Yesterday was awesome

Yesterday was a big day here in Tanzania. It was my friend Jodie's birthday, it's Michael and Laura's last day over here (I'll write more about them soon, but they really helped me get settled here) and it was the last binary day (1/11/10) for almost nine months (I was not the one who made this observation).

The morning was a standard day of trying to be productive (I would even say I was pretty successful in those efforts). Then in the afternoon I had a lot of small errands, most of which involved procuring food items for the dinner party (Laura and Michael sent me to a really cool spice store which is probably my new favorite place in town). As is always the case, errands took a lot longer than I hoped (shops closed for lunch, me trying to find places with correct prices, etc). The most entertaining part was definitely my endeavors to get business cards for a colleague. Apparently the place I went to has a little trouble cutting their business cards all the same size. We all had a pretty good laugh over the final product (all perfectly readable and everything, just a bit odd with the variety of sizes and shapes).

I got home at the same time as Michael, Laura and Jodie, so three of us set to cooking while we left the birthday girl to play with her new soccer ball (that attracted a lot of neighborhood kids). We made a big pot of guacamole and beans and tried a mango salsa recipe from my Peace Corps cookbook. The salsa recipe was supposed to be Mexican, but our modifications (didn't have the exact spices and Michael modified some proportions) definitely made it Indian. While Michael and Laura worked on that, I set to work on desserts. I made some banana bread the other day, so I was feeling pretty confident that I could pull that one off under these conditions (no measuring devices, cooking on a stove top and one or two missing ingredients). I was pretty happy with how well it came out (and surprised that maybe I've finally developed the ability to estimate). The next challenge was the brownies, which I haven't made over here. Also, Laura is a vegan, so I wanted to make a dessert she could eat (banana bread has eggs). This was my first time making brownies from scratch, there were still no measuring devices and I was trying a bold experiment (substituting bananas for eggs in the recipe). Calling them delicious would be far too charitable, but I certainly wasn't the only one who enjoyed eating them (texture wasn't quite right, but at least they were extra chocolate-y).

We invited the neighbors (super-awesome people, more info on them coming soon too) over and had a very festive dinner. Jodie brought home a case of soda for the party (I think my soda addiction may be claiming a new victim). Well, after we ate too many chapati burritos and sang to Jodie and ate dessert, all that was left was the entertainment. Michael and Laura are both fire-dancers, so they pulled out their kit and lit up. They put on a pretty good show. Then our neighbors asked if they could give it a try (they are professional performers). Michael and Laura were skeptical at first, but then the neighbors showed using unlit wicks that they knew what they were doing. So after a pretty sweet act from them, I asked if I could give them a go. Thanks to a wonderful sister and cousin (love you, Ade and Suzanne) I had learned a few basic maneuvers. I never actually mentioned that this was my first time doing this with fire. Oh well, no one seemed to notice. I didn't light myself on fire and the consensus seemed to be that it was not bad for a novice. I'll definitely take it.

I know, I know, I'm missing a lot of the meat of my life over the past month. Know that I'm really busy, but healthy and absolutely missing my new life, and I'm hoping to pick this back up real soon.