Celebrating Last Year's NECTA Results

At the end of last year, form two scored very well on their national exams--38 division I and 2 division II!  The results don't come out until January, usually, so celebrating takes place after they've already started form 3.  It turned out tonight was the night!  For students who eat in the school dining hall three meals a day, a home-cooked meal is a special treat.  The students decided they wanted to cook themselves, so the school provided the ingredients and they got to work.

It took a lot longer than they thought it would to cook so much food--it was well after eight before they finally ate.  But they enjoyed their meal!  They made rice, fried potatoes, cabbage slaw, and a tomato-sauce-based goat stew that is popular here, to be eaten over rice. 

Congratulations to the students for their good scores! 

 

Chinese Food for Valentine's Day!

On Monday night, I left work a bit early to go to Arusha with Beth and Tizo. I really needed groceries, and due to other stuff going on throughout the week it didn't look likely that there would be another chance.  While in town, we were supposed to meet some friends of Tizo for dinner at an Indian restaurant, but it turned out that the friends couldn't make it and the Indian restaurant wasn't open.  So, instead, we went to a Chinese restaurant that they like to go to for special occasions, since it was Valentine's Day.  I hadn't been to it, and I love Chinese food, so it was a fun outing.   

Emmy was so cute that day with her hair in puff balls!  She's getting so big! 

Below: sizzling chicken!  One of the things that I don't like about life in Monduli is the limited restaurants in a small town; the few we have are only Tanzanian food.  Previous to this, I've lived in big cities for all of my adult life, and even Columbia has quite a variety (Mexican, Chinese, Italian, etc.), so I miss having a variety of places nearby.  Arusha has quite a few options, so I really enjoy it when I get to try a new place there! 

Italian Night at My House

While the Shorts moved back to the US earlier this year, Lewis is still involved in the work here.  He'll be working on the fundraising side of things in the US (if you or your church would like to support the work of the school here, get in touch!) as well as making periodic trips back here to help out with the school management.  He had intended to return earlier in the year, but due to the school being closed for covid and flights not coming into Tanzania until July, he wasn't able to come until August 6th.  He will stay until just after graduation, on September 12th.  

While he was here, we decided to have a get-together of us North Americans.  I volunteered to host, so Beth and her family and the Williams from Monduli Juu came over.  We had an Italian food night: I made lasagne, spaghetti with cream sauce with chicken and peppers, and pasta al pesto.  Beth brought garlic bread and a cake and the Williams brought a big salad, so we ate well.  

Beth brought a cake for dessert because her husband, Tizo, had his 40th birthday that week.  He didn't want a big to-do, but this seemed a good opportunity to at least have a cake and sing happy birthday.  The kids entertained themselves after dinner with some of the playing cards I had, and the adults got involved.  Twyla and Jackson had quite a spirited game of War.  Lewis and Emmy didn't seem to have such an organized game; it seemed to mostly be making a mess (I found cards under the couch cushions months later).  

It was also a good opportunity to go through the very last of the things the Shorts had left behind and send most of it home with Ralph and Twyla to give out to people from the church up on the mountain or to be repurposed in some way (old mosquito nets can be used as netting to keep the birds off of something or other they're growing). 

 

Spring Rolls!

Beth is the best! She made spring rolls today, and she made enough to send a boda boda (motorcycle taxi; usually they are for having them take you somewhere, but you can also get them to run some errands) over to me with some!  They were wonderful and made a great dinner. :) :) :) 

 

A Day in the Life

Another day in the library... I know my blog posts during this time probably get a bit boring, but with school being closed and travel not advised, I'm usually just at home or working in the library, which doesn't change too much day to day without students around.  I'm making a lot of progress emptying boxes that have been waiting for time to be organized and preparing lessons for students to study at home. 

I do see a few of my students who live locally, and a few come up to the school now and then to pick up work or study in the library a bit if I'm there to have it open.  Paulo walked out to the school today and studied for a while. He's one who is working hard not to fall behind during this time, but he doesn't have a computer or smart phone to be able to receive a lot of the stuff we're sending out, so I've been printing as much as I can for him. 

