Saturday, May 22, 2010

Nyumbani Mwanza (Home in Mwanza)

A few days I took a piki piki, or motorcycle to Nimri. It costs only 1000 shillings to hop on the back of someone’s motorcycle for about a fifteen minute ride. When I got on I asked the driver in my newly learned Swahili that I was so proud of what his name was, and he responded in English, “My name is George.” When I told him that I was trying to practice my Swahili he laughed and only spoke to me in Swahili for the rest of the ride. I had no idea what he was saying save a few odd words and phrases, but it’s slowly (pole pole)coming along. Later that night as we were finishing up a dinner of spinach cooked in peanut butter paste, which is delicious, a salad of tomatoes peppers onions and salt and green bananas cooked in sauce, the power went out. We use a gas stove here so we were able to finish cooking, then we ate dinner by candlelight. It was a nice atmosphere. Cooked bananas are a common recipe here and they taste similar to potatoes. The bananas need to ripe or they taste rotten when you boil them, and you can either boil them in plain water and add tomato paste once they are cooked, or cook them in sauce. I love trying all the food here, so far it has been really healthy!
Yesterday Dane and I went back to the kitchen in Mabatani and I learned a lot about the project and its potential in Arusha. When we arrived, we were once again offered a cup of maziwa mgando virtubisho or probiotic yogurt, which I am slowly coming around to, and sat with Esther in the kitchen chatting about things they are struggling with in Mwanza, such as packaging and selling the yogurt in the market, and ways we can prevent those issues from happening in Arusha. I’ve been in touch with Boniface, the leader of YSEP, the youth self empowerment organization in Arusha, who will be funding the project in there through the Mhando foundation, and he, as well as four others will be making a visit to Mwanza during the first week of June to see how the project is run here. Then, Emily and I can travel back to Arusha with them. Kathryn, Dane, Steph and I are currently going over Steph’s reports before she goes back to Canada and are working on preparing a booklet to give to Boniface and the others when they visit Mwanza, which contains all important documentation, a budget, a list of inventory, steps to making the yogurt and other information essential for launching another community kitchen. I am very excited about the project and am thrilled that everyone seems motivated and anxious to get things running in Arusha.
Later that say we had our first formal Swahili lesson with Mr. Gaudance, which we were able to apply later that evening at Steph’s going away party that we hosted at our apartment with the locals. Though it was difficult, it was fun to try and converse with them, and between the four of us we were often able to understand one another.
I cannot believe I have already been here a week. It has flown by, but we have already learned so much and surprisingly, it already feels like home. That’s all for now! Pictures don't seem to be working today, but I'll try again later.
Baadaye, Kwa heri. (later, bye).

2 comments:

  1. You hate yogurt don't you? haha

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  2. Haha! Used to hate yogurt. Thankfully I've learned to love it :).

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