My name is....

When I moved here I was told that my name would be Kristina. Swahili speakers have trouble pronouncing words that end in consonants. Usually they will just add an 'i' to the end of the word. My friend Ben became Beni. Robert is Roberti. I guess they decided that Kristeni was a weird name so they changed my name instead of adding an i. My first day of class I introduced myself and my teacher, Chuma, interrupted and made me start over using Kristina. After class I had to explain to the other American students that I really did know my name and that he was correcting me so that the teachers would know what to call me! Overall it was an easy adjustment to answering to Kristina. Maybe all the years of answering to the name Kerry helped! The biggest adjustment came when people started calling me Tina. For weeks I wouldn't even turn around. I tried explaining that Tina was so different from Kristen that it sounded like they were talking to someone else. Overall I've resisted answering to Tina because I prefer my own name. Yesterday I was in the common room with my friend Emma, who works at the language school. She was in a different part and called Tina. I responded immediately...

Cooking....sort of!

Since the end of language school I've been trying to cook most of my meals in the common room. There is a really old stove/oven that sits on a table for me to use. No one is really sure whether or not the oven temperature is accurate. I haven't really tried to cook or bake anything in the oven yet, mainly because I don't have any baking pans. Cooking so far has been a unique experience. I started out fairly simple and was excited to find a can of tuna at Pira's. The next day I went for lunch and realized that I hadn't bought the can with the pull tab to open it. I don't have a can open and haven't successfully found one in town yet. So the can is still sitting in my cabinet. About a week after that I excited went to town to buy supplies to make my own flavored coffee creamer (it is one of the things I miss most!). I returned from shopping and began looking for something to mix the creamer in, which led me to my second problem. I didn't have any storage containers or jars. I found a jar of pickles in the fridge a former student had left behind. I gave the pickles to Linda and cleaned the jar out and began the process of mixing the creamer....that's right, the condensed milk also needed a can opener. In a mix of Swahili and English I tried to explain the problem to my friend Omega. He responded that he needed a knife. Since he was speaking Swahili I thought maybe I'd somehow misunderstood the basic word and questioned him. He followed me to 'my' kitchen, took a knife and opened the can. While I don't recommend using a knife for every day use, it definetly works in a pinch! Another daily challenge has been the lack of pot holders. So far I haven't found any in Morogoro. I use scrub pads to carefully move pots on and off the stove.
Going to the market brought it's own set of challenges. I had to try and learn the names of spices and foods not covered in class to really be able to cook. I'm still trying to get some of the sellers to recognize and remember that I've shopped with them before so I can get the real local price and not the inflated foreigner price. Sue and I are planning to go to the market together one day so I can see who she purchases her fruits and veggies from. I took a Tanzanian friend with me the first time. I ended up finding yummy honey home packaged in an empty Konyagi (liquor) bottle. He also tried to explain the difference between local and 'European' eggs. Basically as best as I can tell the local eggs are smaller and almost double the price...which I found out later. The local chickens are generally have less meat and are tougher than the 'European' ones for sale. Friends have given advice on which stores to shop in and what food to purchase. I'm greatful for any assistance.
I love cooking and have been experimenting with things. Allison and I decided to cook Indian together one night and invited Omega to eat with us. It was a lot of fun but was difficult trying to various pots of food on a 2 burner stove. Linda helped me make naan, which turned out well considered we were guessing on all the measurements since I don't have measuring cups or spoons yet. As we were cooking Allson and I kept getting shocked. We couldn't figure out what was happening since I had never had that problem before. Thankfully Linda came part way through and told us to put our shoes on. Apparently shoes would keep us grounded and prevent us from getting a jolt every time we stirred! One picture shows the messy stove after we finished cooking. The other shows the pile of dishes we had afterwards.

Traveling

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Since my language class ended I've had the opportunity to take two trips with friends. I went to the beach in Dar es Salaam for one night with my friend Anne. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing while we were at Kipepeo (it means butterfly). Unfortunately it took about 6 hours to get back from the beach so we weren't as rested when we arrived back in Morogoro! To get home we walked, rode a bajaji, ferry, taxi and bus...it was a loooong trip. Then the first weekend in July Omega and I traveled to Arusha to visit friends. That was also a long trip. It took 9 hours by bus, but thankfully the roads were in fairly good condition for most of the trip. We had the 'luxury' of one 10 minute stop about half way through to use the toilet and/or get food. I was really nervous about missing the bus because the lines were so long, but we made it on time both ways. While in Arusha I was able to see Mt. Kilimanjaro briefly through the car window in the distance. One day I hope to make it a little closer and get some pictures.

random photos

medical team

blessing ceremony

A few weeks ago I went to a blessing ceremony for the Maasai. My friend Jacob was one of the coordinators of the event and he really wanted Josh and I to participate since we both work with the Lutheran church in Morogoro. Thankfully the event was held in Morogoro region. It was about a 2 hour drive from Morogoro town, where we live. The first hour was on paved roads and passed quickly. The second hour was more of an adventure as we traveled on dirt roads that at times resembled a footpath running through the brush! The event was sort of like a reunion and took place over a number of days. We went on the last day for the ceremony. It was really neat. Hundreds of people were there. They all waited for a chance to sit in rows of chairs and have pastors and Bishop Mameo pass over them saying a blessing. Everyone was invited to be involved. Josh and I went along with Allison, a student at the language school, and Patrick, one of our teachers. After the ceremony there was singing, dancing and a large number of people got baptized.