Cross-Cultural Eating

You can tell that Anderson is the one that has spent more than half his life in Tanzania. 

Ugali is basically cornmeal mixed with water;  it’s an East African food staple.  Anderson likes his with ketchup. It’s traditionally eaten with your fingers…Anderson is good at that. 

Mama Jackie cooks dagaa with tomatoes and onions, but Anderson doesn’t like the fish heads, so he leaves those.  Mama Jackie says “Kitchwa ni nzuri” (“Head is nice”).

He also had some french fries, but, of course, he calls those chips now. 

Weekly Fruit and Vegetable Shopping – $20

This is a typical haul for the week.  I love this part of living here. 

For 32,000 Ts / $20: 

• Banana – 1 bunch
• Cabbage – 1 giant
• Lettuce – 2 heads
• Mango – 3
• Green Peppers – 3
• Red and Yellow Peppers – 2 pieces
• Garlic – 3 heads
• Avocado – 5
• Cucumber – 1/2 kg
• Onions 1.5 kg
• Tomato 1.5 kg
• Carrots 1.5 kg
• Potatoes 1.5 kg
• Beetroot 1/2 kg
• Broccoli – 1/2 kg
• Cauliflower 1/2 kg
• Passion Fruit 1/2 kg
• Pineapple 1
• Coriander (cilantro) 1 bunch 
• Container of homemade hot chili sauce

(Apples, strawberries, and raspberries I buy at more of a traditional grocery store and since they are not local are a bit more expensive)

The Dry Season in Arusha

Yesterday, Anderson and I rode bikes to his friend’s birthday party that was in the neighborhood.  He did great until we got to the giant sandpits of dust that we have everywhere now.  I am loving the warmer temperatures, but we could really use a touch of rain. 

No More Room at the Inn….weekend project

Bunny Condo. Since rabbits seem to do what they do, we were running out of room in our current hutch.  Three of the four rooms had brand new babies (since last weekend) and the one large room had all of the others which is not a good thing when you are trying to stop them from doing what they do.  With at least one more very pregnant, Matt decided it was time to build an addition.  He had lots of helpers and all done without power tools.  Go Matt!

Finished just in time because we had more babies this morning. 

Grand total somewhere around 36 now (it’s a little hard to get an exact count with the squirmy little ones still hiding out) and this is after a nice dinner on Saturday, an inadvertent snack for the dog on Friday afternoon, and 3 going to live with new friends.  Hopefully with the additional rooms we can implement a little family planning.

New Puppies

Puppies are so cute.  These are little Jack Russells that were born at Tierney’s best friend’s house a few weeks ago.  They are finally big enough to hold and play with. 

(And I didn’t realize until now how much Tierney and Udine look alike)

Tierney and her friends’ latest business venture

T and two of her friends decided that they should sell friendship bracelets at TGT (our Friday night hangout).  They let people choose their own colors and got to making them.  I think that her share of the sales was 8,000 Tanzanian Shillings (~$5).  They sold to adults for 1,000 Ts and kids for 500 Ts.  Not bad for a couple of hours of work (and fun) although it got trickier for them as the sun set. 

Dinner’s Almost Ready!

Or maybe not.   You know the ‘witching hour’?  When the kids are cranky and just can’t wait to eat, so you are trying to get dinner on the table as fast as possible?  Yeah.  That’s when I always run out of gas.  Just like when you invite everyone over for a barbeque and that’s when the gas for the grill runs out. 

So all of you folks in the US, don’t take your central gas line for granted.  (And electric stoves aren’t the best option here due to the power issues).

[And yes, we have a back-up…the one for our grill actually, but I couldn’t find the adapter piece that was safely tucked into our camping gear]

Homemade Book from the Kids

How lucky are we?  The kids just gave us this book that they made (literally as Matt was walking out the door to catch a flight).  I love that there was no special occasion and that they came up with the idea and implemented it all by themselves.  Our hearts melted.  

Nyumba ya Mungu Camping

Literally “House of God”, but it’s a reservoir located south of Moshi and is known for it’s bird viewing.  We were invited to tag along with the Bakers on their camping/birding weekend. 

We drove to Moshi and then headed south on dirt roads taking our time to enjoy the reservoir…coffee stops, lunch stops, bird stops, let the kids run stops, etc.  It was a pretty relaxing way to spend the day.  The kids hit it off right away with Niamh (9..almost 10) (pronounced like Neve) and Oscar (7), so we knew the weekend would be a success. 

We camped at a great spot along the Pangani River where we’re pretty sure we saw a crocs eyes glowing at night across the bank.  I could have done without the call (screeching!) of bush babies overhead all night though.  There were also vervet and blue monkeys about.  The return home we cut onto the main road near Same, back through Moshi to Arusha. We were rewarded with gorgeous views of both Mawenzi and Kibo peaks of Kilimanjaro on the way home.  Trip ended with the two families dining at the Coffee Lodge to eek the last hours out of the weekend. 

Nyumba ya Mungu with Pare Mountains in the background

The girls, Ash, Tierney, and Niamh trying to find some shade (under the car)

The best seats for birding…don’t worry, we drove pole pole (slowly)

Village kids along Nyumba ya Mungu

Healthy looking cows

Anderson holding a baby bird. 

Niamh, Tierney, Ashlyn, Oscar and Anderson (low blood sugar and cranky so we cut him out of the *fun* photo).

Bounced back with some cookies and chai and some car-top birding with Oscar.

Making friends with the Maasai mamas on the way home, so that he could sit on their donkey.

It’s so fun for us to realize that after almost 3 years here there are still so many places close by that we have yet to discover. 

Asanteni Bakers for letting us tag along!