By Saara Kanula
Emmanuel is a Purchase manager in Art in Tanzania (AIT). He has been working for AIT since 2007. His responsibility is to make sure the volunteers get to eat every day.
Usually volunteers have breakfast, lunch and dinner at the volunteer house. There are four people working in the kitchen to prepare meals. The meals are sometimes typical Tanzanian food such as wali (rice) and maharage (beans) or nyama (meat), Sometimes kitchen ladies prepare western food such as fish and chips or spaghetti and vegetable sauce.
Every day Emmanuel visits the local market in Tegeta called Nyuki Market to buy all the grocery needed. It takes about 15 minutes to go there through a bumpy road by Bajaji (three wheal motorcycle) or by pikipiki (two wheel motorcycle).
At the Nyuki market you can buy almost anything. There are big tables with vegetables, fruits, beans and rice. In surroundings there are dozens of small shops where you can buy for example clothes, shoes, meat or even electronic devices.
In the early afternoon Nyuki market is not really busy, so it is a good time to do some shopping. In the evenings and on the weekends there are lots of people buying food and the place is filled with greetings and laughter.
Even though there are not many customers the shopping takes some time. Emmanuel needs to go to many different stalls to buy different types of food. Furthermore, in Tanzania everything takes a little bit more time than in Europe. People seem to have more time in their hands and one doesn’t need to hurry anywhere. “Europeans have the watch and Africans have the time” as the saying goes.
Food banana (ndizi) is a typical Tanzanian food. It tastes little like a potato and it is usually eaten with meat. It is greener than normal sweet banana. You can usually buy them from a little stalls beside every road. One banana costs around 300 TSH (0,2 USD).
Rice and beans are sold in kilos. One kilo of rice is about 2 000 TSH (1,25 USD) and beans around 2 300 TSH (1,4 USD) Rice and beans are typical lunch in Tanzania and Emmanuel also buys them every day.
At the back side of the market place you can buy really fresh chicken (kuku). The chickens are grown elsewhere and brought to the market for sale. You can choose the chickens you want and the they are deplumed while you wait. One chicken is enough meat for dinner for four volunteers.
After shopping Emmanuel brings the food to the volunteer house and kitchen ladies start to make dinner. Today volunteers are having chapatti for dinner. It is a pancake style bread and traditional Tanzanian food usually eaten with soup at breakfast. Today it is served with a sausage, so it resembles a hot dog.
The kitchen in the volunteer house is a typical outdoor Tanzanian kitchen. All the cooking is happening at the fireplace.
The food Emmanuel bought today at the Nuyki market is enough for dinner this evening and for breakfast and lunch for tomorrow. Tomorrow Emmanuel will visit the market place again. He draws up a budget for the food and buys everything needed to make the volunteers fulfilled for the next day.
Asante kwa chakula! (Thank you for the food)