Swahili Cuisine!

I wanted to discuss some of the delicious things I eat here in Tanzania, but last time I uploaded photos here they were so large so I won't do it this time. Anyway...today I had pasta with chipsi (or fried potatoes/fries) with cabbage, dinner included rise (wali) with cabbage and meat (ngombe/nyama) and this is pretty much what I get more or less Monday to Friday. Rice, pasta, potatoes, plantains, beans (maharagwe), and cabbage. I was actually more than surprised when there was meat for dinner (chakula cha jioni) tonight. I usually get this no more than once a week. So I am basically a future vegetarian. My first breakfast (chakula cha asubuhi) though was interesting. It was beaf soup (supu ya ngombe) and it was a wee bit too spicy since accidentally forgot that the chills here are quite strong.

However, I have asked people what their favorite food is here and well it is rice, chips, ugali (maize pudding) and chicken (kuku). Surprise surprise! On the other hand they had no idea what MacDonald's was and neither had they tried pizza. We explained the latter as Chapati (kind of like pancakes) with sauce, cheese and meat on it. They were still very confused.

Basically it seems like Tanzanian cuisine is based on a staple of carbs, where ugali, rice and potatoes are cheap and almost everyone here seem to have a plot where they cultivate maize/corn. Some also use cassava or plantains (cooking banana) to add some more carbs. These all go together in different variations. Except rice and ugali which seem to be served together with some sauce.

Of course there are variations to the diet. I like mishikaki which are grilled kebabsticks and there is never a problem finding grilled corn (which I yet haven't tried). There's rarely any problem finding small dough-shaped triangles called samosas which are filled with beef or vegetables for example.

Some people would probably ask what I drink over here and well except for beer (Kilimanjaro, Safari, Serengeti and Ndovu) there is juice (juisi), chai, miwa (sugarcane juice), instant coffee and water (maji) and of course probably the most common drink here - SODA. Even in the remotest areas you'll find a Pepsi, Coke, Fanta, Mountain Dew or Miranda bottles. And they are incredibly cheap mostly.

So if you feel like you'd like to dine some fine Swahili cuisine back in Sweden then don't despair b/c we have a place in central Stockholm called Chakula.

African words in English

Now and then I read articles in different magazines or newspapers discussing the decline of Swedish because of the influx of words from English (usually American words) but words stemming from immigrant languages. I usually disagree to this because language is an ever evolving mechanism and saying that Swedish is declining means you haven't really understood how language works. People have a strong desire to communicate and we will make every effort to understand each other. Just look at how many pidgin and creole languages have formed over the years in African, South-American and the West-Indies. We could look even closer and find that Swedish and English are just a mix of words from all over the world. People travel and trade with each other and language have to change because has to stay functional. Of course you could argue that there might be a higher rate of change today. I don't know, maybe maybe not. However, yesterday we had a discussion on the word 'mumbo jumbo' which could be used in English and Swedish. Interestingly, in Swahili it means something like chaotic problems according to Father Beatus here at the Amani Centre. Of course I had to look it up on Wikipedia, but they rather explained he word as of West-African origin. According to Wikipedia it refers to a masked dancer whose main job is to solve disputes, especially the meaningless ones. Hence, we have a expression called mumbo jumbo referring to something confusing or meaningless in English and Swedish.

This made me wonder if there are other African influences in English and Swedish. So here is a list of words that some of thought were 'real' English/Swedish words.

• banana - West African, possibly Wolof banana
• bogus - Hausa boko-boko meaning fake or fraudulent
• bozo - stupid, West African
• boogie - Wolof or Sierra Leone, to dance
• chimpanzee - The name is derived from a Tshiluba language term "kivili-chimpenze", which is the local name for the animal and translates loosely as "mockman" or possibly just "ape".^[2]
• cola - from West African languages (Temne kola, Mandinka kolo)
• dig, in sense of understand or appreciate - from Wolof dega
• hip - from Wolof hipi and hepicat, one with eyes open
• jazz - from West African languages (Mandinka jasi, Temne yas)
• jive - possibly from Wolof jev
• juke, jukebox - possibly from Wolof and Bambara dzug through Gullah
• merengue (dance) possibly from Fulani mererek i meaning to shake or quiver
• mumbo jumbo- from mandigo name Maamajombo, a masked dancer
• okay - disputed origins, likely influenced by Wolof waw-kay (I like this one)

