Showing posts with label mbuzi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mbuzi. Show all posts

Friday, November 18, 2011

do what you love


Batik artist and painter, Samey's studio
At some point, when I have battery and connection, I need to write about the artists I have visited this trip to Moshi. As usual, I have spent most of my time working for various projects between KCMC, Duke Global Health, and KIWAKKUKI. However, I have also been keeping up with my "day job" at www.welcometocompany.com and as such the life of artists hasn't been far from my brain.

Not that it is unusual for me to think about *my* life as an artist when I am in Africa. But in the past those feelings have often fallen into an "either/or" situation.  I think this is maybe the first time that I have been pushed into truly evaluating artists living with in their art *and* africa.


Samey's goats.

Meanwhile, i am just completely kichaa. I always look a mess, perhaps because I have no problem spending a few hours in terribly pathetic running clothes. And yet, it doesn't bother me near as much here.

improvisational cooking.
One of my favorite african activities is cooking straight out of the backyard. Note that these kuku did *not* come from our backyard! We love our chickens and treat them as rafiki. (As far as we can tell, there is no word for "pet" in swahili, the closest words all mean "friend". This may explain why we can't quite communicate to africans why we love our kuku and give them names.)

The only downside to taking such joy out of messy cooking is that it pretty much forces you to either have a few glasses of wine or enjoy a large east african beer.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

mbuzi mmmm = a regular ol’ goat-pickin

mbuzi mmmm = a regular ol’ goat-pickin



there is a lot you learn not to miss in moshi- like television, the latest celebrity gossip, noise. even the good things you forget about needing-- like Jamba Juice, which kills me. so much fabulous fresh fruit, but never enough ice, rarely a blender! -- ask an american what they want when they go home or go on holiday to the states and more often than not they say a nice juicy steak or a huge hamburger. there is a lot of fresh food and nyama (meat) is fairly plentiful- samaki-fish at the beach, occasionally nguruwe-pig, some very skinny kuku-chicken, if we drive to arusha we can get ng'ombe-cow, and of course the ever present mbuzi-goat.

nyama ya mbuzi is actually quite good, i think. served in small chunks or whole bones, you pick at it with your hands. sometimes it is sort or wrapped up as a sausage. or, as i have heard and even seen myself, at a wedding they serve the goat whole, "the ca-ke" at the end of the party, parading it around and singing...

well, in true north carolina tradition, for susans going away party we wanted to have a barbecue, a regular pig pickin'. mmm. now that is something someone needs to bring over to moshi. north cackalaki pulled pork, vinegar, and spices and some good ol hushpuppies.

pole sane. we settled for the next best thing. our hand made grill and traditional nyama-- vegetable curry, roasted ndezi (potato like bananas), a little pork, a little kuku, and a moderate sized goat, thankfully headless cooked in our backyard.

not bad.

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