I ended the day at the Allisons' house (on campus); they invited Ralph and Twyla and me over for dinner.  It was nice to spend some time together and have a nice meal! We sang together for a bit after we ate, too; we all enjoy fellowship in our own language and singing songs that we like. 

Sunday Morning in Monduli Juu

On this particular Sunday, I decided to go up to visit the church in the village on top of the mountain, the Monduli Juu church.  As we're just ending rainy season, everything is still so green and flowers are blooming everywhere.  A former student, Wilson, wanted to go with me, so we drove up together.  

We arrived just in time for the break between class and the service, so we had time to greet people before heading in.  Several of the students from Wilson's graduating class last year are members there, so he went of to sit with them and catch up.  Ralph and Twyla Williams, some Canadian missionaries we're all good friends with, worship there, and due to coronavirus Twyla has become the Hand-Washing Guard, standing beside the bucket and soap set up by the door and making sure everyone stops to wash their hands properly before going inside. 

I enjoyed being there; the Monduli Juu church is always friendly and I like spending time with the people there.  It was nice to be able to get back up there; I haven't visited in a while due to not wanting to drive the steep mountain road in the heavy rains of rainy season, but now that we've had over a week of sunny weather it was a great time to go up.

After church, Ralph and Twyla invited me (and Wilson, since he was with me) back to their house for lunch.  Sunday is their leftover day so as to have a quick meal after church, but we lucked out--they had leftover fajita meat!  It was nice to share a meal with them and admire their verdant garden before heading back down the mountain.

Look how well their rhubarb plants are growing! 

Road-tripping to Moshi

Well, today I went on a little road trip to Moshi (three hours' drive one way) with a car full of Tanzanian friends.  We all had some business there, and so we carpooled.  Moshi is a nice city; I've visited there a couple of times before.  It's the city closest to Kilimanjaro, right at its foot, really, but it was too cloudy to get any good views of the mountain today.  

We had a couple of stops for car issues: getting gas, checking the oil and adding more, fixing a puncture in a tire, etc.  Such is life on the roads here.  Fortunately, all the issues were easily fixed and didn't slow us down much at all.

  

We stopped for lunch at friendly-looking place on the edge of Moshi.  Here's another good look at typical Tanzanian food for you--the guys shared a platter of roast goat meat along with ugali.  I was really craving chapati (kind of like thick, fried tortillas), so I ordered some to eat with roast chicken and pilipili (handmade hot sauce).  Add coca-cola all around, and it's a great meal!  Also something nice about Tanzania--a good lunch for five cost about $15. 

Above: Beth and I had added air to the tire several times, but it kept going flat again.  Albert stopped at Lake Oil to have them fix the puncture once and for all. 

Driving back into Monduli, we realized we had just missed a major downpour.  We had very little rain on us on our trip, but dark clouds were just leaving Monduli and the ditched were full to overflowing.  Just outside of Monduli we came across a place where water was flowing over the road; the car got doused with quite a wave of muddy water as we passed through it.  

I was keeping the car (I have a lockable gate, so I've been keeping the Shorts' car that they haven't sold yet until Lewis is able to return to sell it), so we made the rounds of Monduli dropping everyone off.  It had just gotten dark by the time Jackson (who lives somewhere nearish) and I reached my neighborhood.  I was afraid my road would be a complete mess after the heavy rain, especially as they just did major work to move the road over several feet and straighten it out just a few days ago.  When we got there, a gravel truck was dumping a new load of rocky dirt onto the new road, and several guys were out shoveling it out on the road as it began to drizzle again.  The old road is still there just to the right of the new road; we tried driving along it so as not to disturb those working, but it quickly became so deep with mud that we backed out of it. I was going to turn around and go park the car at Beth's and walk home from there, but Jackson insisted that we could make it through as soon as they finished shoveling, and jumped out to help shovel.  Sure enough, after a few minutes the pile of rocks and dirt was smoothed enough that I made it through with the car.  

