Matebeto

On Independence day, October 24^th, me and my host dad David were invited for Matebeto(!), which is a ceremony before a wedding. The last 24 hours before Matebeto the bride has been shown how to cook all the good food by her friends and family, and today the dishes would be sent to the groom who had gathered his friends and family to be introduced to the dishes. We got nothing like this in Norway or the UK, so I’ll try to explain as much as I can, together with the pictures.

We arrived at 14:50, it was supposed to start at 14:00, but I’m sure I’ve mentioned that Africa-time is not like Western-time, so it didn’t start until 16:20.

When the dishes arrived, the men took place in the house, and the women helped the bride’s family and friends to carry the dishes in the house (the bride was not there). When they came with the food, they placed it on the floor in front of us, and a woman lied on the floor clapping three times (for showing respect) on each side of the dish. Then a woman starts dancing in front of us, and we threw money to her and putting money on the grooms head (so he could give money to the dancing lady), after a bit of dancing from the woman she lays down on the floor, and another woman places a blanket over her. This symbols the wife “sleeping” and the man will come and help her up, always being there for his wife. Then she present all the food, one dish at a time, at a couple of dishes she and another woman takes off the lid using their mouth, meaning the wife will serve her man even if she loses a hand. The next thing is a bowl of flour where the two women are looking for something together, symbolising that a marriage is teamwork. Then she shows all the dishes, and I had a guy next to me, explaining what each dish was, or what it was made of. After all the food was introduced to us, they placed it on a big table and we got to eat whatever we wanted. I tried so much food, all different sorts. One dish was called the African Peroni (real name: Chikanda) which got the same texture as “leverpostei” so I was expecting it to taste a bit meaty, but it was very different. Salty (of course, the Africans LOVE salt). 

This is the chicken I killed on Monday! Best chicken I've ever had!

A lady came in with some food and clapped 3 times on each side of the dish

Here the women comes in, singing "how should we enter? how should we enter? like the monkies do, backwards?" on their local language

The dancing lady. David (host dad) in green shirt, sitting next to the groom

My aunt throw money to the dancing woman

David enjoyed it, but the groom is not supposed to show too much joy

Here, the grooms friend put money on his head

The friends of the groom put money on him so he can give it to the dancing lady

Chris (the groom) gets his hands washed

Here two women removes the lid with their mouths

Here the food is being showed to us

One of my favourites! Catapillars!

Here a "meeting" is happening underneath a blanket

Two women looking for something in the flour

My dinner. From the left upper corner, going clockwise: Sweet Potato leafs with ground nuts (prepared in two different ways), the African Peroni, Meat, Egg Plants, Nshima, Chicken and beans at the bottom left corner

Livingstone, Football (soccer) and killing a Chicken

Livingstone

Last Friday I went to Livingstone for the weekend. I had one mission, and that was to swim in the Devils Pool and lay on the edge of the Victoria Falls. When I arrived the tourist city, after 8 hours on the road with John, a friend of the family, I met up with Markus. He is another Norwegian sports volunteer who is based for EduSport in Livingstone. We went out that evening, meeting a lot of other foreigners and playing beer-pong (my first time since my holiday in the states in 2010!), unfortunately we won a lot, meaning we always got challenged (the challengers buys the beer) and in the end, drunk.

Football in nearly 40 degrees
Markus coaches a team in Livingstone, and they were playing a friendly match on Saturday, and fortunately we got to play with them! The game was supposed to start at 8:30 AM, we arrived at 9:40, but the other players didn't start to show up until10:30. The game finally started around 11:30, when the last group of players arrived. Africa: TTT (things take time)!

My team played 4-3-3 with me as a striker, but funny enough we always at had least 4 players in “striker position”. So in second half I moved a bit further down on the pitch. I had a very good chance, after Markus playing me free, but I was to slow to shoot and a defender blocked my shot that was determent to go in the net. After that miss, the opponent scored 5 times. In second half I created a couple of good chances, had a missed shot from just outside the box, and had a perfect tackle on the midfield, but other than that it wasn't much to write about. Was very dehydrated.

