Tea Time

Peruse the family photo album circa 1990, and you’re likely to find a photo of a gapped-toothed mini Melissa wearing a blue and white sailor dress and posing next to a crumpet. That’s right, a crumpet. And a scone, and a china cup full of Earl Grey.

The scene was not the result of my passion for scones but rather the consequence of a school project requiring a creative choice of theme. My mother must have grown tired of helping me research monkeys, cats and the rain forest, and so she suggested a different topic: English high tea.

Fast forward a couple of decades and you’ll find me enjoying another afternoon tea. Last Saturday was the grand finale of the Young Women’s Business and Culinary Training. The ladies decided to showcase their skills by hosting a “Tarde de Cha” or “Afternoon Tea.”

Naturally, this meant greeting pre-teens at my door before 7 am, running to and fro to arrange ingredients and utensils, hand beating 3 cakes, carrying tables and chairs up 4 flights of stairs, helping support a young man standing on the shoulders of another while he ripped a light fixture off the wall, and pole dancing.

What?! I did say pole dancing, but let me clarify that no one removed any clothing in the process.

By now you may be starting to suspect that Cape Verdeans do Afternoon Teas a little differently than the Brits. Much like Ike and Tina, Cape Verdeans “never never do nothing nice and easy.” They like their gatherings loud and bursting with energy. As a result, guests at our party sipped their juice, coffee, and spiked punch (ironically, no one ordered tea) while jamming to the rhythms of Rhianna, Bob Marley, and a variety of Cape Verdean club artists. Between mouthfuls of fish fritters, brownies, sweet potato/banana/corn cakes, pizza, orange cake, couscous and donuts, people hit the dance floor. Carmen and her mom tested out their arm strength by swinging around the poles supporting the shade cloth. Some of the older guests kept both feet on the ground, but moved to the beat none the less.

Our tea party began at 3 and ended around 9:30 when our single light bulb burned out. The timing was spectacular given that our bottle of grogue had just gone dry.

I felt proud of the 22 young women that worked hard to host the event. They demonstrated their abilities to properly prepare each dish, maintain a hygienic kitchen, calculate costs, select product prices, attend clients and keep accounting records.

Pinkies up and cheers to the graduates of the Young Women’s Business and Culinary Training!


One more thing: Rain has come to the Cape Verdean islands! Within 48 hours of our first of two rain events, the landscape was transformed from a dusty brown to a vibrant green. It is literally breathtaking. Better yet, the rain means the start of the planting season. Folks are exhausted from all the agricultural work but giddy with the thoughts of sprouting corn, beans, potatoes, and squash.