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.