Mexican Feast

We love Mexican food (if you haven't figured that out already from previous posts)! And we love cooking it for other people.

Today, I had the opportunity to cook a big Mexican lunch for our Burunge colleagues here in Dodoma. The team has just finished their consultant check of Genesis 25-50, so Paul and I decided it would be fun to thank everyone for their hard work by hosting a taco feast.

I served soft tacos, Spanish rice, refried beans, guacamole, salsa, and chips.

For several of our friends, this was their first time to eat Mexican food. And they loved it! One of the men even asked me if I'd teach his wife how to make food like this.

Here are a few pictures:

Mexican buffet

Lukas trying out the refried beans

Pastor Emmanuel

A full stomach for everyone!

Mama Ruthi

Our family is beyond blessed to employ a wonderful house helper, Mama Ruthi. Mama Ruthi works in our home several mornings a week helping me with cleaning, cooking, and a bit of child care.To some, it may seem strange that a mostly stay-at-home mom would need a house helper. Well, no, I probably don't need to employ her, but as Westerners living in Tanzania, the community would see us as "selfish" and "stingy" if we didn't employ someone in our home.

By employing one or more house helpers (some expats have a staff of 2 or more, especially if they have large homes or work full-time), we are helping women feed and clothe their families, get better medical care, and save for retirement. So, while I am capable of caring for a home on my own (and rather enjoy it), I am very happy to be investing in the lives of a wonderful Tanzanian family.

And it must be said that Mama Ruthi makes amazing bread, granola, tortillas, yogurt, and much more. She's a great cook. And we all adore her.

A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to visit Mama Ruthi and her family in their home. We enjoyed meeting her children and husband, and she served us one of her delicious meals. After lunch, I got the camera out to take some pictures, and her boys had a ball taking lots of pictures of their own. (Digital cameras are the best!)

Here are a few pictures from our visit:

Mama Ruthi showing Josiah how to grill fresh maize.

Mama Ruthi served us ndizi (plantains), cabbage, and coconut rice. We enjoyed this meal so much that we now have her cook this for us once a week. :)

Baba Ruthi (Mama Ruthi's husband) eating his meal. Baba Ruthi works for a mining company and is away from home often. We were happy that he was at home this particular weekend, so we were able to meet him.

Mama Ruthi's niece. It is common for Tanzanians to take in their relatives' children, especially if they live in a town with better schools or job opportunities (like Dodoma).

Ruthi (Mama Ruthi's eldest child) playing with Anna.

David
Peter

The boys had fun posing on our Land Cruiser.
They also enjoyed taking pictures of themselves with our camera.
Me and the kids with the whole family.

Visiting can be a lot of fun!

A New Addition

Our family hasn't owned a dog since Josiah was a baby. We moved to seminary housing in 2005 and were no longer able to keep our spunky little chihuahua, Amiga. It was sad to have to give her up. (Paul and I got Amiga just a week after we were married.) Thankfully, though, Paul's parents were willing to adopt her, so we still get to see her every time we visit them in Arizona.

For a quite a while now, our kids have been asking to have a pet. We considered getting a guinea pig while we were doing our linguistics training in Dallas, but we figured it would be better just to wait on the pet thing until we came to Tanzania. So, that's what we kept telling our kids: "We'll get a dog in Tanzania."

Now, our kids can stop asking.

Yesterday we adopted Chica, a 9-month old (or so) mixed-breed from an expat who is leaving Tanzania. The dog hasn't had much human contact for the past 5 months (her owners were on furlough and she was being looked after by guards who didn't give her much attention), so she's still fairly shy and scared. We're hoping, though, that she'll come out of her shell more as she gets used to us.

Even this afternoon, she was wagging her tail and playing a little bit with Josiah and Anna and the other children on our compound.

It will be nice to have a pet again.

Easter Break

Has it REALLY been over a month since I updated the blog? Wow!

I always have grand aspirations of blogging regularly, but for some reason those aspirations never seem come to fruition.

