This is the first time since being on the World Race that I have had the opportunity to live in someone else’s home. In the last several months I’ve lived on Missionary Bases, in hotels or hostels, or in a home rented for my team. But living IN the home allows us to get to know our hosts on a more personal level.
Living with Mama Joyce and her family is amazing. Her husband is elsewhere in Tanzania on business, and he is frequently gone for long periods of time. So, she is left here with her two teenage daughters, a friend of the family, and a house girl. Mama Joyce runs a clothing business in town, so she also goes on business trips every month or so. Because she travels, she is curious about other cultures and especially the food in other cultures!
Our first week here, we celebrated Laura’s 23rd birthday. Knowing it was coming, I planned ahead and smuggled in Betty Crocker cake mix and icing, praying we would have access to an oven. Thankfully, there is an electric oven in the house! We threw her a surprise party, made brilliantly complete by sneaking Team Crux over to join us. I spent the morning working on the cake, and it turned out amazingly (I’m a halfway decent baker).
Mama Joyce was in Uganda on business and so she missed out on the birthday extravaganza. But she heard about it! And she asked us to make a cake one night. In fact, she asked us to teach her how to cook an American meal. We are somewhat limited by types of food available, but we realized we could do fried chicken and mashed potatoes (okay, being from New England, I am clueless about the fried chicken part, thankfully, Sharon knew what she was doing), and we found Pillsbury Cake mix at the NoNo Supermarket in town!
Mama Joyce wanted to learn how to make a cake… so I showed her how (really, she had never seen cake mix before). She was also quite fascinated by my measuring cup! I taught her how to make chocolate buttercream frosting too… everyone in the house liked that!
Of course, I also schooled her on the art of licking the bowl!!
We had a great afternoon of cooking, and serving our hosts, but the best part of the evening came at dinner time. Pastor Celsius and his wife, Rachel joined us. There were 15 of us all together, and it was a fantastic evening of fellowship and a true cultural exchange.
Side Note: One of the ways that our team leader, Laura, shows love is by slathering food products on people. She showed Mama Joyce and the other women of the house this brilliant move, and since there happened to be some extra chocolate frosting… it ended up on many people’s cheeks, accompanied by the Tanzanians saying ‘Share de love.’ It was precious.
Jackie, Mama Joyce, and the amazing cake!
Mark, with chocolate frosting on his face…
Laura, witnessing her ‘handiwork’
