We ended up with twelve dishes for this feast of a meal and three women were largely responsible. The lady in the pink shirt washed, cut, cooked, peeled and worked on this lunch for two hours straight. The other lady is the headman's wife who helped prep, but did not cook. More information below ...

The young lady in the pink shirt looked about twelve, but she was a mother of a small boy and the wife of one of the headman's sons. She, along with the headman's eldest daughter (stirring the Nsima), prepped and cooked most of the meal, and did some damage control on the bits that I "helped" with. The headman's wife and I had a nice chat about life, work, husbands and the weather, translated through Victor, my guide.

Sitting under the tree on a bench and working alongside these women was just a privilege, and utterly relaxing.