• dengue - possibly from Swahili dinga
• funk - from kikongo lu-fuki "bad body odor"
• gnu - from Bushman !nu through Khoikhoi i-ngu and Dutch gnoe
• goober - possibly from Bantu (Kikongo and Kimbundu nguba) 
• jumbo - from Swahili (jambo or jumbe or from Kongo nzamba "elephant")
• macaque - from Bantu makaku through Portuguese and French
• safari - from Swahili travel, ultimately from Arabic
• Tilapia - Possibly a latinization "thiape", the Tswana word for fish.
• tsetse - from a Bantu language (Tswana tsetse, Luhya tsiisi)
• zebra - possibly from a language in the Congo
• zombie - Central African (Kikongo zumbi, Kimbundu nzambi
• chachacha possibly from Kimbundu, onomatopoeia for ringing bells or rattles worn around the legs of a female dancers.
• coffee - disputed; either from the Ethiopian region/Kingdom of Kaffa, where coffee originated, or Arabic kahwa 

Albinos in Tanzania

I recently mentioned that I briefly worked with two albino girls at the orphanage in Dar and I was told that these two girls were excelling in school because they were sent to a next door private school. This was to protect them from being kidnapped and sold to local medicine men. I know I have heard about this before so I wanted to check this up a little more.

Apparently the belief is that body parts from albinistic people have magical power. This is a superstition which exists in some parts of East Africa and the witch doctors would use the body parts to make potions. This has lead to the persecution, killings and dismembering of albinos. Tanzania have a very large albino community with over 150.000 members, possibly even the largest in Africa and many seek refuge in Dar es Salaam which is deemed safer. In the past 5 years laws have been created to protect the rights of albinos and President Kikwete even had to publicly condemn the acts committed against albinos. Still over 50 murders took place between March 2007- October 2008. Eventually, in 2009, Tanzania saw the first conviction of three men for murdering and mutilating a 14-yr-old albino boy. However, there are still 52 families still waiting for trials to begin.

Hydrocephalus

Today I went on my first home visit in Morogoro with the physical therapists and his assistant. Do you think we went by car? No way Jose! We went by bike so for all of you doctors back in Sweden and else where never ever complain about tiresome house visits. First girl was sitting outside and shared 3 mud bricks to sit on and she was waiting and chatting with the kids all day until her parents came back from work. Next we went to visit a little girl who was suffering from hydrocephalus or "vattenskalle". It is a pretty big problem here in Tanzania because the children rarely get the opportunity to have a shunt which would lessen the pressure on the skull and the brain tissue. Often these children do not see a doctor until its too late and by then they often suffer from other problems caused by the pressure inside the skull. This girl for example didn't learn to walk until just recently. But she is still wobbling around because many of here muscles aren't strong enough. Forunately, she has made a lot of process just in the past two weeks. The physio hadn't even seen here walk yet. It also means that just getting the help from the Amani center physical therapy department have made this little 3 yr old girl's life so much easier.

Malaria

Yesterday as I was walking I saw a billboard and read out loud. My guide Halida told me it said free mosquito nets for pregnant women and babies. At first I didn't really understand the implications of this but then after talking to a physical therapist at the Amani Center I got the bigger picture. Apparently, Malaria is rarely fatal but it can cause severe neurological damage to a young child. For example epilepsy, cognitive impairment or learning disability and 1 out of 10 children affected by celebral malaria actually suffer from these problems. One reason is that the virus alters the blood flow in the brain causing oxygen deprivation.

He also said that Malaria as well as consequences at childbirth are the two major reasons for the number of disabled children in the Morogoro area. It's a big worrisome since both can be diminished simply by better healthcare. So back to the billboard: handing out free mosquito nets to pregnant women and children not only decreases the the risk of Malaria but also much greater problems in the future.Thumbs up to Mosquito nets for pregnant mothers and small babies!

Watching Tanzanian movies

One interesting glimpse of Tanzanian life.

Yesterday night I realized that TV is some sort of communal activity. There are several TVs turned on outside the shops. People then just drop by and watches for a bit. So what do they watch? Interestingly, politicians debating in the parliament. I could think about a few other more interesting things to watch but every TV showed the same thing. I asked some what they were watching and they weren't really sure. Then again I saw some Tanzanian movies yesterday and I cannot say I was very impressed. However, there was a lot of talk on Tuesday about an actor called Stephen Kanumba, who passed away the past weekend after a barbrawl or at least he hit his head somehow in his own house. Appearenlty, 28.000 followed his funeral in Dar!

Amani Center in Chamvino, Morogoro

On Monday I left Dar and headed east towards Morogoro town. It started fine with a trip to the Ubungo, busstation. Which isn't a place for the weakhearted nor those who have a hard time waiting in the sun. My red Abood bus finally arrived. Upon arrival in Morogoro all the taxidrivers wanted me as their customer and since I had no idea where I was going the first hostel in my Lonely Planet Guide seemed like a good option. I slept like a baby that night

I finally got hold om my contact Lydia on Tuesday morning and we set off to find a place for me to stay and visit the Amani center for disabled children. It just happened that the center had a room for me at 15.000 Tsh/night including 3 meals. Nice deal! I'd like a hostel in Sweden offer me a room for 75kr and breakfast, lunch and dinner. That will never happen!

