By Ngozi Ezenwa, Heartmenders Magazine Contributor, Africa – 

A few days ago, I shared thoughts on taking our passions to a professional level, applying creativity in all we do, and, in retrospect, on the crisis we faced years ago: the COVID-19 pandemic.

How can we use the opportunity to stay home to keep advancing or strengthening our passion or vision? Or do we stop immediately when the world stops?

How can we embrace our ideas and dreams, draw inspiration, and combine them to take them to the next level, regardless of the world’s condition?

Above all, how can we use our developed passions and visions to help the world during any future crisis? The economy needs to move forward, and we need to earn money to solve problems around the clock, regardless of the world situation, lockdown or not.

 I always mention my passion for writing and reading books; I also love cooking. But the passion I pursued further as a career is food.

Food is essential for growth, energy, and nutrition.
 We naturally cook for family, friends, and visitors without being prompted.
You know you have to cook to sustain yourself and members of your family.
Therefore, it is a way of life. The variety of dishes reflects cultural and traditional preparation methods

It’s not just about sustaining life; it’s also part of the entertainment that life depends on.

One can cook finger-licking dishes and invite loved ones, close acquaintances, or family members. But let me talk about inviting loved ones: you share this, and you all sit around the table, telling sweet stories. Eating together is storytelling time.

Also, taking adventurous restaurant trips with buddies can unlock your creativity as you taste food.

For me, cooking as a passion is not just cooking alone. I would love to know what my food contains: the ingredients, food composition, and how much fat, protein, etc., it has.
It’s food processing and packaging. I am enthusiastic about it all.

I remember Mama visiting me once in London, and I can’t remember exactly what we discussed. But I remember telling her that I cook my meat first and throw away the liquid sauce before starting the main cooking; she was surprised and said my sister in the U.S., who visited some time ago, does the same. And I was wondering about this myth. Am I doing the same? We cook our meat and throw away the liquid sauce.

Emediong Umoh photo from -unsplash

And one wonders: do we go back to the sitting room to tell Mama exactly what we did in the kitchen, since she has limited mobility from arthritis and is nowhere near the kitchen?

My sister is a vegetarian, but it didn’t stop her from giving her kids meat.

What I learned during my studies helped me make some major changes in my attitude towards some foods.

In Africa, their meat is organic, as most meats are gotten from animals that graze in the field, so some people over there may not be aware of the fact that meat over here is laden with hormones; that’s the reason for her surprised look when we are throwing the best sauce of the meat away.

Back when I was growing up, I remember collecting biscuit wrappers from one particular company: Nasco biscuits. They have lovely biscuit wrappers, so I started collecting wrappers of different varieties. Their packaging was so beautiful that I stuck them together to make a kiddie’s tablecloth with different types, like strawberries, lemon, etc. It wasn’t just the packaging that attracted me; the biscuit composition did, too. They were all flavored and came in different colors. I love eating them, and they may have helped shape my passion for food.

As an adult, I decided I must study food, the science behind it, its nutritional content, and how it affects human health.

After completing the course, my interest grew in working in food labs. I began to long to test a variety of food products.

Testing involves more than eating; it includes checking whether food industries follow food standards and agency rules and regulations. The ingredients listed are what’s on the packaging, and some foods are withdrawn because of a Salmonella outbreak, poor handling, etc. Why do the outbreaks occur? Whether eating for sustenance or entertainment, we need to eat healthily.

 The stay-at-home lockdown made me think about what people go through, the difficulties they face, and how it has affected their livelihoods.

After that, I asked: Do we really do what we’re meant to do in this world, or can a pandemic truncate our dreams or stop our livelihoods? Even today, another future pandemic can happen. We saw how devastating the past one was. As lifestyles changed and people couldn’t move around, they felt helpless; the world was locked down, at a standstill.

How did it affect our passions, dreams, or careers? Did you learn any past lessons? Have the lessons you learned affected how you pursue your dreams today or how you do your job?

Then, in 2020, I wondered whether we could ever get together like we used to, to enjoy dining, large gatherings, socializing, and going wherever we want without fear of getting infected. I also wondered whether people really understand social distancing. Many live in a confined environment, so maintaining social distancing was difficult. Work and business closures affected people’s livelihoods. And the government’s options were limited. Everyone should pitch in to support one another in times of distress like that. So, I tried to chip in as much as I could, wherever I could help. 

