The Mzungu Factor

This picture is from several years ago, but it could have been taken just about any day here. There is something about being a white person in Tanzania that just kind of draws attention...

I like to go running. Before I moved to the house we're currently in, I'd go running two or three times a week. One issue that I had to struggle with every time I went out was the calls of "Mzungu! Mzungu!" from the kids who lived along my running route. The Swahili word "mzungu" is supposed to mean "foreigner" and comes from the literal meaning of "person who travels around", which is how foreigners end up in Tanzania, so that makes sense. However, "mzungu" really just means "white person", since a non-white person, even if they are a foreigner, is not considered a mzungu. But anyway, I find it rather stressful and annoying to be unable to avoid drawing attention. There are times when I'd really like to just go somewhere without people noticing me. Without a doubt, there have been days when I wanted to go for a walk or jog, but stayed indoors because I didn't have the energy to face being a mzungu in Tanzania. The temptation to turn around and shock the kids by yelling at them in Swahili is always present, I confess. However, self-control wins out almost all the time, and the kids are so delighted by the attention of my snapping at them in Swahili that it's utterly futile to convince them that it's not nice to shout at and chase people.

On Thursday and Friday of this past week, I went out to several Ikizu villages along with the two Ikizu translators. We'd finished translating Luke chapters 3-6 and needed to do some community checking of the chapters with a group of Ikizu speakers. We were quite pleased that whenever we arrived at a village (we went to three total), a nice group of about 25 people showed up to listen to Luke being read and answer the questions we'd prepared. In a couple of the villages, a crowd of schoolchildren also gathered around the adults to listen. As we left our final destination and headed home on Friday afternoon, I asked the translators what they thought of the experience, and if it had been helpful to them or not for me to go along. They both quickly replied that the main benefit of my presence was how quickly so many people gathered. They said, "The last time we went out, we had to wait a long time and walk all around just to find some people willing to take the time to listen and answer questions about Luke, but it's so easy when you come with us! We just show up, they see you, and they show up, curious as to why you are there in their village!" So, the mzungu factor can be a bit annoying, as when I'm in church and need to slip out early and can't, since everyone would turn and stare and watch me leave, but it certainly has it's perks!

I must admit, there have been times when I've benefitted from being mzungu here. One Sunday I went to church, although I felt a bit sick. The service reached the two hour mark and wasn't showing any signs of ending soon, and it was a very hot day. I was so grateful that day that since I was a mzungu, the pastor's wife had insisted that I take one of the few plastic chairs instead of sitting on one of the wooden benches. I survived the service thanks to that extra bit of comfort.

The mzungu factor has it's annoying moments, but yes, there are benefits to being highly noticable, too!

Article about religious survey done in Tanzania

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8621916.stm

This is a fascinating article about a survey of religion in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a fair bit of focus on Tanzania. If you're interested in what the religious climate is like where we live, this is a quick and fact-filled place for you to find some good info.

Lukuba Island

On Wednesday, April 7, there was a national holiday in honor of the president of Zanzibar (the first president of Zanzibar?), and so in order to celebrate our day off, we went to Lukuba Island, along with 19 other coworkers/coworkers spouses/coworkers kids! It was Michelle's seventh trip to Lukuba, and Andrew's first. Lukuba Island is easily visible from our house, so I'd been looking out the window at the lake and dreaming about it for weeks.

We started off with a boat ride that lasted about an hour, and then we arrived at the beach. Although there are people living on the island, the part we went to is privately owned and ran by some international folks as a tourist spot. Since we are Tanzanian residents and were only there for the day, it was just about $15 each, which wasn't bad at all, since it included the boat and a big lunch of curried fish. I think it's usually $150/night/person, though!

Andrew and I went canoeing together, which was a maritally-stretching and enriching experience, as we discovered how to paddle together as a team. The first half of our canoe trip was stretching, and the second half enriching, since we did figure things out at the halfway point. Andrew also kayaked all the way around the island, and I swam for a little while, taking my chances with bilharzia (scary disease found in Lake Victoria).

