Soko- the market

During our time here in Kolandoto, our main focus is of course on the project and our master theses, but we do have some free time as well. One of the things that we have put quite a lot or our time on so far is food, both buying it and cooking it.

At home in Sweden, one takes the grocery store for granted, and most things you want to eat can usually be found there. In Kolandoto, the grocery store is rather some stands where people sell vegetables, fruit and sometimes eggs. If you want to eat more than this, and we want to, one has to go to the bigger city Shinyanga about 20 minutes from here. In Shinyanga, there is a big market with many things, some familiar, and some previously unknown to us. Many market stands has small dried fishes, which we have not yet tried. We go for the fresh fruit and vegetables such as mango, avocado, pineapple, and watermelon instead. And of course, rice, eggs and beans.

To have so much fresh fruit for breakfast is really luxurious- just look at our fruit plates after we got back from the market last Saturday.  However, we are not yet completely familiar with the cooking habits here. So far, we have done some very nice dishes sush as pasta with tomato and eggplant sauce, and beefs from beans with ginger and rice. Some dishes were not as successful, like when trying to make the local bread chapatti, but ending up with lumps of dough that were slightly burnt on the edges. We are invited to a cooking class with our neighbors who maybe can show us how to make proper chapati so that they will be better next time!

Here is a short list in Swahili that might be good to know if you ever visit a market in eastern Africa:

Mayai- Eggs
Maembe- Mango
Maharage- Beans
Nanasi- Pineapple
Avocado-Avocado
Tangawisi- Ginger
Viazi- Potato
Maji- Water