Banana Pancakes

A couple of weeks ago at church in the village of Mwakiwasha, some women asked if I knew how to make chapattis, a kind of flat bread common in Tanzania, originally brought from India.  I told them I did and they asked if I would teach them.  "No problem," I answered, forgetting at the time that while I do know how to make them I did not know how to make them with no measuring cups or spoons or anything like that.  Brett also volunteered me to teach banana pancakes.

So I went to my trusty friend Margaret and asked her to show me how Tanzanians measure.  It's all about what looks right in the bowl.  One of interns, Krista, helped as well.  It was a fun afternoon of learning and of experimenting with recipes for pancakes that don't involve expensive or hard to get items like baking powder or milk or eggs.

We went back to the village a few days later and set about our cooking class.  We also cooked for the first time on the new rocket stove our interns helped the villagers make (a rocket stove is a small cob stove that uses less firewood as well as prevents small children from falling into an open fire).  It was all generally hilarious.  One of the older mamas could not roll out dough to save her life (we used glass bottles as rolling pins).  It seriously took her 15 minutes to roll out one 6-inch circle and it still was not at all a circle.  Most of the others did ok, though.  It was a challenge to cook in their pots.  They don't have skillets and the pots they have are not exactly high quality so it was difficult keeping the food from sticking and burning.  But we managed and the chapattis turned out very well.

The big hit, though, was the banana pancake.  They had never eaten anything quite like it before, and they claimed it was "tamu sana." -- very delicious.  I'm hoping banana pancakes start spreading across Tanzania as a regular food.  I would love to occasionally be served that for breakfast instead of rice and beans.  Don't get me wrong, I really like rice and beans, just not at 9 in the morning.

It was fun just working with the women like this.  It was the first time I was not just made to be a visitor, sitting by myself in a chair while all the other women worked.  Building relationships takes time, but I know in the end, it will be well worth it.

Update

Things have been busy this last month.  Brett went to Arusha for the first two weeks of June for an agriculture class while the girls and I stayed in Geita.  It was not the most fun two weeks of my life, but we managed to fill our days.  We played with cloud dough, a kind of sand box substitute that was recently introduced to us.

Baylor likes to play dress up and her favorite thing to be is a ballerina.  She loves any skirt and calls them all tutus.

Harper was a duck.

A few days after Brett got back our college interns arrived.  We have five interns with us for the summer and so far it's been great.  At least it has been for us; I hope it has been for them.  They've spent a lot of time in the village and have gotten to see town life and work as well.  Baylor is thrilled to have them around.  They're all great with the kids and are amazingly tolerant of my super extroverted and energetic two year old.

One of our interns discovered that if you blow in Harper's face, she always closes her eyes and sticks out her tongue.  This, of course, happens often now.

To Dar and Back

Getting vaccinations here is a bit of a chore.  We have to find some way to either bring them from Dar, Kigali, or Nairobi and keep them refrigerated (which is difficult with our electricity situation) or actually go those places ourselves.  Some friends went to Nairobi in April and brought back Harper's two month shots, but no one was going to any of those places near the time for her four months shots so we had to figure something else out.  An American university opened a clinic last year in Mwanza and we were told we could actually get the vaccinations there so we decided to check it out.  We asked ahead of time if they had the vaccines and could we get them and were told yes, so we made our way to Mwanza (a three hour drive is much more appealing than a fifteen hour one.).  Unfortunately, the clinic only had one of the three of the vaccines.  We were grateful for the one we got but still needed the others.  So, Harper and I hopped on a plane and flew to Dar.  We got a taxi at the airport, drove to the clinic there, got the shots, went to lunch, and drove back to the airport, where we waited 6 hours for our flight which was delayed.  But we did eventually get back to Mwanza that night, tired and grumpy, but with a new resistance to several strains of disease.

More Firsts

After over three years in Tanzania, we continue to have firsts here.  A few weeks ago, after Harper had her vaccinations, we took her to the village for the first time.  We thought that since she has such a laid back personality it would be an easy trip.  It's funny how you think things.  Harper did not seem to enjoy the village all that much.  She's more of a homebody than Baylor, who would rather be just about anywhere other than at our house.  Fortunately, she slept a lot, because she was crying pretty much the whole time she was awake.  Baylor, on the other hand, chased goats and chickens, helped carry the dried corn into the corn shed, and ate massive amounts of rice happily.  Hopefully Harper will learn to love our excursions.

A couple of weeks ago I was so fortunate as to have gotten worms for the first time.  Isn't it wonderful that after all this time I've finally gotten to experience them?  Coincidence that I got them after my first trip back to the village since before Harper was born?  Perhaps.  In any case, I'm glad for pharmacies.

