Poor in Spirit, Rich in Joy.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

–        Matthew 5:3

 

When “the poor” are mentioned, negative associations immediately come to mind: trickery, swindling, theft, desperation, manipulation and deceit. Before we came to Africa, we were warned on several occasions and even advised by well-meaning people not to become jaded too soon, when we found ourselves repeatedly cheated.

 

Perhaps it is still our honeymoon stage of falling in love with this sun-baked country, but in our short 5 weeks here, we have, on the contrary, experienced the exceedingly generosity of “the poor” in our midst.

 

More importantly, I am beginning to discover, that the beautiful people of this nation are “poor in spirit” in the way the bible describes, not as being empty or half-filled, but on the contrary, emptied of pride so as to be thankful for the smallest kindness.

 

Just 2 days ago when I baked for the students (pastors) of the Bible School from Uganda and Kenya, I baked a couple of extra loaves of marble cake for the lovely people around our home, on the public health institute premise. (Truly, I am grateful for the little stove and oven we have here!)

 

 

As I gave out the pieces I baked to my colleagues, the pharmacist who so willingly volunteered her time to help me with a village school health check volunteering project, the security guard who constantly asks if we are all right, the IT lady who fixed our internet and taught me Luganda (the Ugandan language) for grocery shopping, and the cook who often expresses how he wished he could cook Chinese food for us to help us feel more at home… my heart began to be filled with warmth and joy as I saw the look of immense gratitude and appreciation on their faces.

 

The head cook of the place, a round, benevolent jovial Ugandan man, shook my hand in gratitude and asked me sincerely, “Can you write me this recipe?”

 

Having been the third one who asked me, I’ve decided to share this really quick and easy marble cake recipe here as well.

If I can make this in Africa with limited ingredients, I’m sure you can too!

 

Food for Love:

–        2 cups butter

–        3 cups of sugar (Most recipes will call for white sugar, but in Uganda, their local brown sugar is waaay cheaper so I used brown sugar instead. It’s healthier too!)

–        6 eggs

–        4 cups of plain flour

–        1 teaspoon of baking powder

–        1 teaspoon of baking soda

–        2/3 cups of milk

–        1 teaspoon of vanilla

–        ¼ cup of cocoa powder

 

 

The Act:

The recipe I had found was actually meant for a plain vanilla pound cake. But I thought, since a marble cake is essentially a dual-flavoured pound cake, can’t I split it in half and put them together? The little experiment worked!

 

1. Start off with two mixing bowls.

In each bowl, cream 1 cup of melted butter and 1 ½ cups of sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Then, add in 3 eggs to each bowl.

Here in Africa, I used my trusty whisk and right biceps!

 

 

2. After sifting the plain flour, baking soda and baking powder together, add 2 cups of the dry ingredients into mixing bowl and whisk further, alternately mixing 1/3 cups of milk and the vanilla to achieve a smooth batter consistency.

 

3. In one mixing bowl, add in ¼ cup of cocoa powder.

I was greedy, and added more until I was satisfied that Cliff would call it “chocolatey-enough”!

 

 

4. Here comes the fun part!

Using a spoon for each mixing bowl, alternately dollop the plain and chocolate cake batter into your baking pans.

 

 

5. Once its completed, use a chopstick or a skewer and gently swirl the colours around for a swirling marble effect.

Don’t overmix!

 

 

6. Place it in a preheated oven of 170 degrees Celsius until it turns golden brown.

 

7. While waiting for the cake to bake, find something constructive to do such as obliging to your husband’s request of cutting his hair in your front yard! Here’s how our conversation went:

 

“Wai Jia, can you cut my hair with the clippers we brought from Singapore?”

“ Sweetie, I have NEVER cut anyone’s hair before so maybe I should watch a youtube video on how to do so first?”

“Nah, don’t worry! You’re ARTISTIC! Just let yourself go and CREATE A MASTERPIECE!”

 

So one 4-minute youtube video later, and after the husband had gathered all the hair-cutting equipment and set himself up at our front porch, I was glad to see the cake ready and him ready for me too!

 

 

Fifteen minutes later,

Ta-da!

 

Freshly baked and freshly cut.

 

We are learning, just to continue having fun,

to continue bringing joy to the people around us, and

to focus on finding joy in the simple things in life:

a first attempt at a haircut, or simply baking for people we love with the limited ingredients we can find.

 

After all, at the end of the day,

when we allow ourselves to be “poor in spirit” in the sense of

allowing ourselves to be emptied of pride and expectations,

shall we not find ourselves exulting in everyday victories and joys

and find heaven all around us?