college writing

I was born in Cape Verde Islands, an archipelago of ten Islands, localized in west Africa. Cape Verde is a small country with a population of about 1 million people, which about half of the population lives abroad. Cape Verde Islands was discovered by Portugues navigator (Diogo Afonso) in 1460, through his voyage to find new land. Cape Verde being colonized by Europeans (Portuguese, Spanish) they brought to Cape Verde their culture and traditions, their culinary customs which later mixed with the African culinary traditions, and this fusion of culture and different ways and mode of cooking made the Cape Verdean culinary very rich and diverse with flavorful dishes, result of the culinary influence of European and African cuisine.
The main and traditional Cape Verdean dish is “Catchupa”. Catchupa is a slow cooked stew of corn, beans, meat or fish, sweet potatoes and vegetables. Catchupa originated from the most abundant crop in Cape Verde which is corn. It is cultivated seasonally between July-October which is a rainy season in Cape Verde. It is harvested from November through December. Due to the abundance of the corn it influences so many of the culinary dishes in Cape Verde. Catchupa is one of the main dishes where corn is the main ingredient. Throughout Cape Verdean history Catchupa became so popular it became the main dish in Cape Verde. Catchupa to me is more than a dish, it is a tradition, it is an identity, where my childhood is embedded, and it brings me so many memories about my family, small village life and where I was born, all farming routine to cultivate the crop, the harvest season, the day-to-day hard work at the field, all the laughing, and stories told by the elder at the corn field.
Catchupa dish is so rooted in my earliest memories that it is almost impossible to travel back on my remembrance and not to stumble on it. Making me nostalgically going back and experiencing that time, at the small and remote village where I was born. I can smell the unique fragrance of the crop field, the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves of the crops, the echoing of distant laugher and talking on the field, the birds chirping on the trees, the smell of Catchupa being cooked with wood and charcoal.
I can recall the entire village mill the corn in a large molar and pestle. Two people are usually needed to mill the corn each taking turns mashing the corn. They synchronize at the same pace which makes a sound like music! It’s a tradition, it is done by sunset, where the entire village prepares Catchupa at the same time. It’s a cultural heritage, when these sounds are echoing through the villages you know Catchupa is for dinner!
After the corn is milled it is cooked on a wood stove which brings about more flavor to the food. The wood that is harvested from the fields brings about distinctive smoke flavor and smell. The ingredients are gathered and prepared to be cooked for about an hour. Catchupa is a dish that gives the cook room to be creative and explore his/her imagination to make it. The Catchupa dish, because of its abundance in ingredients and many ways to make it, gives a space for variation, which lead to each island of the archipelago to create their own style of make it.
Catchupa to me is not just a dish it is a memory of my childhood, village where I was born, family at the table, working on the fields, the raining season, the harvest season and lastly making the catchupa on the wood stove, and the aroma of it and the people delighting the dish. Catchupa is interwoven in my childhood that I cannot distinguish from the two.

I was born in Cape Verde Islands, an archipelago of ten Islands, localized in west Africa. Cape Verde is a small country with a population of about 1 million people, which about half of the population lives abroad. Cape Verde Islands was first discovered by Portugues navigator (Diogo Afonso) in 1460, through his voyage to find new land.

Cape Verde being colonized by Europeans (Portuguese, Spanish), which brought to Cape Verde their culture and traditions, especially the culinary technics which later mixed with the African culinary technics, and this fusion of culture and different ways and mode of cooking made the Cape Verdean culinary very rich and diverse with flavorful dishes, result of the culinary influence of European and African cuisine.

The main and traditional Cape Verdean dish is “Catchupa”. Catchupa is a slow cooked stew of corn, beans, meat or fish, sweet potatoes, carrots, and vegetables. Catchupa to me is more than a dish, it is a tradition, it is an identity, where my childhood is embedded, and it brings me so many memories about my family, small village life where I was born, all farming routine to cultivate the crop, the harvest season, the day-to-day hard work at the field, all the laughing, and stories told by the elders.

Catchupa dish is so in rooted in my earlies memories that almost impossible to travel back on my remembrance and not to stumble on it, and make me mentally going back and experience that time, at the small and remote village, I can smell the unique fragrance of the crop field, the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves of the crops, the people talking, laughing, and working on the field, the birds chirping on the trees, the smell of Catchupa being cooked with wood and charcoal.

In order to prepare Catchupa first we have mill the corn in a large molar and pestle. Two people are usually needed to mill the corn each taking turn at mashing the corn. They synchronize at the same pace which makes a sound like music! it’s a tradition done by sunset by the entire village to prepare the corn for dinner it’s a cultural heritage, when these sounds are echoing thorough the villages you know Catchupa is for dinner!

After the corn is milled it is cooked on a wood stove which brings about more flavor of the food. The wood that is harvested from the fields which brings about distinctive smoke flavor and smell. The ingredients are gathered and prepared to be cooked for about an hour.   Catchupa is a dish that gives the cook room to be creative and explore his/her imagination to make it. The Catchupa dish because of its abundance in ingredients and many ways to make it, gives a space for variation, which lead to each island of the archipelago to create their own style of make it.

The subject of the TED talk is “what if we supported millions of African farmers in growing more food”  

This TED talk is hosted by Andrew Youn, a CEO of a non-profit organisation named One Acre Fund.

The main idea of his speech is to awaken his audience for the importance of non-profit organisations and the necessity of fund them and enabling them to help those in need. He said  “how we direct our money spending, as humans how we spend our money to determine what we achieve and how we live. As a society we spend a lot of money on technologies, and superfluous items, instead of helping others that do not have nothing.” He implies that we can choose who we want to be, if we want a better world, we should simply give more and help the non- profit organisations (similar to the one he represent), which are fighting for better and more equal society.

According to Youn the world’s poor people era farmers, thus, helping them get out of poverty is not just planting short term surviving crops, it is also generating long term assets. He said that ” when humanity puts their money on social change anything can be possible”. He stated that if the developed countries give only 2% of their income, and the world’s wealthiest people give half of their assets in the course of their lifetime, the non-profit organizations like his would earn trillions of dollars per year, to give and help those whom need it the most.

In terms of writing and reading I prefer paper material (book, notebook), on both cases. when I’m writing on paper, it gives me a more realistic perception of writing and expressing myself. Where I can pour my thoughts into it, as they come and cross out some words, substitute them for other more appropriate to that specific context and later organizing it as a final writing in an understandable and readable manner that, a potential reader can understand and comprehend exactly what my thoughts and point of view are.

With regard to reading, similarly, to writing I have a preference to paper books. the sensation of touch on a book, the act of turn the pages back and forth, and the possibility to write directly on that very place that I want to leave a note, or to glue the stick note sheet on the page and leave a comment about that paragraph, make reading on a paper book unique experience, thus it my favorite way to read.