We were strangers to those people. They knew nothing about us and didn’t ask us for anything. They gave generously and probably sacrificially, maybe going hungry themselves in order to show hospitality to us. People often ask what food in Sierra Leone is like. Rice is the staple even though a lot of it is imported. The rice is topped with a stew, often cassava leaves or potato leaves chopped and pounded with a mortar and pestle. Every stew seems to include lots of hot peppers. Sometimes dried or fresh fish is added. For a special occasion, a goat might be slaughtered for meat in the stew. Even the chicken feet are used for a stew that includes chicken meat. All of it is cooked with a lot of palm oil or red oil.