I think it might need washed, though.  

Green Curry!

In my adult life, I've lived mostly in large cities: Milan, Wuhan, Nashville... I love being able to eat all sorts of international foods and be around a mix of cultures.  Monduli is quite different.  If I want to eat out, there's chicken and french fries or chips mayai (basically a french fry omelet).  That's really about it as far as options.  There's a bit more in Arusha (Chinese, Indian, Greek, pizza), but not everything, and I don't get the chance to eat out there much anyhow.  I don't mind cooking, but I do miss easily having a wider variety.  So, I've been trying out some new recipes. 

One of the foods I particularly miss is Thai food, which is not available even in Arusha.  However, I found that curry pastes are available!  I bought green curry paste (a mix of all the spices) and coconut milk, and made some pretty good green curry!  It's not really all that green looking, but it tastes good.  I put chicken, mushrooms, broccoli, and bell peppers in it this time and ate it with rice.  Green curry is one of my comfort foods, so I'm really excited that I can now make it at home! 

Gravy and Biscuits

Every now and then, it's good to get a taste of home.  I don't make gravy and biscuits too often because I really don't need to carbs, and bacon is pretty expensive here.  I had a quiet, chilly September Saturday night, though, so I made some.  It didn't turn out as good as I'd hoped; my bacon wasn't fatty enough to really give enough grease so the gravy was a bit bland.  Still, it was nice to have a truly southern meal!

In the biscuits above, you can see the one I pinched to try the raw dough.  Whenever my mother and I were every baking biscuits, we'd always pinch a bite of the salty dough.  Do any of you do that?

You can see a bit of my kitchen here.  I have a built-in range on the counter, but it's not hooked up to gas.  I also have the freestanding stove, and I really didn't need both just for one person.  The freestanding one has an electric oven, one electric burner, and three gas burners, and is hooked up to a small gas cannister that I can lift myself.  The built-in one would be hooked to a large outdoor gas can about three times the size of the one you can see.  So, I chose the freestanding one to have the oven and because I can call a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) to go pick up a new gas canister for me, while the big one would require a car and two people to move it. 

We have a Pizza Hut!

Look what we have now! A Pizza Hut! We've been seeing the 'coming soon' billboards for months now, and they actually built it reasonably fast, in the corner of the parking lot of the big grocery store we usually go to (so it's even convenient!) As far as I know, it's the only American chain restaurant we have in Arusha; as unbelievable as it may seem, we don't even have a McDonald's or a KFC. 

Honestly, we do have good local pizza restaurants, so it's not really that life-changing, but it is convenient and fast.  Also, Beth and Michela will kill me if they ever see that I posted that picture of them, so don't tell them. ;) 

The veggie supreme pizza (my first pick is almost always veggie pizza) comes with corn on it, which is a weird thing that happens outside the US, but I got them to leave it off, thankfully.  I've eaten plenty of pizza with corn on it when I lived in China, and while it's not terrible, it adds a bit of a weird crunch that I can do without.  Also, here they often supply a couple of packets of ketchup with your pizza.  We have yet to figure out why.  I really hope we never find out why, actually.

Enchilada Night!

As I have mentioned several times before in this blog, I moved into a new apartment in the middle of March.  I gave myself a few weeks to settle in and decorate before celebrating by hosting the crowd of Americans/Canadians here in Monduli for dinner and a time of singing.  We had a pretty good crowd--the Shorts, including Lewis's parents who are visiting, Beth and her family, Fielden and Janet Allison (who work at the school with us), and Ralph and Twyla Williams who live up in Monduli Juu.

Both Lewis and Tammy and Tizo and Beth came with extra folding chairs and folding tables since I don't have any dining room chairs yet, but I do have plenty of couch space.  I made chicken enchiladas as well as had the ingredients out for chicken tacos if anyone preferred.  Chicken enchiladas are one of my favorite things to make for a party, especially outside the US where we don't get Mexican food as much as we'd like.  Everything went pretty well; the only major mishap was when a glass casserole dish broke in the oven and we lost a couple of enchiladas just in case they had glass in them.  Fortunately, I also have a metal pan and had borrowed a second from Michela, so I was still able to have plenty of enchiladas ready when everyone arrived.  

