Familia Malakela Try Speghetti

July 27, 2008

It's official- I have the best host family ever. Today was great! This morning I cleaned my room and did a ton of laundry. Then my mama got dressed up and told me we were going to town and two of my favorite people, my sister, Bahati, who holds my hand everywhere I go, and my neighbor, Anna, came with us. I should probably talk a bit more about both of them. Bahati is my best friend since I joined the PC. She is a precocious eight year old, with big brown eyes and a smile that would melt your heart. She has taught me more Kiswahili than any other person and always puts me in my place when I pronounce things incorrectly. She sings, dances and talks to me nonstop. She is very affectionate. My neighbor, Anna, is 20. She ate with us the first night I has here and I thought she was my sister. The first night was so hard on me when my family didn't speak any english. Anna showed up like an angel, she is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen and is pretty good at her english. Her life is so different than mine- however, I have formed a great friendship with her.

Anyways, the four of us went to the tailor, who was none other than, Baba Michael. He promptly measured me for an African dress that will be made out of the fabric my baba had given me. A custom made dress for less than $6- unreal. I am so excited to have it on Jumatano (Wednesday). Next, the four of us headed to the salon for my mama to have her hair styled. All of the women there had to touch and talk about my hair. I played with Bahati, while my mama's hair was washed and braided. I wanted to stop here and talk a bit about collectivist cultures- they are so different than ours. At the salon a woman came in to have her hair done but the hairdresser was already busy on my mama. So Anna got up and washed this woman's hair. I tried to picture someone being this generous in America- just seeing that someone needed help and helping without pay or anything in return and it was hard for me to imagine.

We walked home and then as planned my family wanted me to cook them "dinner Marekani"- this is very difficult to do in a country that doesn't really have American food. All I could picture was McDonalds. . . But I decided to make Speghetti, because noodles are available although very expensive. I was very nervous they would not like it as Tanzanians are sort of stuck in their ways with food. I have never cooked for 15 people alone before. I made the sauce from scratch and cooked it all over our charcoal stove. As I cooked Bahati and Rasheedy were jumping up and down with excitement and chanting "Brie, Anapika! Anapika, Brie!" (Brie is Cooking) You would have thought it was Christmas. I got out the pepper in the grinder from Trader Joes that my mama marekani got me and added it to the sauce. There was a lot of excited talking among all of the mamas watching at that point. They all wanted to inspect this grinder. And this is why I love my family: All fourteen of these Tanzanians sat down with huge helpings and told me it was the best food they had ever eaten. They ohhhed and ahhhed over every bite. All of my two year old brothers covered themselves with sauce and best of all my baba took thirds. There was even enough to bring some to my neighbors- It was a big village pasta feed! I love them so much and am fearful of this new transition where I have to leave another family.