It was so wonderfully relaxing to leave Musoma for the day. We like Musoma, but having a one-day vacation is sure fabulous, too! We're already planning our next trip.

Men's work, women's work...

Cooking in Musoma

So, how many creative things you make with tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and garlic? It seems that just about every meal I make has these four basic Musoma staples in some combination or other. For salsa, they are chopped finely and seasoned with a little hot pepper, lime, and salt. For stirfry, they are sauteed together. For soup, they get sauteed and then boiled. After a while, everything I make here starts to taste the same!

Since I now have the additional motivation of cooking for someone other than just myself, I'm trying to make a more concerted effort to make appealing meals. Earlier this week I invented a Musoma variation of Thai stirfry, which turned out well enough to make it for guests on Saturday! Spaghetti noodles on the bottom substituted for Thai stirfry noodles. Stirfried green beans, green peppers, carrots, and onions were layered on top of that. Some nice (tough) Musoma beef was stirfried and layered over that (I used scrambled eggs for the guests, which worked well, too). Finally, I whipped up some peanut sauce to top it all off. Peanut butter, lime, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sugar, hot chili sauce, water, coconut milk, vinegar, and a little bit of the one Thai sauce available in Kenya, and voila! Thai Peanut stirfry over noodles, ready to go.

Today I did some Indian-themed cooking for us. My trusty friends, garlic, green pepper, onion, and tomoato, joined up again for some stirfry action. With the addition of lentils (which are different here than in the States), carrots, lime, ginger, salt, and garam masala spice mix, voila! Indian lentil dish ready to spoon over potatoes.

Fortunately, Andrew likes garlic, green pepper, tomatoes (cooked only!), and onion. Carrots and green beans make a good addition most all the time, too. Hey, food here might be limited in variety, but I'm determined to make some interesting meals for us out of them!

Lake Victoria

Musoma Market

Although some people find the busy market intimidating, I love shopping for fruits and vegetables in Musoma! If you like farmers' markets with stands spilling over with produce, you'd enjoy our town market here. It might not rival Costco or Safeway for variety, but I think it holds its own if you're comparing prices. Green peppers at about seven cents apiece? Tomatoes for around 50 cents a pound? A pineapple for just over one dollar? Not bad! However, eggs go for about two dollars a dozen and sugar for 65 cents a pound, so not everything is too different in price from the States. Also, if you want something a bit out of the ordinary (meaning, not locally grown), you're out of luck.

Most stands have the same things, so it can be difficult to decide from whom to buy. There are a few sellers that I tend to frequent, simply because I've gotten to know them a bit. True, the man from whom I buy my cabbages often has better cabbages than others, but really, I just like buying my cabbage from him. He knows I like the smaller, cleaner ones and picks me out a good one. And the man from whom I buy bananas knows I like ones that are still mostly green, and that if he and I don't have the correct change between us to make it come out even, I'll be back next week and we'll even up then.

I also buy cat food at the market. Clive and Betsy eat dried little fish called 'dagaa', which is sold by the pile. I take a Tupperware with me and have the woman selling it scoop the fish right into the container. How the lid seals so tightly mystifies her, I think! But those little fish stink, let me tell you, so I keep it in the freezer in the Tupperware. Dagaa is a staple protein of Tanzanians, since it's pretty inexpensive, even by Tanzanian standards. I am too embarrassed to tell her that I feed the dagaa to cats - the seller probably things I'm just one of the few Americans that actually likes to eat it. However, dagaa is one food here that I just cannot bring myself to enjoy. But it's great cat food.

So, after I load up my basket and bring all of this produce home, the next job is to wash all the fruits and veggies. I scrub them under running water and then lay them out to dry on a towel. However, since the water here is not safe to drink, the vegetables are not safe to eat until they have completely dried. It's really important to wash them well, but almost even more important to dry them well. For things that will be boiled before eating, like green beans, I don't wash those. But the pineapple, mangoes, bananas, passion fruit, and papaya that get put into tropical fruit smoothies have to be scrubbed and dried before I cut them up and blend them into a fabulously refreshing drink. And, after a hot day here, there's nothing like cold, semi-frozen fruit whipped into a smoothie!