[Pots clanking]
DARASIMI BANKOLE: On Northwestern’s campus, many students face the realities of fending for themselves for the first time. Whether that’s ensuring they visit the dining hall for a hearty meal or cooking for themselves, college opens up a new world for many students.
ANNA LINCOLN: But we wanted to take a look at international students specifically – from countries all over the world, how do they maintain a piece of home?
ROSEMARY MBAO: I think that for me, cooking is important because it’s a way that I somehow stay connected to people back home even if I’m not with them and just a way to take away that home sickness whenever I start to feel it.
[Oil sizzling on pan]
DB: That’s sophomore Rosemary Mbao and just like most international students on campus, she finds it relatively easy to find cultural food in Evanston or at least in the diverse city of Chicago.
AL: Two exchange students at Northwestern, Baindu Gbonda from Rwanda and Sierra Leone and Damini Iyer from India tell us how they find cultural food locally.
BAINDU GBONDA: I don’t find it that difficult to replicate the food from my home cultures as there is quite a big African diaspora in Chicago so it’s not too hard to find the food from my home cultures here.
DAMINI IYER: Honestly, it’s not too difficult to find Indian food here in Evanston.
AL: However, some can’t find certain ingredients that remind them of home. Pia Bolopian, an international student from France, tells us about specific French foods that she can’t find over here in the US.
PIA BOLOPIAN: There’s a lot of different types of, like, prepared meat, I guess, that don’t exist at all in the US. Like, saucisson and pâté, which I would eat a lot when I’m in France but those are very difficult to make at home so you usually just buy them from the butcher and so far in Evanston I haven’t found anywhere where I can buy those things so I just usually don’t eat them when I’m in the U.S.
[Microwave beeping]
AL: An inability to find specific foods from home may increase feelings of homesickness. Another issue Damini from India experiences is the difference in American ingredients.
DAMINI IYER: There are a few good restaurants and stores that sell Indian ingredients but I’d say the quality and taste just does not feel quite the same as it did back home. Since I live in dorms, I don’t really cook for myself but if I did, I’d probably bring some spices and ingredients from India.
DB: And for students who live in dorms without kitchens, there are even more hurdles to getting a taste of home. Here’s Mbao again.
ROSEMARY MBAO: Actually, I had a friend in this particular dorm and I would get like access to eat through her and come to cook and stuff like that, but it was a bit of a challenge you know because sometimes I would have to go and get certain ingredients that I left in my dorm and bring it back here, and for me that felt like I needed to move in a dorm where I can easily have access to ingredients and stuff like that without having to move between the dorms itself.
DB: Cooking, especially on a campus with so many diverse backgrounds, creates meaningful spaces for cultural connection, creating lasting memories.
ROSEMARY MBAO: I do cook alone sometimes, but most of the times it’s with my friends back from Zambia and we kind of find that as a way for us to actually bond, I feel like we’ve had several instances where I’ve had people from Zimbabwe, people from Burundi, and Rwanda, and we come into this kitchen and cook together as a way of just like us bonding and remembering where we’re from even though it’s different cultures, but we still share the similarities in culture and for us, it’s like a very important way to bring that African community to Northwestern.
[Students cooking together and laughing]
DB: For WNUR News, I’m Darasimi Bankole,
AL: And I’m Anna Lincoln.