We were all in a difficult position, but I tried to help as much as I could.

Then came the dream: a close mate of mine visited me at the University.

We’ve been through hurdles together as adult students with younger students… Usually, there were three or five of us, friends in the class, depending on who showed up. 
We worked on our food microbiology practical assignments together.

With the food microbiology practical, it wasn’t panic mode; we worked on our assignments alongside our food biochemistry counterparts. I suspect it was designed that way. As one student pointed out, there is lab work every week. The lecturer in charge always stood in one corner, watching students as he gave instructions.

“Devise a method on how to carry out your lab work… how do substrates, control variables, blah, blah….” He stood at his usual corner, watching students run around helter-skelter, like headless chickens in panic mode.

National Cancer Institute photo from unsplash

I attached myself to the younger group, who had knowledge, or rather an environmental advantage, over some of us in finding solutions and in devising a methodological approach to the topics.

But now this “virus” is giving the world a hard time.

So, my mate visited and explained the situation. How can we help scientists find a cure for this terrible disaster causing mayhem around the world? We’ve all been taken aback by the sudden COVID-19 pandemic.

“Joy, we can do something about this, with the knowledge we acquired in the University about germs,” she said.

She is a wonderful lady, always advising me how to get about and get things done in a country I had barely stayed in. And she is germophobic, and I wondered how someone who’s germ-phobic would lay her hands on the slides studying viruses.

 So, she said we were going to do something about this, to help solve this problem ravaging the world; we’d see Professor Dave and see how we could help.

How can we do that? I asked her. “We’ve done a lot of work in the lab, so we can do this,” she said.

Ok, let’s go.

As we set out and walked down the road to the University, we kept going until we reached the railway bridge. And then she said, “I am going to walk fast here now to the top of the road. Before I knew it, she sped off and went under the railway bridge like a flash. She did it to avoid pigeon droppings falling on her hair.

I just walked along, not knowing what to say. The world needs help; why can’t I give myself if I am called upon?

We helped each other over those years. I showed her how to save in the new account my bank introduced after I secured her a job in my unit.

When I caught up with her, she said, “I know we are going to help; let’s see Professor Dave and find out what he’s got to say.” The Professor oversees our laboratory practical work and tutors our food biochemistry class during those years.

And we continued with our journey. We wore our loose white lab coats and walked to the University to see the Professor.

When we got there, we walked in through the double doors, and they closed behind us. And goodness! A flashback came back to me: that lab work; with that in my mind, not-too-good feelings set in, and nostalgic panic kicked in. I looked up at the long, old high walls, wondering how many decades of students had seen this corridor and walked down it.

Then we saw a tall, bearded man with piercing eyes: Professor Dave. “What can I do for you?”

We said, “We are here to help. We want to run tests on this coronavirus to find a cure. We can do it to help the world with this devastating virus.

We’ve run many tests on different microbes in our previous studies and named them. And we can bring the other young scientists along. The world is confused right now, and finding a cure is becoming harder. I know we can do it; we can.”

The man was gazing at us. “What do you mean?”

My mate started again, repeating what we’d just told him. He asked if we thought we could run such tests in the Food lab.

But we think it’s possible, and my mate went on again, repeating what we’d just told him.

And he said again, “And do you think you can do that in the food lab? No, no, oh, no, not in the food lab. Rather, pursue your dream of developing rapid contaminant detectors: biosensors and blockchain that can detect foodborne pathogens from farm to the dining table.”

Then I stretched out in bed and woke up from my long dream. There is always important work to do, pandemic or not. The best time to prepare is before the emergency happens. Always stay informed.

The best time to prepare is before the emergency happens. Always stay informed.

 Editor’s Note: This article was updated from its original 2020 publication in Heartmenders Magazine.

Ngozi Ezenwa is a writer. Her work comprises children’s and adult fiction, poetry, and short stories. Ngozi Ezenwa is a nurse and a private nutrition consultant. She studied Food Science/Nutrition at London Southbank University. Then, she took a postgraduate course in Nursing Studies at King’s College London. Until 2018, she took a break from work to focus on creative writing. She is currently writing four short storybooks. She also enjoys cooking and processing food. Contact her at ngozi118@gmail.com.