It was nice to spend some time together over a meal, and I also enjoyed singing together after.  I enjoy hosting dinner parties; I hope I get the chance again sometime soon. 

Of course, the youngest and cutest are always at the center of attention. :)

Leaving Lamu

After a few days in Lamu, it was time to head back to Nairobi for the Intermission Retreat.  It's only a little more than a couple of hours to fly, so I landed in Nairobi by 1:45 in the afternoon.  I took one of the small motorboats back across the channel to the airport.  Since it's hot weather around here nearly year-round, the airport waiting room is open air.  It would have been nice to have a bit of air conditioning, but at least there's shade.  

 In the photo above, you can see Lamu along the coast of the island across the channel. The water was a beautiful color as we flew down the coast, although the pictures aren't great as the plane window was quite smudged.

Inland, it's dusty and dry.

Once I landed back at Nairobi Wilson airport, I had a while to wait because I had planned for someone from the Monduli crowd to pick me up as they passed the airport on their way up, as they were all driving up that day.  It was a bit stressful at first because I couldn't get my phone to work, even though I'd bought a roaming bundle that should have allowed me to use whatsapp in Kenya.  I couldn't get a Kenyan sim card because all the official sim card sellers are only allowed to sell sim cards to people with Kenyan IDs.  I'm sure it's possible somewhere to get a sim card without said ID, but the places at the airport follow the law.  Finally someone told me that there was a Java House restaurant down by the private jet area that has good wifi.  That was a wonderful move--the food was great, the wifi was strong, and they didn't mind at all that I stayed for six hours since they weren't too busy.  I splurged on the crazy sundae below.  My waiter was really nice; they close at nine except for a side part for private functions, but he offered to let me stay anyhow rather than sending me outside at night.  Fortunately, I had been in contact with the Monduli crowd and Ralph and Twyla Williams had agreed to stop and get me, and they would be arriving soon, so I headed back down by the airport entrance to meet them.  It was pretty late by the time we arrived, after 11 pm.  Tomorrow Intermission begins!

Dinner at Hapa Hapa

I know, I know, pictures of someone else's food is boring.  But I'm sharing it anyway; it was that good.  Every meal I had in Lamu was good.  Food in East Africa tends to be quite simple, and at least in Tanzania, not heavily spiced.  Along the coast, though, there has been a lot of influence from India and the Middle East.  Tonight I had roast chicken and chapati (like thick, soft, fried tortillas) with a yellow curry sauce.  The restaurant, Hapa Hapa (Here Here) was small, and I was the only customer (though it isn't really tourist season, and I was eating a bit late), but the food was wonderful.  I may have to come back tomorrow for more.  (Edit: I did, in fact, go back and have more the next night.) 

Pizza at George's

Here in Tanzania, I rarely eat out, because there's not much to buy out here in Monduli unless you want roast chicken with french fries.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but there's only so often I want that. While Monduli is only has a few small family-run restaurants, Arusha has a wide variety, so we sometimes take the chance to have a meal out while we're running errands in the city.  Today we went to George's, which is a Greek/Pizza place that our friend Anna (a missionary in Kisongo, a town between us and Arusha) really loves.  While the pizza is pretty good, I think I prefer Bravo's at the mall.  They have a nice, shady outdoor dining area, though, and some swings for children.  

Isn't she adorable?

A Roof Full of Bananas

The big market in Monduli is held on Thursdays and Sundays, so Thursdays are usually when the school shopping is done.  Babadeo (Albert) stocks up on whatever fruits or vegetables are needed, including several big bunches of still-green bananas, which he loads up on the roof of the Landrover.  Bananas are grown all around here, so we eat them a lot.  The students often have banana porridge for a meal during the weekend.