Recipe: Africa Burritos

In another attempt to add to my culinary range of skills, I recently made burritos- another homemade favorite, using a lot of the foods and ingredients that are readily available here in Tanzania.  There are a few components to the recipe, but I thought I would share how I was able to bring a little Mexican into my regular African diet.

The basic components for the dish (as I made it) are:

Rice

Beans

Cheese (from supermarket)

Tortillas

Guacamole

The two components that require some prep work are the Tortillas and Guacamole.  The recipes are as follows (again these are adapted from recipes found in the Peace Corps Guinea Cookbook):

Tortillas:

2 cups of Flour

¼ cup of Oil

1 tsp. of Salt

2/3 cup Hot Water

1) Blend flour and salt with a fork until the mixture resembles fine meal or sand.  Stir together hot water and salt to dissolve the salt.

2) Stir together the hot water and the flour and knead the dough for 2-3 minutes until the dough is soft and smooth.

3) Divide the dough into 10 equal balls (more or less depending on the desired size) and let stand covered for at least 30 minutes.

4) Heat a frying pan over moderately high heat until it is hot.

5) On a lightly floured board roll the balls into flat rounds.

6) Cook the tortilla on the pan for about 2-3 minutes, turning it once.  The tortilla is ready once it is puffy and golden brown on each side.

Guacamole:

2 ripe avocadoes

1 tsp oil

2 tsp lemon juice

Minced parsley (to taste)

Paprika (to taste)

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

1 chopped onion

2 chopped (small) tomatoes

1 chopped (small) green bell pepper

1) Cut and peel the avocadoes and mash together in a bowl.

2) Add the chopped vegetables and lemon juice and oil.

3) Add the spices to taste until the mixture is as desired.

Now to make the burritos, just cook up some rice and beans and add whatever other ingredients you desire or can find (vegetables, cheese, etc).  Top all the ingredients onto the tortillas; add the guacamole and you can enjoy a simple and delicious Mexican meal all the way in Africa!

Swahili Time

One of the quirkier aspects of culture here that I still haven’t really adjusted to is the use of Swahili Time.  In Kiswahili speaking countries, they follow their own clock system that doesn’t follow the typical time system that we’re normally used to in the U.S.  It uses a 12 hour clock, but the hours are expressed differently.  The basic way it works is that whatever hour it is on the clock (1, 2, 3, etc) you just add 6 hours.  For example, if it’s 12P.M., then in Swahili time it’s 6 P.M.  If it’s 7A.M., then in Swahili time it’s 1 A.M.  The idea behind Swahili time is that the hours are labeled based on when the sun typically rises and sets.  Since the sun rises typically around 7AM, they call it the 1^st hour of the day.  It’s the same in the evening when the sun sets.  Even though it’s difficult to get used to, it actually makes sense to base the hours on the sun.  Because Tanzania is on the Equator, the hours of daylight don’t change much throughout the year, so the times of sunrise and sunset stay pretty constant.

Even though the logic behind using Swahili time makes sense, it’s still quite confusing since anyone from the U.S. has never used this system before.  Whenever I see an announcement written in the staff room for a meeting that is to take place at 2 in the morning, it takes a moment for me to think about what time that really is.  Also, whenever you ask a Tanzanian what time it is, they’ll always give you the time in Swahili time, so I will sometimes look confused if they tell me it’s 9 in the afternoon.  Since Tanzanians are familiar with the western way of telling time, I often have to confirm what time meetings or events will take place, because I’m never sure of which way they are giving me the time.  Usually if I am confused or neither person is sure of what the time I understand or assume it to be is, the time is just confirmed based on the 24 hour clock.

I do respect and understand that Swahili time is part of the culture here, but it certainly has been one of the more frustrating and confusing aspects of life here that I had to adjust to.  When I arrived in Tanzania, I knew I would have to learn a new language, but I never expected to have to learn how to retell time!  While I am patient with this aspect of the language and the culture, it definitely requires an adjustment period to fully get used to it.  I’m just glad I’ve had a lot of time to learn to understand it before I was given the time for something really important, like a flight home!