The Aroma of Africa

---

Dear Readership,
Doesn't that make you feel important? I never have time to reread my blogs, so I always hope I'm not repeating myself. I know I've done blogs on sights & sounds of TZ, but have I done smells? So, inhale this blog and I hope your imagination will make it come alive.
At site one can always smell the cows. They bed about 50' from our livingroom so we can REALLY enjoy them. Otherwise, the cowherd has them grazing on the property. Barefoot and in tattered attire, he is constantly watching them. He has a long, slender stick which he leans back on to rest, as he, too, is a mzee "elder." Or sometimes he uses his stick to encourage good herd behavior. If a member strays, he runs after it. If one goes into the garbage pit, he throws a rock at it. He spends all day with them 24/7 except on Fridays when he takes time off to go to Mosque. His duties include: milking, chopping up fodder (cornstocks, cat tails, etc) into bite size pieces, mucking out the stable, and reassuring the gang that there'll be another meal soon. Our herd consists of 8 now as one yearling died from eating poisonous grass. Lucas picks up fodder from neighbors and apparently that's what happened. They know the sounds of his pickup and start bellowing...which I know is lowing in song, but not in real life.
Next we have the cooking smells. Most homes have outside cookhouses so we can always smell sauting onions as TZ consider them a veggie and they eat them a lot. They are small, red, and potent. Then, there's always the spices. They use a combo called "marsala" which contains the following: cloves, black pepper, garlic, ginger, chilies, corriender seeds, tumeric, star aniseeds, cummin, cardamon, cinnamon, cereal, fennel, salt and colorings. And indeed, it is very aromatic. It comes in both chicken and beef, but those aren't listed as ingredients. An especially tasty dish called "pilau" has these seasonings added to almost burnt onions & garlic and rice. Another aroma is "tangawezi" or ginger. They put it in their chai with warm milk. The national dish "ulgali" has no order or taste, but goes well with everything.
Enough, all this is making us hungry and being in Lushoto we get to go out to lunch. This is a real treat for us...rice, beans, and a choice of meat, chicken, or fish.
To date we have received 1400 plus books for the Mtumbi Secondary School library project and we are thrilled beyond belief. Thank you all so much for helping us make this happen. Family coming! D&W

---