Standard 7 Graduation Cooking preparations

The Standard 7 lunch adventure or how to cook for 200 people with no advance preparation!

First, build 8 fires with cement blocks in a triangle around each fire.
Second, find 8 ginourmous pots and put on the fires.
Third, recruit all of the volunteers to grate carrots, slice tomatoes and cucumbers, slice and dice cabbage and so on and so on until it is finished. Thank god the goat was dead before he arrived! (long story from another trip)

Fourth, assemble all of the food on a very narrow walkway outside of the rec hall so there is no possible space to serve the food to the guests.
Fifth have two volunteers (one named Tracie) pop open sodas as they walk by. The following is what I personally repeated at least 150 times.

Tracie “Shikamo”
Guest “Maharaba”
Tracie “Gani Soda?”
Guest “Nini?”
Tracie “Gani Soda”
Guest “Fanta, hapana…Coke, hapana, Fanta” Asante
Tracie Kariboo!

Translation:
Tracie “Shikamo” - I give you my respect
Guest “Maharaba” I accept your respect
Tracie “Gani Soda?” Which soda?
Guest “Nini?” What?
Tracie “Gani Soda” Which soda? ( I assume this repeat was because of my sucky Kiswahili)
Guest “Fanta, hapana…Coke, hapana, Fanta” Asante Fanta, no Coke, no fanta, thanks!
Tracie Kariboo! You are welcome


Needless to say, not the most efficient system in the world, however everyone is pleased we are so polite and friendly and even though my Kiswahili is horrible and has a Texan accent!

Seriously, the event went off and the food was great and was actually hot and best of all no one received a hernia from carrying the 50 kilos of beans in one pot that is boiling hot to the table.

And so sets another day at the Rift Valley Childrens village.

Standard 7 Graduation

The parents seating area

Well, I knew it would happen eventually…my event planning skills were put to use the other day for the Standard 7 graduation. It was as far as I can tell a typical Tanzanian event, which means nothing is typical or planned in advance! All of the children from Gyetighi Primary School

I spent the day prior to the graduation setting up our rec hall. The school had organized committees for everything, however no one had any plans. They changed the menu for 200 people the day before the event! Of course we had to cook everything on site, so just trying to find a space where we could put 8 huge fires and pots was a challenge in and of itself. We had a great diagram of the rec hall and how the flow would work etc… of course those all went out the window too, however somehow we pulled it off and it turned out great. The only hiccup if you could call it that was the morning of the graduation, they moved the ceremony up three hours, but didn’t feel the need to tell us! As I say all of the time….OH WELL! The show must go on...



Our Education Director Andi Trotter (right) and Holly who is a long term volunteer teacher

at the school

The kids who graduated have 4 months now until secondary school starts. All of the other children go to school everyday until the end of November when school is out for the year. They get 6 weeks off and then the new school year will start in January.

The Uhuru Torch has arrived!

Every year a torch called the Uhuru Torch or freedom torch is lit on Mt. Kilimanjaro and then carried across the country by runners to celebrate the country’s independence.

In 1961 the Uhuru Torch was placed at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro and founder President Julius Nyerere said that the torch was a sign of hope and peace from the highest point in Africa. Nyerere wrote about the philosophy and significance of the Uhuru Torch: We would like to light a torch and place it on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, so that it shines beyond our borders, and brings about hope where there is despair, love where there is enmity and respect where there is hatred.

The Uhuru Torch is used by the Tanzania government to honor those who have made significant contributions to their communities. It is a 129 day torch race which began on May 31 in
Morogoro and goes to selected sites. The Uhuru Torch arrived at the Children’s
Village on September 28, 2009 A host of officials were on hand to dedicate our latest building and newest house Rubondo, and publicly confirm their support and gratitude for our work.

It was a great honor and a wild time. The guards of the torch take their jobs very seriously and the rumor around the village was that if anyone blew the torch out you would go to jail for a very long time. I have no idea if that is actually true, however the fact that so many believe it, is pretty scary :)

Pole!

Lemomo, Mica, Gabriella and Ellibaracka forming a choo choo train

Playing with the kids

Mama Tracie and Emmanuelle

(not very flattering of me, but isnt he cute??)

Pole (pronounced POLE A and the A is long) is a word utilized frequently here in Tanzania. It means sorry, however people say it frequently as a greeting if you are working…such as when I walk by a mama who is cooking on her Jiko or washing clothes I will say “Pole!” they then respond with “Asante, Pole na wewe” meaning sorry for your work, and the response is thanks, sorry for your work. I say the word pole probably 30 to 40 times a day. It acknowledges the staff members hard work and makes them feel good (hopefully!) On the other hand, if a child falls down or is sick you also say “pole”, which of course is the more traditional meaning of sorry.

So for all of the wonderful followers of my blog all I can say is POLE!! I have been so busy and tired and everything else in between I have been horribly remiss in my correspondence and especially with my blog postings. I am leaving RVCV for the weekend to go take some much needed R&R, however I promise when I return to post several of my recent experiences.

Until then, I leave you with a few of my most recent and favorite pictures…