house help and tortillas in Mali, with recipe

A young woman named Nyagali comes to our house 3 mornings a week to help with cleaning, laundry, food shopping, and cooking.  Everything seems to take more time and effort here, so I could either expend huge amounts of my time and energy to keep our home functioning, or we can do as is expected of missionaries here and hire someone to help.  I am so thankful to have the help!

Nyagali is great at preparing the food after she brings it from the market. (though I still go to market myself fairly often)  All of the vegetables and fruits need to be soaked in bleach water and cleaned before going in the fridge.  Eggs also need a good soak and scrub because they come filthy straight from the coop.  There are few conveniences here, so Nyagali also does things like sifting sand and pebbles out of the dry beans and rice we buy.  If we want whole wheat flour or corn flour she buys the grains, washes and dries them, and carries them to a mill to be ground.  I also enjoy not having to wash dishes the days she is here.  It is rainy season now, so the dust is not as intense, but during the rest of the year the dust here is something that you really can't understand unless you've experienced it.  I am thankful not to have to be the one to wash our tile floors by hand three times per week (three times per week seems to be the minimum needed to not walk around in a layer of dust.)  All of this help allows me to focus on the work that I am here to do.  

Nyagali can make several different meals for us.  JP especially enjoys eating some African dishes that she can cook that I don't attempt to cook.  

But I kept hearing from others about how their house helpers can cook some pretty exciting things.  I have tried to make tortillas before, and while they turned out edible, they couldn't be described as good.  So I heard that our friends' house helper was a tortilla making expert and I talked with him to see if he could come to teach Nyagali how it's done.

 Jude and Nyagali are both from the ethnic group called Bobo.  While they were working in the kitchen they were chattering away in the Bomu language and I couldn't understand anything.  So I'm not sure what was said but the end result was a beautiful stack of delicious tortillas.
I'm hoping to get Jude back here soon for a lesson on bagels!
(it made me smile to see him wearing my Minnesota apron!)

Here's the recipe for tortillas:

TORTILLAS           makes about 10

3 cups flour
1/4 cup shortening (margarine or crisco)
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
Mix these together well, then add:
1/2 to 3/4 cup water
Knead the dough a bit, then separate into about 10 sort of golf ball sized balls.
Roll each ball out on a floured surface into a big round circle.
Place each tortilla in a pan over low heat and turn them over so each side gets a bit golden.
These can be kept in the freezer, so you can make a bunch at a time.
Hint:  You can roll out a bunch of them before heating the pan.  Layer them between waxed paper (we used big ziplock bags) before cooking.