Community... and cooking

Domina is very pregnant-- with twins. When you ask her how many kids she hopes to have, she holds her (very large) belly and laughs, saying "basi! basi!" (enough!). With these two, she'll be up to seven.

Domina invited us to cook last week. We learned the art of making makande, a traditional bean and maize dish that lots of the families we work with claim to eat on a regular basis. I definitely approached this cooking lesson with a western mindset-- thinking, sure, we'll be back in a couple of hours, after we make this. WRONG. Makande takes at minimum 4 hours to cook. It involved lots of chopping, dicing, shredding... much to the amusement of everyone there (especially the kids), I was a highly-inefficient coconut-shredder, who nevertheless insisted on shredding the coconut with no help, and who couldn't lift her arms all the way for the two days following.

By mid-afternoon, a veritable feast had been created. We sat at a table in Domina's one-room apartment, sharing a delicious meal of local foods with the women that had taught us how to cook them, children popping their heads in, requesting more photos to be taken, more candy, and grabbing at handfuls of food until they were finally allowed to eat (after we had all been served).

The cooking lesson was a success, and was, in fact, repeated yesterday with a different family (more women, more children this time), as we learned how to make chapati (which are like tortillas), pilau (rice wity meat and vegetables), cooked bananas, and mishikaki (meat-sticks). We have a standing invitation to make vitumbua (tea cakes) with one of the children's grandmothers next week.

The beginning of cooking lessons happened to coincide with our decision to begin free English classes for the caregivers. Domina, along with Suzana (who cooked with us yesterday) came to both of the two classes we have so far taught. Monday was our first class, and I greeted three students, who by the end of the class asked if our scheduled bi-weekly classes could be tri-weekly. Word must have spread, because upwards of 10 students showed up yesterday (with neighbors and children dropping by as they pleased... some of them staying to copy the notes from the board after class ended). Bahati (our three-year-old avocado-loving neighbor and common lunch guest), was in and out of our outdoor classroom, while Agnes (Suzana's four year-old daughter, whose thick braids are a precursor to the dreadlocks she tells her mother she wants) drew quitely by her mother for two and a half hours. Some of the men who work in the shop next door came by in the end, and this morning, I was greeted with a hearty "how are you?"

A conversation about witch-doctors last week evolved into a discussion about AIDS education in the villages. Luka told me some of the rumors he had heard, like that Westerners were putting AIDS in condoms. In light of our success with the english classes, and our increasing popularity in the community (or, at least our acceptance...) we have been talking about starting informational classes for the caregivers and older children, especially about HIV/AIDS (this is also in light of certain responses to the family needs assessment surveys we completed my first week here). Even though it would be well in the future, Luka and I ave been talking about how great it would be to branch out with these classes into the local, smaller villages in the area (many of these orphaned or abandoned children came from villages, and are now living with family members in the Moshi area).

"WORK" has been happening, too. Gina and Luka have been pouring over Excel spreadsheets every morning, and we are starting to compile and quantify the responses/results from the family needs assessments we completed earlier. But what I find most exciting, most interesting, these days, is the way that this community of caregivers has opened to us, invited us into their homes, shared with us, and responded to us-- whether by coming to English classes, dropping by the office to say hi, or confiding to us about what we can do to really help their families. Not only am I excited about the way I feel like I am bonding with these women, but I'm also excited by the way I see them working together, helping each other, and encouraging each other. Having a "community" among the participating families will make bringing support to them a lot easier, and definitely, a lot more enjoyable.