Ducana food from the Caribbean.
On the exotic islands of the Caribbean, Alexander and I witnessed some happenings hidden from public view by influential people. Indeed, it was an experience never to be forgotten quickly.
With Dr. Carolyn Melding as our host and tour guide, we visited several beautiful and magnificent sea-front villas and exclusive night clubs on the islands. In this episode, I would narrate the encounter with a doctor from the United States of America (USA) presently on retirement and painfully sweating it out on his beach front villa.
Let us call him Dr. Lansing, he is 65 years old and has been on the island for five years. So on the third day of our visit, we went to another island where I met Dr. Lansing and a 50-year-old retired Caribbean nurse called Anne who was taking care of him. She was also the cook in the villa.
The third person we met was Jeffery, who worked as a driver and utility man. He took care of the necessary things of the villa.
When the gates were opened, Jeffery was there to welcome us and then he handed us over to Nursing Sister Anne, who took us to the beautiful garden and we met Dr. Lansing who was sitting in a chair.
I was taken aback to see the attire of the old doctor, he was in black robe like the monks of the Middle Ages with a hood covering his head. When he was greeted by Dr. Melding, he raised his head and I saw a thin or lean face with a white goatee beard.
“How are you Doctor?” Carolyn asked him
“A little bit okay, I slept last night without their usual crying,” Dr. Lansing said.
As he spoke, I wondered what was disturbing him.
I wanted to know more about Dr. Lansing, so I again asked Carolyn what I could do to get the story and she told me that Jeffery, his utility man, could give me the details.
“Make sure you ask Jeffery to also tell you his own story and he would oblige you.” Dr. Melding said.
So I sat down with Jeffery in the cozy garden over a ‘Ducana dish’, a typical Caribbean food mostly from the islands of Antigua and Barbuda (not Barbados which is also an island in the Caribbean)
The Ducana dish is made from grated sweet potatoes, sugar, flour, coconut, water, grated nutmeg, salt and essence or vanilla extract. The mixture is combined in a bowl until it thickly coats the back of a spoon. The cooking method is quite simple, but what is often debated is the wrapping. The mixture can be cooked wrapped in foil while others prefer to cook it wrapped in banana leaves. Either way, the wrapped contents must be boiled in salted water for about 25 minutes or until the mixture in the wrapping is firm. Ducana is often served with salt cod (bacala) and what the islanders call “chop-up,” which is a mixture of spinach, eggplant and okra.
According to Jeffery, Dr. Lansing made money as an abortion doctor. However, at the age of 57, he had a nervous breakdown and knowing that it would be impossible to continue practicing as a doctor, he bought an old structure in the Caribbean, pulled it down and built a magnificent villa. At the age of sixty, he moved to the new abode with Jeffrey. Upon confidential recommendation by an intimate friend, Anne, a retired nurse and native of the island was employed.
Dr. Lansing, who used to roam in the garden during the day, complained about the cries of hundreds of children, who he had aborted.
Jeffery also had a very curious story; he is an African American in one of the cities in the US and spent sometime in the streets. However, at the age of twenty, a driver of a long haulage truck took him in and he learnt how to drive and after acquiring the necessary qualifications, he became plied his trade on the highways from south of the USA to the north.
Sadly, there was one dirty secret, which Jeffery had for years tried to get rid of but could not and that was an infatuation for women between the ages of fifty to sixty. He went crazy most times and raped most of them.
One evening after taking some drops of hard liquor, he accosted a woman in her mid-forties, dragged her to a secluded spot and raped her. He was later arrested and sent to jail.
Unknown to Jeffery, the woman he raped that night later got pregnant. The woman, an executive officer in a reputable company, decided to abort the baby. Ironically, the woman, throughout her life, was not interested in having babies and had taken precaution not to have one. Indeed, she had totally vowed not to get intimate with men. So she got furious with the actions of Jeffery.
So upon recommendations from friends, she went to see Dr. Lansing who was residing in the same city. After going through the necessary checks, she was given a date to come for the operation.
However, on the appointed day, the lady came back to tell Dr. Lansing that she had decided to keep the baby. Dr. Lansing did not object to the decision and therefore encouraged her and through that they became friends.
Jeffery said one day the same woman he had raped surprisingly visited him in jail with a bulging stomach. There he was handed the news that the bulging stomach was the result of his ‘rape adventure’. Jeffery was also given the only option and that was marriage.
Jeffery accepted the offer and through the efforts of the woman, he was released from prison earlier. In order to begin a new life after prison, he offered to join Dr. Lansing in his Caribbean home to become his special assistant.
I then asked him about the wife and he smiled and told me that she had given birth to a boy and was still working in the USA. He said he travelled to the island during the weekends on board private jet.
“So do you love her?” I asked him.
“Yes I do together with my boy and let me tell another thing, since this lady came to my life, that addiction to raping mature women has ceased. Do you know why?” He asked me.
When I replied in the negative he told me that the lady took him to one of the Born Again Christian churches and was prayed for.
“She is a good Christian and has led me to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. The lady is so special to me,” Jeffery said tearfully.
By Amos Amaglo
