The Universe is smiling today – just as I poured my coffee
and sat down to eat the banana and passionfruit pikelets I’d made before having
my (hot) shower, the power went off. If it had gone off half an hour earlier I
would not be smiling!
I love cooking. Here
in Arusha currently that’s quite a challenge. The power is off for at least a
part of every day and I have electricity as my only option for cooking –
conventional stove and microwave – and hot water. I cook when I have power but
occasionally I’m left with half a batch of pikelet batter (banana &
passionfruit, peanut butter & raisin, mango. …) or a cake a bit fudgy from
finishing its cooking in a rapidly cooling oven. Last Thursday evening I had bananas that
needed to be used or pitched so I risked fate and made a banana cake. Topped
with passionfruit icing it went down well with all the staff at morning tea-time
on Friday. It’s good to finish a long week with a positive experience.
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| Maasai don't just eat meat |
Living on my own simplifies the electricity / cooking issue.
If I have electricity when I arrive home from work I prepare dinner straight
away and eat early. If there is no power and it’s still off at 7 o’clock I have
a cheese sandwich, making sure I’m quick opening and shutting the fridge, and
go to bed with my Kindle. If I’ve had dinner and then the power goes off I
watch ‘television’ by candlelight on my MacBook. I leave everything plugged in and ready for
when the power comes back so computer, modem and kindle are all fully
charged. Luckily I don’t have the
problem of power surges here that were such a problem in Bukoba. Last Sunday I woke to no power – so a cold
shower and down to “Complex”, the local shopping centre that has generators,
for coffee. Mornings when the water is also off are a greater problem – luckily
a much rarer event. When you live on your own you have the freedom to choose
if, when and what to eat – not so simple if you have a family who need proper
sustenance at regular and predictable intervals. Also the unreliability of the
power and having Complex close means I can pick up a takeaway curry and naan
bread on the way home from work “just in case” and eat it as soon as I’m in the
door or punt on the power staying on and reheat it for later. Then my only
problem is doing the dishes – can’t boil the jug for hot water – if the power
goes out, so really “hamna shida”.
The new ‘vertical garden’ at work has also had “food”
issues. We planted the first seeds just over a week ago. As a lesson in biology
it has been a success but not otherwise.
We mixed builders soil with chicken manure and leaves to make what we
hoped would be “good soil”. We put it in the gutters, sowed some lettuce
seed and watered well. Two days later we had a crop of an unexpected kind.
Centimetre long, grey wriggling larvae by the thousands covered the top of the
soil.
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| Wadudu |
Steve suspects they may be beetle larvae. The mlinzi (guard) called them wadudu, which
is a general term for insects, and said they would have eaten the seeds we
sowed. It’s true that we’ve had zero germination but the seed did have a use-by
of 2012 so that’s not conclusive. The mlinzi
also suggested wood ash mixed in the soil would kill the wadudu so we’ll try
that next with fresher seed. We haven’t watered the soil since the larvae
plague so now we have hordes of ants in the gutters carting away dead
larvae. It has all been quite
entertaining but we won't have lettuce to eat anytime soon!
I’m counting down now until I leave – 4 fortnights to
go! I have two weeks until the Easter
break – then 4 nights at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro. Two more weeks then until
the term break followed by two weeks with my sister and cousin in the closest
National Parks. After that there are two
weeks back at work before I fly to Namibia for a few weeks holiday with
Steve. It’s all gone so quickly! Watch
for a further report soon.
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