Our grocery shopping usually starts with a trip on the dala dala. We ride to our local market, Survey, or the nearby mall. I really enjoy riding the dala dalas, as hot and sweaty as they are. Fortunately, my trips are short – many people spend hours on them every day.

First stop is Survey Market, where we buy our fresh fruits and vegetables and most of our meat. 

We often go to the western-style grocery store, Nakumatt, located in Mlimani City Mall. Here we can buy some American foods (American Garden label, even!), brown (whole wheat) bread and a few other things that are hard to find elsewhere.

Some of the delicious fresh ingredients we get.

Our friend Andrew has taught us to cook many things: choroko, mbazee, mchicha, ugali, uni, andazi and chapati. The girls have enjoyed learning as well – they are excellent chapati makers!

Paulina (on the left) is the Dean of Students and has helped us so much with our daily living needs. She is an excellent cook and has taught me to make cassava, pilau, soup and ndizi na nayma, along with Agatha (on the right).

We’ve enjoyed cooking for our students and teaching them how to make a few things (this was ugali night).

One night we made American food for Andrew: sloppy joes, baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad and ice cream for dessert. It was by far Lily’s favorite meal. 🙂

I love the Tanzanian food: kachumbali, wali, mchicha, na kunde. (Salad, rice, cooked greens and beans).