And for the first time while driving at night we nearly ran over a man lying motionless in the middle of the road.  We were driving home from the Groens' house and Brett spotted him ahead of us, just down at the end of our street.  Brett took me and the girls home, picked up Oscar, our night guard, and went back to investigate.  We figured one of four things could be happening here. 1) He was very sick or injured. 2) He was dead. 3) He was drunk. 4) He was pretending to be sick so that when a passerby stopped to help he could rob him.  They approached cautiously and when he didn't jump up and hit them, they crossed number four off the list.  They could see that he was breathing so number two was gone.  They tried to wake him up but he was totally out.  They sniffed him but couldn't smell alcohol so they decided he must be sick.  They picked him up and put him in the truck and started to make their way to the hospital.  A few minutes later they hear "Wali!" (Rice!)  The man did not seem overly concerned that he was in a car going down the road with strangers.  He told them he didn't want to go to the hospital; that he was just hungry and that he had passed out because of that.  What can you do? So they took him to town and dropped him off to get something to eat.  He did not care for their company, so they came back up to the house.  It was altogether unusual.  What I find humorous was that our friend T was visiting from the States and this was his first night in Geita.  Brett said he was tempted to pretend that this was a normal, everyday  occurrence, but was really too surprised to do so.

Life is always full of interesting firsts.

The Reception

Our invitation to the reception, held at a hotel in town, was said to begin at 6:00, about five hours after the wedding ended.  Knowing that it wouldn't start anywhere near on time, we arrived about 7:15 (we brought Harper but Baylor stayed at home with our friend Margaret and her daughter Stefania).  There were probably about thirty other people there at the time.  It was a pretty strict process to get in.  They had guards at the entrance and they checked our invitation very carefully and marked us off a list.  I suppose party crashing is common.  The crowd increased a lot over the next couple of hours and by 9 or so, there were probably 500 people present.  The bride and groom didn't show up until about 8:30.  Their entrance was preceded by close friends and family, as well as these two professional cute kids.  Seriously.  Cute kids are hired to look cute and walk before the happy couple.   

When we sat down at our table, a waitress came and asked what we wanted to drink.  Brett and I both asked for water and Brittney asked for coke.  The waitress came back with a small bottle of water each for Brett and me and eight cans of coke for Brittney.  What?  We looked around and everyone else had six or eight of what they ordered.  I guess they thought no one would want water and so they were in short supply?  Anyway, we sat around for a long time listening to music, sipping our waters.  The receiving line was basically the same as in America except that you had to dance the whole time you're in line.

Then there was approximately three hours of speeches and gift giving.  I, along with the rest of the wedding planning committee, presented our gifts of fabric for the mothers-in-law, and cookware and plate settings for the couple.  The layers of the wedding cake were individually wrapped to give as gifts to the parents and grandparents.  

Around 10:00 the Groens decided to go home.  The girls were getting tired, but I think they enjoyed getting dressed up for the event, though they thought it was a bit loud. 

It was a lot of sitting around but fun because it was such a different way to spend an evening.  We don't get out a lot at night.

Brett was determined to wait for the food, but around 11:30 he gave up and we went home.  Later on we talked to someone there who said they didn't serve it until 1:00am.  Glad we didn't wait.  Tanzanians love a big event.

The Wedding

We were told the night before the wedding that it was important we be well-dressed.  And not well-dressed by American standards, but by Tanzanian standards.  Think 1980s prom or perhaps your high school choir gowns.   So we hit the used clothing market.  Alicia's dress actually looks nice, and I have cleverly hidden my monstrosity with a scarf and a baby, but Brittney's bubble gum explosion is here for all of you to love.  

We arrived at the church at 11:00 (which our invitations stated as the starting time), but we were the only ones there other than the cleaning staff sweeping out the auditorium.  We headed across the street to a little restaurant to have coke so that we could wait and watch for other people.

We actually didn't have to wait too long.  By 11:30 most everyone else was there, including the bride.  The church choir lined up on either side of the walkway and sang while the bride slowly entered.  I had a video of the choir, which was actually quite good, but I couldn't get it to upload on our slow internet.

It was a Catholic service, so it was rather long (two-ish hours), but interesting.  The sermon took up most of the time.  The wedding part was fairly brief.

In Tanzanian wedding culture, the bride is supposed to look sad the entire time, to symbolize her grief in leaving her family.  But Brett caught this gleaming moment on film, and I think it's a great picture.

Everyone follows the couple out in a line, throwing confetti, much like our rice.

We were met outside by a four-member band who played marching band type music behind the procession.

We went home for a break before the reception that evening.  And to change out of our hideous clothing.

The Pre-Wedding Party

Upon picking up the bride and groom's wedding garments from the dry cleaners in Mwanza, we returned to Geita just in time for the pre-wedding party.  The first thing I did was sit down with the women and start making mandazi.  Mandazi are a kind of pastry, most similar to a doughnut but drier and less sweet.  My job was rolling and cutting, which is good, since I don't know exactly what goes in them so they might not have been up to Tanzanian wedding standards.  They are cooked in giant pots over open flame.  In the picture on the right you can see the finished product in the pot in the back--nicely browned.  

Around 7:30, other guests started arriving and sat down in the chairs below, which are in the front yard of our landlords' house.  Baylor had a blast running around the poles.  The had just started to set down some of the food around 8:00.  Our landlord's wife was still getting her hair done so we knew the actual party wouldn't get started for quite some time. Since my mandazi making duties were finished we decided to go ahead and leave around 8:30, before food and whatever else. We figured we had a full day ahead of us and the kids really needed to get to bed.  Alicia said she could hear the music from her house until 4:30 in the morning.  Crazy.