saying goodbye to a good friend

Hey everyone!

Life has been pretty chaotic lately, but I found some time to sit down and write another post. Last week, on April 25^th, my school hosted a retirement party for my mkuu (headmistress). She has been retired for a few months now, but after her nephew passed away from AIDS, she needed a little time, so we postponed the celebration a bit.  Anneth Hawanga was the first person I met from Maria Nyerere Girl’s Secondary School and she took me into her family. I was over for dinner often, she helped take care of me when I was sick, and helped me find resources and navigate my way around my village and Njombe town, so this celebration was bittersweet for me.

I decided to bake Madame Hawanga a cake for her going-away gift since I’ve been getting better at baking lately. I also made another cake for the teachers to eat after the ceremony. 

chocolate fudge cake

coffee cake

The morning of the party started as most do, with the women and the men being segregated. The men are in charge of delegating students in the set up of the ceremony area while the women scurry off to the kitchen to cook lunch (there is always food after a celebration.) This means that the women rarely get to take part in the celebration activities. 

 

I went with the women to the house to help cook. Tanzanian’s don’t often eat meat because it is very expensive, but you better believe there is always meat after a party! When I arrived, the beef was already in a sufuria cooking, but the chickens still needed work. There were 8 chickens, and when I arrived, they were all whole, dead, and featherless. I helped cut them into pieces to be fried, all the while learning what pieces they kept and which they discarded. The list of what they discarded is much shorter, so I’ll share that with you: they threw out the intestines and gall bladder. That’s it.

When I began to tell them that we generally do not eat the testicles, stomach, head, liver, feet or neck of a chicken in America, they assured me that I would that day. 

student's grating tomatoes to add into the beef

my teachers just hacking away at a pile of carcases

the pot of already cooking beef. this is a jiko la kuni, using firewood instead of charcoal to cook

yep, those are rooster testicles...

a pile of chicken heads on the left, intestines in the middle and feet on the right

 

After the chicken was prepped, the female teachers told me to go to the ceremony and they would finish the rest of the cooking, so I did as I was instructed, but seeing that the guest of honor had not yet arrived, I had some time to wander around. 

chair setup for the students. these are the chairs from their classrooms

I found this little beauty next to our staff room…

I was sweatin bullets putting my hand that close to that thing...

a close-up of the beast

And my second master’s son Joeli and I hung out for a bit.

Joeli Yamba

all smiles

 Then the celebration began. Now, if you haven’t already picked up on it, celebrations here are all about music and dancing and the occasional long-winded speech. All four forms of students had a team dance to represent them saying their goodbyes. I then made a speech to say my goodbyes and tell her how much she meant to me. 

the guest of honor, Madame Hawanga dancing

me, giving my short speech

 

Then it was time for gifts! In Tanzania, the gifts aren’t just placed on a table with a card. Instead, you must get in line and dance your gift to the recipient who sits in a chair to receive your gift. If your gift is fabric, then the recipient must be draped and/or wrapped up in the cloth. It was very entertaining. 

the cooking staff, dancing in their gift

there's a person under there...

me dancing in my cake to present to her

 

presenting my cake

When gifts were over, the ceremony came to a close with all of the teachers forming a line and dancing into the middle where we took turns shaking her hand and saying our final goodbyes. 

dancing in to say goodbyes

I'm going to miss you

 

Of course then it was time to eat, where I was served up the testicles, neck, head, feet, stomach and liver of a chicken to eat all over a heap of pilau (spiced rice).  Strangely enough, the liver was the worst part because of its taste. I teach biology and know that the liver is an organisms filter, and I’m just not comfortable eating the toxic storage system of a chicken. The feet and head were mostly rubbery and all skin, no real meat. The testicles and stomach were not bad at all…

Anyway, when it was all over, I gave Madam Hawanga a final goodbye. It was quite an emotional roller coaster of a day full of new experiences, silent tears and celebrating, but I know it was not goodbye forever. She lives just in Njombe town, so I will go visit her and her family from time to time. I just miss not having her around anymore.