Day six: easy as pie

Turns out it’s a lot like Canada here... only hotter. Once again we enjoyed a lovely dinner today while watching BBC, soccer and music videos. The Sekikus have a TV and get cable from a wealthy nearby family. The TV comes in on a satellite and the family distributes it, at a cost, to the rest of the community. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Speaking of food, I have some wonderful things to say about Tanzania "chakula" - Swahili for food. Mama Elliot prepares three meals each day. Staple for breakfast is white bread, coffee or tea, margarine, home grown honey, and today a special treat of eggs! Staple for lunch is cabbage, spaghetti, beef or goat meat, beans, and sometimes pineapple (oh how I love pineapple!!). Staple for dinner is spaghetti or rice, cabbage or peas, and a goat meat. The meals usually have one or two dishes which contain sauce and a white starch. The sauce found on the meat or sometimes cabbage, is very flavourful, salty and not too spicy. Each meal in itself is a delight.

That said, I do have some unreasonable complaints about my diet - I've developed a disturbing longing for meat and a craving for variety. We have goat or cow at most lunches or dinner, but there isn't much and I feel bad for taking more. Oh well, life goes on. I also fear that the lack of variety will get to me. "Staple, staple, staple" is no exaggeration - truly these are the only foods we've eaten since arriving (plus peanuts, bananas, oranges, soda, and some exotic new beers... okay I lied). True enough, this doesn't really seem like a problem with so many foods, but I fear as the weeks roll on I will slowly go insane. I have my overly varied eating habits to thank for this. I guess this serves to remind me of the abundance of choice we have in Canada - especially with food! Complain all you want, but most of us have it pretty good - Chinese, Italian, idiom, Vietnamese, Japanese, American, Canadian.... so many foods to choose from.

Today was a day of rest. Yes it was Sunday, but we also had very little work to do. We filled the time doing laundry - by hand!... shocking but true! Even with a machine, I have a hard time doing laundry, so you can imagine the difficulty. I started off on my own, using liquid soap and a technique of my own invention. After 10 minutes I obviously wasn't getting anywhere, and needed expert help. John, the ever helpful second-in-command at FADECO, showed me how to make some serious suds and to scrub vigorously using the palm of my hands (think wash board).

After the day's chores, Jane, John, Daniel, and I all went for a pleasant afternoon walk. Once again I am surprised by the hills of Karagwe (and all of Tanzania I am told). Looking in every direction you see lush rolling hills covered with shrubs and scattered houses. Truly there is more green here than I ever imagined. Joseph and John say that the hills are bare compared long ago, before the clear-cutting began. These days, erosion is a serious problem which FADECO's agro-forestry program is targeting. During our walk I tried twice to make purchases. First from a bar where my inquiry was greeted with a long blank stare and then at a roadside stand with a small smile. Asking "bia gani?" means "Which beers?", asking "bei gani?" means "how much?". You can imagine my difficulty.

Apparently I am becoming a football (soccer) fan, because everyday during and after dinner we see a match. Today after a dinner of rice, peas, and beef (okay, it was really good!), we watched Manchester united play South Hampton. I'm told it was very exciting...!

That's all for now… keep it real.
-Steve

PS. Check out the cool pictures below!