Rafiki Halima

Halima is a beautiful, colorful local woman who takes care of Dr. Amahdi's house 6 days a week. She has two children, a son and a daughter, who are 6 and 3. We are extremely lucky that she is hired while we are in Zanzibar. She cleans the house, washes our clothing by hand and helps prepare the evening meal, all with a huge smile and happy demeanor. We pay her $25 for the week, which she asked us to give her at the end of the month so she doesn't use it to go shopping.
 
When we first met her, she was quite shy and kept to her daily activities but now she seems happy to have us around and has been trying to learn a few English words. Like most of the locals, each day she wears a kanga as well as fabric to cover her head. As is common when women are at home, most days she takes off hear head covering. She has a gregarious personality and is always so excited when we bring new goods home from the market. Lately, I've been taking photos of her separating beans or cooking meals and she gets pretty excited. Yesterday she asked me why I wasn't taking a picture of her washing the clothing.
 
It's usually 90 with heavy humidity so we often keep our water in the freezer. Last week we noticed several opened bottles and realized that Halima had been filling the bottles with tap water. I mimed out why 'Mzungus' can't have tap water and gave her a bandana to put around the bottle should she want the cool water for herself. Ten minutes later she was walking around with the bright purple bandana around her head. We now have a system of tape around the water and all hope that we don't mistakenly drink a liter of local water.
 
Halima is a great cook but we have realized that she either the same sauce or is afraid of branching out because we've been so happy. Her red tomato sauce is delightful and always contains onions, garlic, carrots, eggplant and potatoes. We've had it alone, with rice, with pasta, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And many times for leftovers. So lately I've been going in the fridge and trying to hide that tomatoes paste to see if we can branch out a little. Last week, I was in charge of determining her cooking repertoire. We bought curry, masala and hot pepper at the market so I had a few items of show and tell to get us through the conversation. An hour later, we didn't get much more than a yes she can cook curry and also dal. So, on Friday she cooked dal with chapatti bread (photo above) and it was amazing. I went into the kitchen, which is separate from our main house and outside, to take a photo and 3 minutes later I realized Halima was on the floor doing her daily prayer (Islamic faith requests prayer 5 times a day). The dal was delicious, however that red tomatoes paste was definitely involved. This week I am determined to discover a new sauce, curry hopefully. As she would say, 'nzuri sana'…it's good!

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