Ian Mathie, one of my favorite memoir authors, has packed more adventure, danger and excitement during his thirty years in Africa, than anyone living a ‘normal’ life at home.

I spent a weekend with Ian and his wife, Gay, in their village about an hour north-west of London in Warwickshire. I had just finished my TESOL course in Greenwich, London, and needed a relaxing weekend.

The countryside was magnificent, and so green, compared to the drought we’re experiencing in southern California.

Ian met me at the Banbury train station, and drove me to his lovely home.

During my visit, Ian showed me the chest where he keeps several African artifacts, that make his memoirs come to life. For example, the monkey below, was the actual carving in his book Bride Price , the first book I read from Ian’s collection. It was so interesting to see the actual collecting basket which Abélé (from Bride Price) took into the forest each day to gather fruit and roots. (Scroll down to see it.)

Hardwood carving of a monkey – makaka – made as part of the bride price he paid for Abélé by Mputu Ngakwe.

Cooking pot made to replace the one I broke. Made in a spiral from clay taken from the river bank and baked on the fire outside my hut. It still works!

Ikobio – woven and plaited raffia mats presented by Mputu as part of ibene (bride price) paid for Abélé. Some are stained by smoke and tar from where they were stored in the rafters above the cooking fire.

baPende dancing mask made by one of the village men for me to use at Abélé’s wedding. Made from softwood and raffia, coloured with sap from a forest vine.

A comb made for me by Abélé from bamboo and palm fibres.

The collecting basket which Abélé took into the forest each day to gather fruit and roots. When she married she gave the basket to me and made herself a new one as her first married duty.

Three ndaba hoes made for me by our village blacksmith in Anéhigouya,Upper Volta (called Burkina Faso today.) Each is a traditional design and is used for different purposes from farming to well digging.

Two Akua fertility dolls, from Ghana. Made from soft wood, these are not made to last. They would be placed in their fields to encourage the yams to grow strongly and allowed gradually to rot away in the weather, returning fertility to the earth.

A pair of traditional embroidered leather slippers peculiar to the northern region. Given to Dad in 1961 as a gift of Alhaji Muhamadu Aminu, the Emir of Zaria, on the first anniversary of Nigerian Independence Day.

A traditional Hausa knife with a leather scabbard. This is the knife with which I won the goat skinning competition at the Zaria Agricultural Show in 1961. It was very blunt when first handed to me and I had to sharpen it on a stone before killing the goat and skinning it.One year ago, I interviewed Ian about his life in Africa. You can watch the entire interview below. Ian submitted a story to the “My Gutsy Story” series. It’s a camel story at the Bilma Oasis in Niger.Ian is not only a brilliant author, but a good friend and supporter of my desire to serve in Africa with the Peace Corps.  Ian Mathie was born in Scotland and taken to Africa aged three, Ian Mathie grew up in the bush. After short service as a pilot in the RAF, he returned to West Africa as a rural development officer. Well adapted to living in the bush, Ian worked with isolated societies, sharing their hardships and understanding cultures from the inside. Take a look at Ian’s books on his website here.

If you want to experience a home-cooked meal, anywhere in the world, then you’re in for a treat with eatwith.com.

It all started with Yvonne, my new friend from volunteering at Vaughan Town in Spain. She invited me to join her at Miriam’s apartment in Madrid, so we could learn how to cook an authentic paella.

We shared a taxi to Miriam’s place, and were greeted by a smiling lady who invited us into her comfortable suburban apartment and introduced us to her two small dogs. She made us feel welcome, and offered aprons with “La Cocina de Mirinda,” written on the front.

After a nice cup of coffee, and a detailed description of how to cook paella from scratch, we were asked to participate in the peeling of shrimp. Both the carcasses and the shrimp heads were tossed into a pot to make the most important ingredient of the recipe: the stock. Miriam emphasized that the secret to a fabulous paella, is to make your own stock.

Now that we had finished peeling the shrimp, we were exhausted! So time for a delicious specialty: a smoked cheese, thinly sliced from,I believe, the Basque area. (Sorry but I cannot remember the name, except Miriam said you have to leave it out for an hour or so, before eating it.)

Miriam asked us to chop some red and green peppers and wash some tomatoes for a gazpacho soup, she wanted us to taste.I love that fresh cold soup which is so refreshing on a hot day, (32C) in Madrid on that day.

Time to get serious with the paella, so the toughest part of the paella preparation for me, was sifting the shrimp stock through a coffee sieve, after it had been through the food processor. This was a time-consuming process, but very important in the preparation of a delicious home-made stock as the base for simmering the bomba rice, which is the kind you need for a paella. Risotto rice does not work for paella.

After pre-cooking some chicken pieces, and peppers, it’s time to add the stock to the rice and simmer. You do not add the shrimp until the very end.

Yvonne and I received a copy of the recipe to try at home, and Miriam, has been wonderful, e-mailing us other recipes for gazpacho, and following up with our travels back home. Oh, I forgot to mention, she even took the time to drive Yvonne to the airport to catch her flight after our meal, and then drove me to downtown Madrid.

This was more about sharing a cultural experience with someone from another country, than about learning to make a delicious paella.

Next time you’re in Spain, ask Miriam to share her cooking and hospitality with you. You won’t be disappointed. Here’s how you reach Miriam through Eatwith.com.

Do you like meeting people from other countries? Would you like to volunteer in exchange for free hotel and meals?

If so, Vaughan Town may be the ideal solution for you. There you get to help Spanish people improve their English for one week.

You meet 15 Anglos and 15 Spaniards for one week in a beautiful countryside hotel, all for free, but more importantly, you get to learn about other cultures.

This is my second year of volunteering and I made new friends. (Here was last year’s experience in another location.)

You truly bond, and develop friendships after sharing one week together, and you’ll want to do it again. One American, HJ, from Georgia, has volunteered nineteen times. He’s in his 70s, and has so much energy and enthusiasm to share with everyone. The poor Spaniards had trouble understanding his accent, but he won them over with his personality.

So what do you do during your week?

• First you meet your fellow Anglos, who have signed up as volunteers, for cocktails at the Eurobuilding 2--headquarters to Vaughan Town School–in Madrid, on the Saturday evening before the program starts.
• You leave on Sunday morning by bus to one of the locations you have selected to volunteer at. I chose Pedraza, this year. A 13th Century village in Segovia.

Watch my quick morning walk to the town square.

• You meet the Spaniards on the course at the bus in front of Eurobuilding 2
• Each Anglo has to sit next to a Spaniard, and your one-to-one conversation begins.
• It takes one and a half hours to get to Pedraza from Madrid.
• At the hotel, you settle into your room and have lunch and Marisa (our program organizer) has a schedule set our for your daily meals, (you get to choose each course) and the program of the day.
• During your scheduled one-to-ones, you speak to a Spaniard, (English only) and you can either walk around town, go to the local cafe in the old town square, or stay in the hotel lobby.
• There is of course siesta time after lunch, until 5 p.m.
• After your siesta, you start your English conversation again;, either one-to-ones, conference calls (to help Spaniards practice speaking on the phone) or practice presentations or plays for the evening entertainment.
• Entertainment starts at 8 p.m.

Watch the Vaughan Town entertainers in the video below.

• Dinner at 9 p.m.
• Games, drinks at the bar, dancing, and staying up all night if you’re under 35-year-old.

A wonderful experience, and I got some amazing tips about other places and things to do from fellow Anglos. More on that in other blog posts to follow.

Any questions? Feel free to ask in the comments section.