This time, I'm going to blame my lack of updating on the fact that my computer died a few weeks ago. (Thankfully, a kind soul agreed to hand-carry a new one on their recent trip to Tanzania, which is why I'm now able to bring you this blog post). I've also been keeping busy entertaining both kids while Josiah has been on a 2-week Easter break from school.

Here are a few highlights from the break:

A mini-safari to Ruaha National Park - We joined some friends on a day trip to the park (which some say is best game reserve in Tanzania) and were able to see lots of giraffes, elephants, zebras, impalas, and other animals. Unfortunately, the lions - everyone's top choice on their Animals I Want To See Today list - evaded us that day.


A lip injury - Josiah punctured his bottom lip with his teeth when he fell on our slippery concrete floor after a bath. Thankfully, we were able to use super glue to treat the injury. Getting stitches just wasn't an option for us here in Dodoma.


Many art projects created - It's a good thing spring break is over because our sticker, paint, and coloring book stash was disappearing rapidly.


Many books read - We've read the books we brought with us from home over and over and OVER again, so when we inherited a new stack of American books from another expat's moving sale, my kids were in heaven. Mommy is a little hoarse.


Many hours logged outside on the swing, in the hammock, and in the dirt - I'm so grateful to live in the land of eternal summer.


School resumes tomorrow, and although it's been a fine two weeks, all of us are ready to return to a somewhat normal schedule.

Wedding Invitation

On Saturday, Paul and I are going to a wedding in a Burunge village. The sister of our co-worker, Magdalena, is getting married, and we were invited.

Wedding invitations work a little differently here in Tanzania than they do in the United States. If you receive one and plan to attend, along with your reply, you are expected to give a donation. For this particular wedding, the invitation states that a couple should donate 15,000 shillings (approx. $11 US) and a single person should donate 10,000 shillings (approx. $7 US).

Unlike weddings in the United States, the bride's family does not pay for the event. After the wedding cost is determined by the families involved, it is the couples responsibility to raise the funds, hence the donations. Family, friends, acquaintances, and even friends of friends (which is us in this case) might all receive invitations.

I'm looking forward to the wedding, but I'm also a little nervous too. It will likely be a full day of speaking Swahili, which still isn't the easiest thing for me, especially when I'm feeling nervous and unsure of myself. Also, I might be separated from my safety net (a.k.a. Paul) for much of the day. In Tanzania, and especially in village settings, men and women are often seated separately and participate in different portions of the event. It will probably be one of those times when I have to push myself out there and try while doing my best not to worry about messing up.

On the other hand, I'm excited because this will be my first opportunity to see a Burunge village and it will be my first time to attend a wedding in this culture. It will be interesting to learn more about how these events work. I'm also looking forward to hearing Burunge spoken by a larger audience.

I'll let you know how it goes.

------------------------
Update: Well, I can't let you know how the wedding went, because at the end of the week, Paul hurt his neck and Josiah had a virus, so we were unable to go. We were disappointed to miss out on the experience, but surely another opportunity will arise in the future.

Taco Night

Last week, a bunch of our colleagues were in Dodoma for a Literacy and Scripture Use conference. Two of our friends, Ellen and Jo, stayed with us for the week, and we had a lovely time catching up and hanging out.

Oh, and we cooked for them. Both Paul and I love entertaining, so the first night everyone arrived we had a taco feast with Jo, Ellen, and the McCall family. I made 24 flour tortillas, guacamole, salsa, and the rest of the taco fixings. We even had a decent sour cream substitute - thick, plain yogurt that we can buy at one of the local shops, the same shop where we found real yellow cheddar last week! [We were so excited about that one!] The food was delish, if I can say so myself, and the fellowship was even better.

Good fun!

A Little Mud on the Tires

What do you do when it's been raining all weekend, you're a little bored, and you live in a country where dirt roads are plentiful? Well, you get into your big, rough, tough Land Cruiser and you drive through huge puddles of mud with your buddies seeing who can make the biggest splash.

Paul won.


Then, he got to give the car a bath so we could drive a cleaner vehicle to church this morning.


Boys will be boys.