Tanzanian Days

Monday, September 14, 2009 7:24pm

The first thing I have taught to my village (somewhat inadvertently) is how to make brownies. Even today, the day after my lesson, children and adults are repeating to each other the ingredients and proportions of this wondrous Merikani (American) food.

I initially intended to bake brownies (my first try at baking in Tanzania) for the graduation party for the daughter of the nurse who has been so much help to me these past weeks. I had been trying to explain to her about brownies, but the best I could get is chocolate cake which she sortof understood. They don’t have dessert here. The day before the party she asked if I could cook them at her house – because I haven’t managed to buy charcoal yet, and so she could watch.

When they have parties here people all bring over food, dishes, pots, and firewood and women all come to help cook. So when I came to bake my brownies I had quite the audience, and the children of course come to see whatever I might be doing as well. I am so glad that they turned out well, since I was using a recipe out of the PC cookbook and changing it a bit because ingredients like butter just can’t be found around here.

In case you’re wondering, the ingredients are:
9 spoons of blueband (a horrendous margarine I have come to love)
(melt in pan before adding the rest of the ingredients)
1 ½ teacups sugar
9 spoons unsweetened cocoa powder
½ lidfull vanilla extract (they didn’t know what this was but I did
buy it in Same, artificial, but you take what you can get)
2 eggs
¾ teacup flour
tiny pinch of salt if you feel like it but the blueband already has plenty

Make an oven out of a big pot by putting 2 flat stones on the bottom. Put the smaller pot in and make sure that it doesn’t stick out of the top (there should be room between the top of the inside pan and the top of the outside) put a lid on it and put it on the charcoal.

Wait impatiently with everyone watching and peeking under the lid until finished (about 45min to 1 ½ hours) I made 2 batches the first one took forever. . .

The brownies where quite the hit, and the party was pretty amazing. It was asked that I photograph Aziza and her daughter and sister and brother and then since the camera was out I took a number of other pictures as well so hopefully you’ll get to see those sometime.

In the morning, there was a party at the Catholic church as well, for christening and it was asked that I take some pictures there too. The place was beautiful and the singing was amazing. It was packed full of people and I was uncomfortable taking pictures so I don’t know that they turned out well.

I would like to apologize to the people who I wrote letters during the last few weeks, and you will know who you are when you receive them. As promised, the first weeks at site where very difficult for me, but now I feel that I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, I love my village so much and I have so many projects to do that I hope will really be able to change the lives of the people who live here.

This past week has been the turning point for me. I was in meetings every single day as well as a few the last days of the week before. The first meetings were strenuous and frustrating. I would arrive and wait, very patiently, for the rest of the people to come. As promised, meetings usually start an hour or longer after the proposed meeting time. It made no difference to me because people would be talking before the meeting, and I would not understand the conversation. Then the meeting would begin, and people would be talking even faster usually, passionately discussing things of importance, but again, I would not understand a thing going on. A meeting scheduled to begin at 10am would usually get out around 430 or 5pm. No break for food, or anything for that matter. I took to writing down the words that I heard repeated that I didn’t know, then looking them up. Still, the gist of the conversation was usually lost on me.

Sometimes someone would be so bold as to ask me why I was not contributing to the conversation, and over time I answered this question with more evident frustration, as I thought it was quite apparent that I had no clue what was being said.

Tuesday, after one such meeting, I was approached by a young teacher who started speaking to me in English (asking me the dreaded question as to why I had no contributed to the conversation) The meeting that we had just finished was the government and school officials discussing what would happen during the meeting with the parents at the school the following day.

So, Wednesday, at the parents meeting, I insisted on sitting next to the teacher who had promised to help translate. I had to be pretty pushy, as everyone thought I should sit in the place of importance between two very important gov’t officials, but I had had enough frustration, and already missed so much important information.

After that meeting, my eyes where opened to so many things in the village. I was able to discuss many things with the teacher, and it seemed suddenly people understood that I could not understand them, and when possible they would call over someone who knew English (they’ve been hiding – I didn’t know they were here!) and suddenly the communication barrier was all but gone.

With the aid of communication, I have been piling on ideas for projects (and inadvertently expectations from the villagers for immediate action) and all the sudden I feel empowered to get things done. I also feel connected to these people. I have begun to make friends, even despite the communication barrier, find comfort in seeing certain people everyday.

There is this myth that during training we heard over and over again. From our teachers and staff a little, but mostly from current volunteers. They said we’d be bored a lot. That we’d have so much time on our hands we wouldn’t know what to do with it. Now, they might be big fans of PB&J for every meal, or maybe they have villages with fewer needs than mine, but I don’t ever have a second to breath from waking (usually around 430am, as the rooster crows) to sleep (somewhere between 830 and 930pm) I feel bad because for the past week and a half I haven’t studied Swahili (accept ‘in the field’) at all. I haven’t had time. At all. Even this past weekend when I was in my banking town (fri-sat) I spent all of Friday in meetings with different NGO’s and gov’t officials.

That said, I am exhausted. Tomorrow promises to be a long day as there is another meeting. This time though, I already know someone will be coming to help translate for me.

Also I will have someone (and hopefully not every important gov’t official as I am afraid will be the case) come look at my choo, as it does not drain. Which is quite awkward as I am the only one who uses it and thus must take responsibility for all that has. . . piled up.

And with that I will say, good night, Usiku mwema.