Peace Corps Zambia: [VIDEO] Making Chickpea Wraps

It has been six months since the worldwide Peace Corps evacuation. I miss our host community, friends, cat, home, garden, biking – everything about life in Zambia, and coming back to the US unexpectedly after eight years away hasn’t been easy. I have been writing multiple blog posts about post-evacuation thoughts, white savior complex (I’ve been writing this one for a year but so difficult to sum up and I have very conflicting views), racial justice within Peace Corps, international development, and here in the United States, especially how my identity as a Korean American adoptee plays into the Black Lives Matter movement. No, the movement is NOT about me or Asians, but my identity matters in why I stand for Black Lives. And then there’s my involvement in Asian American activism against the rising sinophobia, racism, and xenophobia due to COVID19, but it’s always existed. Just more noticeable during the pandemic. These are complicated topics and I’m not sure if I’ll ever share my thoughts; I’m pretty sure most of my readers would align, I don’t want to take up space here, and I don’t want to shout into an echo chamber. There are already wonderful resources out there. I’m trying my best to be an activist at home, continually educate myself and others, and care of my mental health at the same time. Even though I’m physically isolated, I know I am not alone in the collective energy we’re all feeling in 2020. I’m also extremely hard on myself in pressuring myself to achieve and while I’ve calmed down in that arena, it still creeps up. I have to remember that making it out of this alive and healthy is an accomplishment in it of itself.

Anyway, I realized I never posted this cooking video which was one of my favorites to film, so here it is.

First, I would like to update and change the name of the recipe to from “Chickpea tacos” to “Chickpea wraps” because it really does not resemble a taco. I realized it was culturally insensitive of me to call it a taco just because there is stuff inside a flour tortilla. I apologize for my mistake.

In reality, I would not spend as much time on cooking as I did in this video, but I would on Sundays when there is less to do and I could cook during the day. Normally, I only cooked at night for two hours when the sun went down and there was not much else to do. I’d cook elaborate meals while listening to podcasts. It was my time to wind down and be somewhat alone, which I need to energize as I’ve become more introverted over the years. I’ve come to really cherish that meditative cooking time and became more connected with food as a result.

I want to note that I do not want to romanticize the fact that I made food without electricity or running water. This is not novel nor anything I had to “sacrifice”. People have been cooking with fire for thousands of years and still continue to today.

Click here to learn more and watch a video about cooking traditional Zambian cassava nshima.