Humbled by hospitality

We set up a cooking course this evening through Obama boy and it was the most outstanding experience I have had in a while. Masoud was going to join us and introduce us to our teacher but he was diagnosed with malaria yesterday so we ventured through the maze of the old Stonetown to a massive stone building which appeared to be where we were having our class.
 
I guess my initial vision was a rustic version of Julie and Julia. The six of us, three have joined for the gorilla tracking this weekend, walked through the doorway into another world. Children were running everywhere and it appeared 5 families lived on the ground floor, many related and living with their extended family, and also the 5 floors above us. None us dared to look at the other and we were silent for the first 15 seconds taking it all in. We saw our veggies and food items on the floor in front of us near a charcoal stove in an dark open room. The room opened to the main veranda where there was a water spout and a communal shower area. Rows of recently washed clothing were our back drop. All of us were in awe and a little surprised that we had just entered into an unfamiliar world, but excited still. We met the four main cooks and proceeded to take a seat at our stools that were placed around the small seating area, which was just stone. One of the daughters luckily spoke English and she was firm about us writing down all of the ingredients and especially in paying attention to her steps.
 
We started with samaki wakupaka (made with ginger, tamarind, curry, and coconut-milk) and moved onto coconut bananas, beans with onions and coconut milk, spinach, rice pilau, chipate, sesame bread and a few others. Each teacher took a turn in making the delicious treats, all over the charcoal stove (even both breads). Five hours later we were all begging for a bite of the warm sesame bread and shortly after found ourselves in a small room where we all had dinner together. The ladies kept saying welcome to our home, thank you so much for coming and they were so friendly and happy that we were there. Not often you are welcomed into a Muslim home to participate in preparing a meal.
 
After dinner we asked them how frequently they hosted cooking classes and they confirmed we were the second people and the last one they had was in 2008 when a Mazungu journalist did an article on her experience on Zanzibar. An extremely memorable evening and a wonderful contribution to the local families.

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