The Family Has Arrived!

Dinner at Addis in Dar

All of the delicious food that my parents brought for us!

The parents have finally arrived!  Friday night was spent partying and saying goodbye to all of the wonderful friends we have made here in Tanzania.  We went to Addis in Dar for dinner and I had a lovely dinner of prawns and spicy chicken with Liz.  It was delicious!  From there, we all headed to the Godde’s house to hang out.  When it came time to say goodbye, we were all so sad and some of us even shed some tears.  I got back to Mama Frida’s house around 12:30 am – just in time for two hours of sleep before picking up my family at the airport in Dar.  It turned out that their flight was delayed so I ended up waiting at the airport for an hour, but it was so good to see them when they finally arrived!  We took a taxi back to the Godde’s house where we met the Kili kids (those who went to climb Mount Kilimanjaro) and gave them the goodies that their parents had sent for them.  By then, it was about 6:00 am and I was exhausted!  Lara and I went to Mama Frida’s and took a nap, which made me feel much better.  At 11:00 am we went back to the Godde’s for our cheese and cracker party!  My wonderful mother brought 5 kinds of cheese, crackers, sausage, peanut butter cookies, scotcheroos, chocolate chip cookies, puppy chow, and candy canes for us since those are foods that we have missed dearly while in Tanzania.  You should have seen how much food there was!  All of the kids came over and we munched on the food for a while.  Afterwords, I gave my parents an introduction to cafeteria food: chipsi mayaii, chapatti, and fruit and then gave them a short tour of campus.  They were amazed by the monkeys.  Hah, remember when I was amazed by the monkeys?  Now they are just as ordinary as squirrels are in Wisconsin.  We went for dinner at Mama Frida’s and Diana cooked us up some rice, beans, meat, chapatti, and spinach.  We brought papaya and cookies for dessert!  By then, I was SO tired, but I had to get my parents to their hotel.  So, I sent them off on a dala-dala and hoped that they actually made it to the hotel. 

Sunday Lara and I took a dala-dala over to the hotel after we had woken up.  We then piled into a dala-dala and headed towards Mwenge.  It was hot today and my family got their first introduction to Tanzanian heat.  We shopped at Mwenge for a couple of hours, looking at wood carvings, clothes, shoes, etc.  Dad bought a pair of leather flip flops and Lara bought a beaded headband.  I think they were a little overwhelmed at all the people!  We went for lunch at the cafeteria and I got to introduce them to Pilau (spiced rice), which my dad loves.  I had the usual rice and peas while Lara and my mom got pasta.  I don’t know what has gotten into me here, but it absolutely drives me crazy to see people leave half-finished plates of food on the table.  Obviously I’ve had a bit more practice at the Tanzanian food system here and know how much food they give you at each meal, but it just kills me to watch my family eat a tiny bit of food off of their plate and then leave the rest to go to waste.  Anyway, the afternoon was spent at the Godde’s hanging out and napping yet again.  We ate dinner at UDASA, a bar on the university campus, and had rice, chicken, and beans.  Lara and I shipped the parents off again to their hotel and we turned into Mama Frida’s.