Strange fruits!

Still in front of the computer!

During this trip to Basse I've been coming across strange-looking fruits that I decide I must buy.

Friday afternoon I am walking into the market when Alex asks me what those fruits are, piled next to the mangoes. I had even noticed that there were fruits next to the mangoes; I'd just assumed the fruits Alex were asking about were rotting mangoes. After all they are mango-sized and mango colored, except for scabby-looking brown patches and a lumpier texture. I didn't think to question why anyone would be selling rotten mangoes. I told the women selling them, Isatou, I learned her name was, that I had never seen these before. She tells me to come look. I put the bike down and move closer to investigate. Yes, definitely not mangoes.

Isatou tells me the fruit’s name in Pulaar and it reminded me of either the word for “groundnut shell” or the word for “stranger,” but I forget which word the name reminded me of as well as the actual name. I decide I need to buy one. Bizarre fruits should never be left unpurchased. I want to buy the little green one, because it has the funniest shaped bumps and the most twisted stem, but Isatou tells me that although it is ripe, the others are more ripe. I decide to buy three, to share with the people at the house, and Isatou throws in the little green one for free. Hooray! She tells me to add a little sugar before I eat it.

Back at the house I set to work preparing the fruit. Since it sort of resembles a mango, I thought it would be the kind of fruit you can slice. Nope. What I’d thought was the skin is really more of a rind, so then I think it must be the kind of fruit you can peel. Nope. It’s the kind of fruit you rip open and then scoop the insides out of. What’s weird is, it reminds me of baobab fruit. Not the color (it’s orange and baobab is greenish brown on the outside, white on the inside) or the consistency (it’s juicy and baobab is dry) or the taste (it’s sour and baobab is sweet) but in the relationship between the flesh and the seed. The flesh sort of clings to each individual seed and then each packet of fruit flesh and seed is crammed next to a bunch of other packets that are contained inside the rind, and you eat it by popping the seed in your mouth and sucking off the flesh.

Then yesterday I bought smaller fruits that maybe were nuts and not fruit. They were kind of shaped like a kola nut and dark purple. The lady selling them said they’re from the bush and gave me two for one dalasi. I needed pliers to crack the shell open and inside there was this foamy green stuff that I kind of gnawed off. And under the foamy green stuff was another shell and I cracked that open caveman style with a wooden club. And inside that was a seed, which is what had been rattling around when I shook the fruit-nut-thing prior to cracking the shells open.

I wonder what I'll find next!