Short update

1.  If you asked me what I missed most, apart from you all of course, I’d say decent bread and cheese!

The bread in Tanzania is horrible – dry and sweet.  Steve says it’s alright provided you put enough peanut butter on it.  I can barely manage to eat it even toasted.

I have been making flat bread twice a week to have for breakfast, with the fresh avocado and locally grown coffee and pineapple that we buy at the duka, but it just isn’t the same as getting your teeth into a proper hunk of bread.

So, in desperation, I decided to make bread rolls in the frying pan and they have (surprisingly) turned out really well!  I have just eaten one, still warm and spread with vegemite.  They were a bit like the pane de casa from the bakery in Hamilton Central.

Recipe.

Dissolve 1 teaspoon sugar and ½  teaspoon dried yeast in about 200 ml of warm water.  Stir this into enough plain flour to make a stiff dough (about 2 cups)  Remember salt and knead in ½ teaspoon.  Put in the fridge while you go for dinner with other vols at the Yaasila Top Hotel.

Next morning divide the dough into 8 equal lumps.  Knead each a little and form into flattened balls.  Put 4 balls back in the fridge for another day.

Heat a non-stick pan to medium hot.  Put in 4 dough balls and cover pan with lid, turn balls after 15 mins and continue cooking with lid on pan for a further 15 minutes.

Allow to cool then split and spread with vegemite or (when vegemite is all gone) jam.

All I need now is a cow and a recipe for Camembert!

2.  The second seminar went much better!  I was less nervous and slowed down.  I also spent more time on how to teach about fractions so the Tangrams session was better.  The biggest problem I had this time was the weather!  It was pouring with rain and the sky was black when we were due to start.  (I was surprised that all the invited teachers had arrived considering the conditions)  There is no electricity or artificial light in the schools here so it was too dark to see each other let alone the blackboard and between the rain pounding on the roof and the thunder we couldn’t hear each other either.  I can’t imagine how the teachers teach under these conditions – I guess they just wait for it to stop!  We waited and eventually could make a start.  Again, we were all still smiling at the end. (especially as we finished early!)

Teachers from Maruku ward.

And I remembered the bottle opener this time too!

We are off to Uganda this weekend – you’ll hear all about it in the next blog post.

Jenny