Cooking with Mama Merica.

Today we got to go to town and cook a lot of food with a lady named... well, I thought her name was Mama Merica, but then other people called her different things. So, instead I will just refer to her as Mama.

The day started with something that I hope to never experience again.
De-heading fish that are mostly dried but sometimes slimy is gross.
These are degaa heads. Gross. They smell TERRIBLE.

Kelcy was super excited to work with the fish. Not really. At this point, we were a little concerned that our hands would smell like fish for the rest of the day, but then we proceeded to cut sweet potatoes, garlic, and onions, so all of the smells kind of mixed together. 

This lady was awesome. We had no idea what she was saying ever, but she would joke around with us like any body else. It was great.

It was great that the ladies really let us help work with them. Kelcy got to stir... meat? and add all the onions and pepper that we had previously cut.

I am terrible at everything that comes to African cooking, apparently. The way I was supposed to mix the rice and throw it around was tough. Whatever. Haha. 

All in all, it was a great day. We had fun helping, and the attention that 3 mzungu (white people) received in the market was certainly good publicity for her business. 

Tomorrow we leave for our 8 day survey trip to the south of Tanzania. When people say something like "the south of France" you think something really luxurious. Not the case here. 

The trip will be over 15 hours each way, hopefully on a few paved roads. We are looking forward to driving through a national park however, mostly because we have been promised seeing at least a few wild animals. On survey we will be interviewing church leaders and investigating the area so that possible missionaries in the future will have something to take into consideration about the area.

When we get back from survey we will have 3 nights and then head to Mwanza to go on Safari. after safari, we go back home. CRAZY. Home is so close now, but Africa is now so important to us all. Going back will be great, but I am certainly going to miss it here!

All of your prayers would be great, because we will be spending a lot of time traveling these next few weeks!