my front door.

Being left on the margins of the global economy has been disastrous for the Comorian people, but it means that the islands’ coral reefs have been spared the worst excesses of pollution and over-exploitation.
Even right here in the capital, the reef is in amazing shape, and the occasional bits of trash are few and far between. For fun, I try to spot a fish or other animal I’ve never seen before each time I go out, and the variety of creatures here is so great that it rarely takes more than a few minutes before something novel has caught my eye. Other than the occasional local spear-fisherman, my fellow muzungus (and sometimes our Comorian friends) are the only people I ever see out in the water. It’s a pity that such beauty lies just beneath the surface of the water, unknown to so many of the people who live so close to it. I’m working to help the Comorian people to create a better future for themselves, and I sincerely hope that they will find a path to development that preserves the rare beauty of this incredible natural environment.