Birthday, Graduation, Thanksgiving
[Photos: 1) Megan and I celebrating our birthdays-both 11/22 babies; 2) Jackie and the giant tortoise at Arusha School; 3) Teacher graduates entering the ceremony with a song and dance; 4) Thanksgiving dinner at the New Arusha Hotel-Me, Jackie, and Heather enjoying our turkey, mashed taters, and wine (we talked the server into 'all you can drink wine')]
I have many favorite foods but at the top of the list are Thai and Indian cuisines. In Arusha, I’ve had no luck finding Thai, but Indian food is plentiful here. Last weekend, I started my birthday weekend celebration with a dinner at Big Bite with a few new contacts from my old stomping ground. Thanks to Lizz, the ever-networking-wonder that she is, I have new UMN friends who are doing their medical residency here at the Lutheran Hospital. So over a meal of mutton korma and naan we talked about Minneapolis and Arusha.
Since I share my birthday with another gal here, we decided we’d treat ourselves to a nice dinner on Saturday night before going out for the night. We went to a nice restaurant owned by an Australian and ate steak with blue cheese! Afterwards we all went across the road to a local favorite, Shooters, for some karaoke. Together Megan and I celebrated 62 years! It was a fun night, despite the fact that I was quite exhausted on Sunday for my real birthday. However, my roommates wouldn’t allow me to have an easy day and insisted I continue the birthday celebration until midnight Sunday night.
After an eventful birthday weekend, I jumped into the work week by making arrangements for the arrival of the Books for Africa shipment. Things move quite slowly here in terms of work pace, and as the holiday season approaches things are slowing to a snail’s pace! Its becoming more and more difficult to make appointments with necessary officials and plans continuously are cancelled. But I expect that everything will still manage to get accomplished.
The middle of the work week was marked by attending a graduation ceremony for a teacher training program. The program/preschool Jackie works at also hosts a teacher training program. About 35 or so teachers completed the course and are now certified as teachers with a specialty for early childhood education. Ceremonies in Africa are of a different breed. The decorations are always reminiscent of prom circa 1988, there is always a skit or dramatization involved, the ceremony lasts for hours! and the food served always involves an intestine or two. Despite not understanding a word of the ceremony, the celebration is always enjoyable.
Many of the graduates were women in their 40s and above and the joy and pride on the faces of their husbands and families was very touching. For me the highlight of the graduation was seeing the giant tortoise in the courtyard that lives at the school. Who has an actual tortoise as their mascot? I must admit it puts the LaPorte Slicers’ mascot to shame.
I often get emails asking about things and foods that I eat here or foods that I can’t get…Even though I’m a million miles away, this Thursday I still was able to eat my turkey and mashed potatoes! My American roommate and another new American girl went to a nice hotel in town for a special dinner. For 35,000 Tanzanian shillings (~$25) we had a full Thanksgiving meal complete with a mini pumpkin pie and champagne!
Throughout the whole week I watched two friends’ 10wk old puppy. For those who know me and my stance on having children, this week has confirmed my belief. I should not be responsible for any children for more than a few hours at a time. I like dogs (and children), but I don’t like having to constantly take care of it, clean up after it, watch it to make sure it doesn’t eat something on the floor, and then be woken up to make it breakfast before I’m ready to get up! Not to mention, I didn’t just pour dog food out of a bag into a bowl. I had to make a special porridge from water and flour with fresh fish or meat. Ugh! Even though its a really cute German Sheppard puppy, but I was so happy when the friends returned and took the puppy home. And their payment for my services was a spice boat from Zanzibar! Now I have saffron, red and yellow curries as well as fresh tea!
No comments:
Post a Comment