How to be an African Mama

Electricity has not been easy to come across this week--almost every time I've tried to charge my phone, check my email... no success. So here is what I've occupied myself with this week. 

We got a new shipment of books on Friday that finally arrived from the states--my library helpers loved unpacking the boxes, putting them on the shelves, and... the surprise bag of crayons in the box! They loved coloring pictures and now I have a beautiful assortment of pictures taped to my wall--all addressed to "Madam Jass," "Madam Jasse," and other variations of my name.

I've been making friends with some students at the University of Arusha who are doing their teaching practicums at Meru Peak. We've talked about how our cultures are different and I have completed 2 lessons of "How to be an African Mama." So far I've learned how to cook ugali and fried bananas. Ugali is the food that is the staple of their diet here--it is like a stiff cornmeal/porridge that is the consistency of grits. They eat it with their hands and roll it into balls and eat it with beans. The kids at the school eat ugali and beans every day for lunch and dinner, and they eat porridge for breakfast (which is basically runny ugali.) This means that they eat the same meal every day--except on the special occasion when they have rice instead of ugali. These are always really exciting days, and (rice is "wali" in Swahili) I love watching the cute little kids running around the schoolyard, waving their bowls in the air, dancing and yelling, "Wali! Wali!"

One of my new friends is getting married on July 11th, and I'm going to her wedding! I've been learning about African marriage ceremonies, and they are really interesting--there are three main celebrations. The first is a "send-off" party where friends and family gather to celebrate, there are speeches, a religious blessing, warm exchanges between the two families, and of course, lots of good food. I went to this party, it was nicely decorated with beautiful cakes and balloons everywhere-- it lasted for about 6 hours, and I would explain more of what happened except for the fact that I only understood 1 or 2 words in every sentence. I'm really excited for the next one-- it is called a kitchen party, and it is for only women. It is supposed to be an intimate party (in the kitchen, obviously) and it is where mothers, aunts, friends, and grandmothers gather and give the bride all their secrets on how to be a good and faithful wife! And then, of course, comes the wedding--Esther is so excited and is a busy bride getting ready for her big day.

Yesterday I had lots of business to do in town, and made my way to Arusha early in the morning. You have to plan for a town excursion to take all day, because sometimes the buses come... and sometimes you just have to walk. Yesterday I walked for more than an hour before a dala-dala (a bus) came and picked me up, and then I spent another hour on the bus--there are no stops; whenever they see anyone on the side of the road they pull over and the person hops on until the bus is too crowded to jam any more people onto it. I picked up some supplies for the school and got some good food--I'm finally learning my way around the city and yesterday had lots of time to explore. Last night I came back to the school and sat with all the students to listen (on a portable radio) to Tanzania sadly get defeated by Cameroon in football (I no longer call it soccer.) We commiserated over WALI! and beans and my students took turns showing me how THEY would have saved/blocked/scored a goal and the score might be different.