“I don’t understand – I speak English…” Swahili anyone..??

Habari za dijoni! (good evening!)  Living with a local family is brilliant for learning so much including the language although, maybe because of my age (no need to remind me of what my age is) we are still struggling!!  Especially Jason, at least I grasp a few basic words but with his memory…ah! lol

Our Morogoro family are wonderful, Mama and 5 children, 3 kaka’s (brothers) and 2 dada’s (sisters). The 1^st, 2^nd oldest and the youngest speak good English, so we are getting by but meal times are interesting..!

The Family (starting on the right) Mama in pink, Bernadino (youngest son), Josephina (oldest in yellow), me and Jay, then Bonnie (2nd oldest in pink shirt) then Beatrice (2nd youngest) then Beateus (black hat in the middle 3rd oldest) with baby Maggie on his lap ( Joesphina's baby)

Speaking of which, Jason and me are getting to grips with the local cuisine, proper! Ugali is the staple food of East Africa and is made of water and maize flour, which is like dough that you eat with your hands, rolling it into a ball in the palm of your hand before adding meat and veg into it. You eat Ugali with practically, anything and everything!

Helping with dinner, grinding up the spices!

The family eat together (and boy can they can eat!) and dinner is served quite late (9pm-ish) they basically eat from bowls, which they serve everything into, for eg; one evening we had rice, soup, fish, banana, peas and carrots and you had to put it ALL into the bowl and eat it at the same time! – took some getting used to but all’s good. Followed by fruit for dessert.

Our family are of the Chagga tribe and although the tribe are based in Moshi, at the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro our family relocated to Morogoro as the cost of living here is more reasonable. Compared to Dar it is much nicer, as the pace of life is slower and not so rushed. Not to mention it is surrounded by the Morogoro mountains which makes for a beautiful setting.

The beautiful Morogoro Mountains

A lot of the Chagga customs here in Morogoro are not practised as much as in Moshi and as with most traditions and the passing time, they are being used less frequent. For instance one custom NOT practised widely is after a relative dies, 5/6 years later the family would dig up the skeleton and place it in the home - to keep them close by! Where another custom STILL practised in Moshi is at a celebration, a goat is killed and a soup made, which is eaten in a bowl where rice is added and the blood of the goat….still hungry hmm?!

Oh and listen to this…an old tradition several years ago and has nothing to do with the Chagga people but of some tribes in certain villages. The palm of my hand contains a strong ‘M’ pattern which is seen as very lucky so if someone was to see this, the villagers would literally CUT MY HAND OFF TO KEEP OR SELL!!!!! So I was told if someone asks to see my hand to say ‘no’. And, and it gets better….Jason having a bald head…LOL, is ALSO seen as lucky, so in certain villages they would CUT HIS HEAD OFF and once again either keep it in their home or sell….just on the safe side I think we’ll stay away from villages and keep to towns...very big towns!

My new baby, being carried traditonal stylee!



Finally, my head is shaded from the hot sun!



 

 

Our family’s home is very large and was built by their father who was a well respected Prison Warden (he has since passed away). It has running water, which they sell to locals, which this business sees a constant flow of visitors to the courtyard throughout the day. Most of their time however is spent outside, on the veranda or in their courtyard where they cook (on small coal burning stoves) and wash clothes or just hang out in the shade.   

Jason and his new brothers and sisters!