It's all about FOOD!

Life here seems to revolve around food. Sourcing it, preparing it, eating it.

Locating it is the first hurdle. Without the supermarkets that we're used to in the UK and America just being able to get hold of the ingredients can be quite the adventure. Last week my neighbour came rushing round to say someone was standing in a butchers in Arusha (in the north of the country) right at that moment, a couple of hours flight away and did I want anything as there is so much more available there. He is one of the MAF pilots who lives there and was going to buy it and send it down on a plane the same day!

Preparing it is another story. Absolutely everything has be prepared from scratch. Literally. From sifting the stones out of your rice before washing and cooking it. To blanching your tomatoes to use in homemade pasta sauce. To chopping up a slab of Cadbury's Dairy Milk into little bits to use as chocolate chips. To boiling your milk and then cooling it before you can use it, as it comes straight from the cow! 

There really are several extra steps to every ingredient in every recipe and you have to be that much more prepared before every meal. It's like turning back the clock in many ways, how things once were before all the conveniences of processed food etc. The difference being we now know about the processed/pre-packaged/prepared options but can't access them!

So it is not unusual for my brain to just be processing what is needed for the next meal ... and the next few days meals too!

Dodoma is a great town but to be honest there really isn't all that much to actually do. Preparing food can not only be seen as time consuming but also as a family activity ... creating and experimenting with different things together and having lots of fun in the process. See Abigail below, styling her little sister's birthday present while Naomi was busy snoozing! Today we tried dairy free coconut macaroons (for a guest tonight) but had a little bit of fun, dying one half of the mixture pink and the other half blue!

Socially life revolves around food too. With nothing much to do apart from hanging out with people over a meal ... we have already found ourselves sitting around our table with new friends much more than we would usually (and that's without all our belongings arriving!). There is never a rush to go and do anything else as there isn't anything else to do. It's something I really enjoy about life here!

The life we live, food wise, is in contrast to that of many locals. With no electricity and no proper storage for food, they literally live from day to day. Buying what they need for the next meal, cooking it, eating and starting over again. I'm grateful for the conveniences that we have so that I don't have to run into town before every meal.

So, you see ... whichever way you look at it, it really is all about the food!

Missing the Milestones

We've been here almost 3 months now. That's a quarter of a year!

In that time there have been many significant life events happening for friends and family. Parents of good friends of mine have died, there have been weddings, births and literally everything in between. And we've missed it all!

In fact just this last weekend, one of my cousins got married, another went wedding dress shopping for next year, my best friend throughout school announced she was expecting her fourth baby and another good friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl!

Life goes on at home when you leave it all behind. I use the term 'home' loosely because our family and friends are literally spread out over the world. There is absolutely no way had we been in the UK (our real home country) that we would have been able to be part of all these events anyway as most were spread out enough across the world that it would have been impossible. Being so far removed from everything out here can sometimes feel like we're missing out though. 

The reality is, that our family are also achieving all the different milestones here while we're away too. Naomi was born in the States, Abigail started school in Tanzania, to name just two. Those closest to us are missing out on our lives as much as we're missing out on theirs.

The internet has helped us to keep in touch and up-to-date a lot more than the first time I lived here. I didn't even have a email address of my own in those days. Now we're sharing photos backwards and forwards, just minutes after they are taken (like the one of me and my girlies above!). Or talking face-to-face via Skype, something I introduced Maria (our house help) to the other day ... she couldn't believe it was possible!

Missing the milestones is one sacrifice of the missionary lifestyle, that you don't always consider when you're preparing for a life overseas but thanks to modern technology we are no longer so far removed from everything ... or waiting anything from 2 weeks to 2 months or longer for news to arrive via snail mail. Missing out hasn't been something that has adversely affected any of us so far and we're 4 years into our MAF/mission experience as a family and counting, so that's definitely something to be grateful for. 

Congratulations to everyone who has been celebrating exciting stuff recently ... we're definitely there in spirit, if not in person!

Brunch

This is the second week in a row that we've had a Bank Holiday here in Tanzania. Last week it was Friday, so we got a long, 3 day weekend and this week it is today, Wednesday.

We thought it would be fun to have a full English Breakfast style brunch (who doesn't like to indulge in one of those from time to time!) and invite a few of the teachers from Abigail's school to celebrate having the day off. It was lots of fun, the food was delicious and it was a lovely opportunity to get to know some of the teaching staff at CAMS (2 Brits, 2 Aussies).

When I lived here in Dodoma as a teacher, I really appreciated my friends at MAF. Whether it be just to escape to the other side of town away from the teachers compound and everything school related, to be in a 'real' home for a few hours (MAF staff tend to have more home comforts as they move out here for longer periods of time) or whether is was to eat some yummy food that as a teacher I couldn't always afford ... those MAF families that opened their home to me and my fellow teachers were always extra special and most are still friends of mine over a decade later!

As soon as we knew that we were coming back to Dodoma as a family, all those months ago, I told my hubby that looking out for the teachers would be one way that we could support the staff, most of whom are single and far from family in America, UK, Australia, New Zealand and other places. Having been on the receiving end of such hospitality and understanding the huge significance of it, it was always going to be a priority for me now that I'm in the position with my family to offer it. 

We had been holding out a little, in the hope that our container would arrive and we could make the house more 'homey' before we started inviting people but a few weeks ago we made the decision that waiting was pointless, we might just as well get on with it. 

It's already been fun to properly invite people round and if we have to borrow chairs, dishes and frying pans from our neighbours in order to do it, that's just the way it will have to be for the time being!