out of there

me and anniken are out of mamas! its so weird, but so far its sooo fun. our last day of school was on wednesday and it was so cute. the kids all wore their sunday bests and played all day. we were then treated to a feast of biscuits (plain bland cookies), fanta, corn flakes and some stale popcorn. it was wonderful. since it was the end of the school year, the kids who preformed exceptionally well got presents (paper and a pencil) before going home. im so proud of the kids! their english has improved even since we arrived and it is so great to see them so confident in what they are saying. i swear tho, this one girl, Zamzam, she didn't say a single word  for the entire month, wore a head scarf and would never finish her work. on wednesday, she had braids in her hair, a bright pink dress with floral piping and more attitude than i would have ever imagined. i think just the idea of school really scares the shit out of some of these kids. it was so nice to see so much confidence.

anyway, it was sad to say goodbye to mama. she has been so good to us and more than generous in so many ways. on our last night there, she gave anniken and i kongas, patterned wraps that women here wear either around their waist or on their heads, with "where the is love, god is near" written in swahili. she was so sad to see us go, she really loves having people around her so she says that she is always sad to see anyone go. but after leaving, anniken and i checked into a 7 dollar a night hostel in downtown arusha. sounds much worse than it is. our room is massive. much bigger than our one at mama's and we have our own bathroom and a great mosquito net! it is incredible! we have a view of mt meru out on of the windows if you lean and a balcony! for 7 bucks! africa, man! unreal. its also got a great roof terrace and if you climb up a really sketchy ladder you can get to the very top of the roof and have a 360 degree view of arusha... but also all the lies beyond. it is incredible. we went up and watched the sunset with a bunch of other american that are staying there and then danced the night away at a local bar nearby. not too shabby. anniken, an adorable 19 yr old norwegian girl who was also at mamas with me, arrived on the same day as me and is leaving on the same flight as me, is my traveling bud/ accomplice for the next week until my real mama comes!!! yay!!! im so excited! mama needs to ride in a daladala. itd be too funny. hopefully its full of goats or chickens or maasai or a communal baby is being passed around. ill miss the dalas. 

african foods: the good, the bad and the fried

my african mama is making me fat. i swear. the portion sizes she serves up are not only massive but fried mostly. its delicious, do not get me wrong, but how does one go about telling a very generous african woman and proud cook that you just cannot eat all that she makes. if you know me, you know that i am not shy about my food intake and love food (including the majority of african dishes now added to the list) however i am thinking that for the life of me i would love it if i didn't have to eat something fried for just one day of being in tanzania. legitimately i eat something fried for almost every meal of every day and my body does not want that. i dont want that. its good but i just dont eat fried food that much. also mama keeps coming into the kitchen when we are eating and telling us we must not like her cooking and that she must be a bad cook due to our birdlike intake of her cooking. it is delicious but to eat the portions mama eats herself would be undesirable to say the least. it would probably be easier to deal with if we didn't have to eat FOUR meals a day, but because we are volunteers people want to show us that we are appreciated and give something to us. for example at school the teachers give us two massive fried dough balls roughly the size of my fists or bigger which we have no choice but to eat both and all of it because otherwise it is essentially a slap in the face to the teachers, the cooking and the school. it is the same principle with mama as to why we cant eat smaller portions. its a huge dilemma in the house and none of us know what to do: not eat as much and have mama be actually angry at us or eat it all and feel nasty...? bah! #whitegirlproblems