Cooking Lessons

Wednesday, June 11th

Since I’ve been here people have asked me a lot of questions that I just don’t know the answers to. Maybe I look smarter than I really am? In any case, here’s a sampling of what I have been asked:

How did Oprah make so much money?
How many floors are in the tallest building in the world?
Is it safe for people on the top floors of skyscrapers to open their windows?
Will Obama choose Hillary to be his vice-president?

After I finished working for the day I went to visit Abdullah’s wife, Fatuma. Abdullah is in South Africa until the end of this month but I couldn’t wait for him to come back to see his wife and new baby girl, Nadia. Nadia is about 7 months old now and she’s sooooo cute! I played with her for a while until Fatuma announced that it was cooking time. Last time I was at her house she taught me how to make ugali, which is a basically a stiff porridge made from maize powder and a staple for many Tanzanian meals. It’s not that hard to make and it fills you up like nothing else.

Today Fatuma wanted to make pilau, which is a really tasty spiced rice dish. It’s much more complicated than making ugali, but it tastes a lot better too! I tried to be as helpful as I could, cutting up tomatoes and onions and being the master stirrer.

Fatuma is such a good teacher. We joked around and said that I was the first student in her new cooking school. I probably didn’t get an A but I got to eat my final project so I was happy!