We organized ourselves by asking all of us, the volunteers, to sign up on which day we would like to be in the daily cooking team. The tasks of the team were preparing breakfast, tea/coffee break, lunch, and dinner, delivering water for people in the construction sites, and cleaning up all the cooking utensils. Every day we had to prepare food for approximately 50 people, except on “Children Day” where we cooked for 300 people. Everyone got his or her turn to be involved in the cooking team, at least two times during the entire workcamp.
Nevertheless, Aunt Teddy and Aunt Kristina (the cooking team from ELU Children Care ‘ECC’ School) were helping us every day, happily and skillfully! Uncle Erasto himself led the shopping for vegetables, fruits, fresh milk, and doughnut (mandazi) in the traditional market. This was mainly because Uncle Erasto knows the sellers who offer the best price. Some of us went with Uncle Erasto to help carry the big amount of vegetables and fruits; and to experience the bustling traditional market in Morogoro. We were always amused with the charming way of Uncle Erasto in bargaining the price!
On normal days, we had bread, mandazi, and fruits (oranges, watermelon, and banana) for breakfast. The cooking team had to wake up earlier to prepare hot water and cut the fruits, at around 7 am or even 6 am when we had excursions in the weekend. Then, between 10-11 am, the sound of “Karibu Chai” called everyone to put down their shovels or to stop their plastering and to come for tea/coffee breaks with mandazi. Chai is a delicious mix of fresh milk, black tea, and sugar. In ECC School, it is a custom for the kids to have chai and mandazi during their break time. “Karibu Chakula” at around 1-2 pm called us to take longer breaks and to enjoy the warm food. Chakula is the Swahili word for food/meal.
The menu for lunch and dinner were traditional Tanzanian: tasty rice (wali); red bean cooked with carrot, tomato, onions, and paprika (maharage); and a variation between eggplants cooked with the same sauce as maharage or “Tanzanian spinach” (to some known as mustard greens). On special evenings, when we had birthdays to celebrate (four birthday celebrations in total), we made special menu such as: Tanzanian pancake (chapati), cooked banana (ndizi), green peas cooked with coconut milk, or pasta.
Of course there were some challenges around the food preparation, things like: salty coffee on the first two days before we decided to buy gallon-water, bread shortage because some mysterious animals decided to crawl on our bread at night time, late dinner time because it took time for us to get used with cooking/warming up with fire, stone, and huge pans; and also some people had stomach problems for a couple of days. But, all in all we managed to go through all those challenges and everyone still remember how much fun they had when they were in the daily cooking team.
We cut buckets of vegetables while sharing stories, learning Kiswahili, and taking pictures. We washed the kitchen utensils and cleaned up the dining area while asking all sorts of questions about different cultures, different life in Tanzania, Kenya, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Brazil, and Indonesia. For example, rituals like: in Europe it is not common to eat rice every day and in Tanzania it is not common to eat warm food only once a day. Aunt Kristina speaks more English than Aunt Teddy, but most of the times, our Swahili speaking friends were there to help with translation.
Most of us agreed that one of the happiest moments while serving in the daily cooking team was when people were sitting on the table; eating the food with their spoon, and saying: Asante for cooking! (Thank you for cooking!)
A typical 'delicious' lunch time during the construction work
Asante Ianthe for the Picture!
*The workcamp was in August 2010, in ELU Children Care School, Morogoro, Tanzania. It was organized jointly by IDEM and Steinschleuder e.V.
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