Shikamoo!
Now only read that if you are
older than me as that is a greeting of respect that you give to someone who is
of a greater age than yourself.
If you respect my honor you can respond
with Marahaba.
Now I don’t know about you but its kind on
an awkward thing when you meet someone and your like ‘ hmm are they older than
me or not’ for example the teaching assistants in our school. So I was pretty
proud of my self for learning a new greeting and wanted to test it out, so I
went up to the lovely Jacquie and Martina and put on my distorted Tanzanian
accent and with a big smile belted out ‘ shikamoo’ after their initial giggling
they informed me that they were in fact 3 years younger than me. I haven’t
shikamooed anyone since.
I think the correct greeting for someone of
a younger age would be Mambo which they would respond poa (my new favorite word
as it is both positive and short thus making it extremely easy to remember)
Mambo – How are you Poa – good
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| Francis |
Each week Francis our Swahili teacher (who
is in fact Kenyan) gives myself and the other teachers a half hour lesson. I’m
not gonna lie its quite nice being able to go back to the student for a little
while, it brings back memories of school and something inside me just wants to
write notes to a cute boy at the back, unfortunately there is no cute boy at
the back just my fellow female teachers.
Francis is a great teacher however I feel
like I still don’t have the basics down. Such as ‘I am hungry’ or ‘where is the
toilet’ (I go so much) or ‘do you sell English tea’ or ‘I am starving.’ Instead
I have learnt Bwana Asifiwe (praise god) Mungu akubariki (God bless you) and Mimi
nimeokoka (I am saved), which are all amazing things to know, but when hungry
and desperate for a wee its not the best help.
That’s got me hungry so lets me tell you
about some of the food.
So if you know me at all you’ll all know
that ‘Holly loves food’ and will eat absolutely anything, with the slight
exception of any foods with gluten. So in England not that big of a deal,
everything that I couldn’t eat such as bread, cakes, biscuits etc. always had a
gluten free alternative. Or an amazing mother and family that could cook me
absolutely anything my tummy desired gluten free. When planning on coming to
Tanzania I did not think it would be a big problem not being able to eat gluten
seen as one their main dishes is rice. I love rice, so it isn’t a problem,
however I have had amazing people coming up with great ideas of western meals I
can have and because there are no gluten free products out here we have had to
become inventive.
It was pizza night and our assigned head
chef Megan was on duty making all the girls pizzas using a normal flour crust.
I would have been happy with rice (okay maybe not) but I was in for a treat. I
had been made my very own cauliflower cheese crust pizza topped with Italian
tomato sauce, cheese and veg and I have got to say it was absolutely delicious.
For once it was my other housemates wanting to eat my food, rather than me
drooling over their floury meals. We all had a try and it was thumbs up from
every one
Other times being gluten free is just darn
right mean, take Saturday for example. We went to a lady called Melindas house,
in which she opens up as a restaurant/tea rooms, it was a special treat for our
friends birthday. So this stunningly breathtaking birthday cake comes out and
for some reason I was sat directly opposite the person whom was slicing the
cake up. I felt I was trapped as which ever way I turned their was cake being
eaten, smelt, spat (when people were trying to talk as well as enjoying their
cake) until the time came when somebody offered me there sparkly chocolate bit
that were ontop of the cake. It didn’t look like much, but made a gluten free
girl very happy indeed.
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| This is my plate compared to my friends plate hehe |
In addition to this day when the lunches were being ordered, I was told the soup was wheat free which was delicious and they swapped my ciabatta bread for a plate of chips. Get in.
