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.