Hamna Shida

Mambo Mambo. SO this past weekend was the first stay with our host families. My roomate and I left friday evening and arrived in time to help prepare for dinner. Our house was in a small villiage (kijiji) in Usa River. Our family consist of a Mama Elly, Baba Simon, Jonas, and Simon. Also there was Paulina who is a friends daughter, she is living with the family now and helps Mama Elly do work around the house. Every day is filled with alot of work and there was a lot of emphasis on the preparations and cooking of foods- something that i love because i looove to eat! So before we went to our home, we met our mama and i had the chance to explain to her that i do not eat meat, she was really cool about it and the whole weekend had plenty of vegetarian meals.
One of my favorite things that we did on Friday night was make juice. A neighbor came over and with fresh fruit, a strainer, a grater, and some sugar, she made some of the best juice i have ever had- something that i want to try once i get back to the states! A typical meal consisted of cooked rice, beans, cabbage, spinach, avocados, and bananas, and chapati (my fav.) plus some. After the weekend was done i thought i was going to explode because she kept feeding us so much food! I found out later that alot of the other people host families made them eat large amounts of food too. I also learned how to make ugali which is a staple dish that consists of water and corn flour mixed together to form what looks like mashed potatoes.
On Saturday my roomate, Jonas, Paulina, and I went to go see our Baba play at a bar in town. He is a musician and also a music teacher. He plays the drums and sings, it was very cool to watch him perform. I even got up and danced with an old guy. Later when i told this story to some people in Swahili i messed up my words. I was talking about my weekend and said I danced for the old man when i meant to say i danced with the old man, one of the guys in the program called me out on it later- Oops! I think they know what i meant.. or at least i hope.
Anyway, this weekend we get to go to the capital, Dar es Salaam! i am so excited because the word it we are staying at a nice, small, Indian hotel that has an amazing restaurant. This should be a blast.
Hamna Shida (no problems!)