Play dates and cooking lessons

Our Ed.Tech. session today was about “non formal education”…which
basically consisted of a group of education volunteers being dropped
off at a local orphanage.  First of all, this place is in my
neighborhood – about a 5-minute walk from my house – and I have never
heard of it before.  When we arrived, the kids (the majority looked
like they were under 10, but a few were as old as 16) sang us a little
welcome song. Precious.  There are about 50 or so kids living there
now, and during the school year there are even more (keep in mind,
it’s summer here).  There were 2 classrooms – each with decent sized
wooden tables and chalkboards on the walls. Since there are only two
rooms, each “grade” meets at a table.  There was a little “dining
room” with tiny chairs pulled up to wooden benches for tables and a
room with arts and crafts supplies too.  At night, the kids pull out
mats and sleep on the floor around the building.  They also have a
little machamba (garden) and some pigs that the kids care for.  A very
nice nun appeared to be in charge, and from what I could see, the
building and grounds looked very well maintained – much nicer than the
secondary school in Namaacha.  We broke up into small groups of
volunteers and kids to play games and practice this “non formal
education” business.  My group had planned on testing out “simon says”
(which we translated into “Diego diz”)  with our group.  That lasted
for, ohhh 30 seconds because the group of 8-year-old girls we were
playing with had better games to teach US! So within minutes we were
clapping and singing and running in circles – only half understanding
the rapid fire array of games being thrown at us. It was like the
ultimate recess. I don’t think I’ve played so hard since I was 8 years
old myself!  The girls thought we were hilarious and laughed at
everything we did – plus, we were laughing at ourselves and each
other… it was way too much fun.  And since its summertime, the kids
that live there only have one or two “classes” in the morning and play
the rest of the day... so we’re going to make regular trips over just
to play games!


Before today, the only samosas I’ve known were at Indian restaurants –
and anyone who knows me is well aware of my obsession with Indian
food! Ha! Well, Eddie’s sassy little 16 year old sister decided she
would teach us how to make samosas.  I thought this was just a little
lesson, but somehow it turned into a biggg production. By the time I
got there, she had already scaled and gutted 10 fish. TEN. Then she
told Eddie that he and her dad needed to move the kitchen table
outside so that we had space to “work.” The whole family was out
there. Neighbors. Friends. Probably 12 of us in total (including the
cutest baby ever!) worked outside while the teenage girls tried to
make me sing Justin Beiber songs to them… We made the dough for the
outside of the samosa and rolled it into thin sheets using glass beer
and coke bottles.  Then, with a large, flat lid over a charcoal fire,
we toatsted the dough.  Since it was already dark – and there was no
electricity (normal in Namaacha) we had to take turns winding the
flashlight so the cooks could see. Picked the meat off the
fish…Sauteed some onions. Attempted to fold said dough into triangles.
 Stuffed and fried samosas. All over a little charcoal fire. Pretty
impressive! About halfway into this process – Eddie and I got
sidetracked on other things that we could make with the dough…
Tortilla for a burrito (with beans, rice and homemade salsa) was the
decided favorite. I can’t waittt to be able to cook for myself!