Unfortunately, when I talked to the director he told me to visit the immigration office and explain what I am doing here, in case they pay the center a visit. This had been a major headache the past two days and probably tomorrow as well. It's spelled B-U-R-E-A-U-C-R-A-C-Y. So still no permit today and I have gone all over town getting all the documents, photos, money, visited the bank, copies of this and that and well the man who was supposed to sign was "busy" and "out of office". Yeah right!

But I'm doing my best to stay calm and cool (sitting in an airconditioned internet cafe helps a lot)

A little more about Morogoro and especially the neighborhood of Chamvino.
When you think about a small village in Africa this is probably what comes to your mind. My nieghbors live in small mudbrick houses with tinroof. There are no paved roads except for a few in town and the road linking Dodoma (the capital) and Dar es Salaam. Chmavino is also one of the most impoverished areas of the city, but they say it is very safe so I feel fine. There is red dust pretty much everywhere and I understand now why there is a lady cleaning the floor in my hostel everyday. Right across the road is the Amani center and it has two branches served both intellectually and physically disabled children. It is also a school and home for some of the children, but also as a community center. It was founded by Mama Bakhita and serve approx. 500 children in the district! Unfortunately, they on donations and this week they haven't had enough money to pay for gas when they are picking they students up at their homes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morogoro

http://amanicenterfordisabled.org/index.html

http://www.amaniecotourism.com/About%20amani.html

Mlimani City

I'm a proud owner of a Tanzanian cellphone!! Yeah! At the fashionable price of 37.000 Tsh = about 160 Swedish. It feels really plastic and cheap but it includes 3 different games, has a color screen and I can add an alarm for praying (!), but I cannot change the ringtone. Magnificent! Other than that I made 'köttfärssås och spagetti' for dinner, visited the orphanage once again. My white t-shirt stayed dry and clean for about 5 minutes. Playing soccer with the boys and letting three girls (one Hiv-positive, one albino and one just in a plain turquoise shirt) sit and my lap and 'fall off'. After that ride my white t-shirt was more brownish than anything else :D

The Little Rascals!

Today included a visit to the help2kids orphanage. 31 kids with/without parents stay there and lets just say today it was chaos :D Since it's easter weekend the kids are not at school and just hang out at the house and they move around like a pack of wolves preying on any grown-up in the vicinity. "Teacher, teacher" they all yelled. It didn't get much better when Bibi, one of the volunteers, brought some bubbles to show the kids. They went nuts chasing the bubbles all around the compound. After awhile they all settled down and turned to my camera. They had a blast taking funny photos and looking at them. They also found iTunes and 'waving flag' was a hit. But for Sunday I have added a couple of Michael Jackson and Shakira songs which they requested.
I've also spent the afternoon buying hardware along the roads of Dar. It a quite amusing task, especially trying to find out where I could buy plastic plugs for drilling. Eventually we made it!

http://www.help2kids.org/orphanage.html

Karibou Sana Gustav

Just stepped on to African soil a few hours ago. Sweat trickling down my temple, back, legs, arms and pretty much everywhere else on my body. Humidity! So far I have done basically nothing, but get a cab to my bed and breakfast. No one was there except for the cleaning lady and the guard so I sat and ruled thumbs for a few hrs until the rest of the house returned. Apparently, it is run by a swiss guy who's also in charge of an orphanage. The rest of the gang consists of a aussie woman, a canadian girl and a young german girl. Just shortly we are heading over to something called "T-square" which is da bomb here (?) or at least you get to soak up some of Africa.

2 hours and counting!

To pack or not to pack! That is the questions.

Not really, I really need to get going at it. Everything is spread all over my apartment. Socks over there, shorts over here, bags, shoes, shirts, medicine, magazines, flip-flops and of course sun lotion. And I've booked a room for the holidays. Apparently it is only 5 minutes from the Indian Ocean. I think I can live with that :D

Here is a sneed preview of my life the coming days...

Flight cancelled!

How about this: my flight to Dar was cancelled on Thursday. So instead of heading off to the airport at this moment I'm sitting here by my computer writing a blog entry. Fortunately, I was able to get a new ticket for Wednesday instead. I'm not struck by travel anxiety just yet, but whatever happens tomorrow is another story.

I think I've fixed more or less everything for the trip right now. Except housing, but I'll figure that out tomorrow. No worries :D

and I have bought a parachute. No, it isn't because I don't trust Ethiopian Airlines. It's a toy parachute!

Cheers!