Devils Pool at Victoria Falls
I had booked Devils Pool on Sunday at 11:15, and a bus home to Lusaka at 1:30 PM, but even though I was told I would have plenty of time, I didn't. I walked with a guide and a group of tourists on the edge of the falls to the Devils Pool. When we arrived there it was already past noon. We jumped in the “pool” and lied on the edge of the falls. I got some photos, but not when I was on the edge, since my camera decided to not work at that specific time. It was an amazing view, and if I go to Livingstone again, before rain season, I will definitely do it again (During the rain season it won't be possible to swim in the devils pool). I got to run back to the car on my own (don’t think I was allowed, since I was still on the edge). By the car Markus was waiting and we drove to the bus station in town, and he dropped me off there at 1:20 PM. The bus trip was about 7 hours and went by quick since I read Jo Nesbo’s book “The Bat”, which I nearly finished (GREAT author!)

The chicken
On Monday morning I was back to work, and the Nyanja course, so I got home early. At home I met a alive chicken! My host dad, David, got it as a present from the couple which is getting married on Saturday, so he told me we would slaughter it later in the evening. I kindly and excited asked if I could do the slaughtering, and that was no problem. I grew up on a farm, but we never had chickens and killing chickens “the old fashion way” is not very common in Norway. So when the time finally arrived, we went out on the balcony with the chicken and a knife. David held the chicken while I cut the chickens neck. It was quite an experience. I could feel the warm blood dripping over my fingers, and I took out the warm intestines. It is hard to explain, but I’m glad I got to experience this (as you might see on the pictures).  We put the chicken in boiling water and then it was easy to just pluck the feathers off the chicken. We will eat the chicken during the next few days. 

Me: "Can I lie on my back?" Guide: "eeeh..." Me: "come on! please" Guide: "ok, but don't post the video on the internet" Me: "Of course not!"

Me watching the other tourists taking pictures

Those two rainbows will never dissapair

Devils pool in the background

Love the person in the background :p

Dangerously close to the edge

Here I got no safety, so didn't go all the way over the edge

Pretty 

Falls

Down, down, down, down

This is John, buying some fish on the market

They really wanted to sell him some fish!

They put up the net, after hearing two mozongos would play

Safety first

Ready to prepare dinner!

Cut cut cut

blood starting to flow

A lot of blood came out while I was cutting

looks like I enjoyed it though

The chicken started to kick/shake...

Im so happy!

High five!

We cut the chicken open

Anja taking a self portrait, without knowing it

Last finish. Get it out.

The boring day that became very fun!

Wednesday morning I got up and went to the gym as normal, and then to work. Like the other days this week, I got nothing to do at the office.

I studied a bit Nyanja and got bored, then I went on the internet and to look at www.matprat.no, where I looked for a recipe. It had been a while since I cooked for my family, and I stumbled upon Norwegian meatballs (my mom in Norway makes the best meatballs in the world!). 

My host mom had told me that she would be very tired today, so Dinah had to cook today, so this was a good opportunity for me to cook. So I wrote down all the ingredients and walked to the supermarket during lunch “break”. I found all of the ingredients, (more or less). I even got everything for the chocolate mousse (dessert). I just managed to buy in everything before I rushed to the Nyanja course at 14:00. After an hour of learning, I went home. By the time I got home the food had been in my bag for around 2 hours, but I crossed my fingers for it not to have gone bad. I was excited and started with the dessert straight away, and Dinah, who came home early from school to sleep, helped me out. 

It turned out the cream I had bought had turned bad during the afternoon, so we had to change our plans. The chocolate was already melted in the water bath and mixed with eggs and sugar, so we decided to make chocolate covered bananas. We had so much chocolate that we had to use some apples as well. When the dessert was in the fridge/freezer, we started on the dinner. 

Meatballs and brown sauce, everything made from the bottom, first time ever. It went great, and in the end everyone appreciated the dinner that was very Norwegian. We had potatoes on the side just like a typical Norwegian family (through my childhood, we had potatoes for every single dinner!). The dessert was the highlight and we loved it. 

Of the sour cream I almost threw away, my host mom made scones of, before she went to bed, so there was a lot of treats for us this evening.

This is how I looked when I took a walk on Monday after work. My flat is just behind me

O'yeah!

But today I went back to normal, since my mozongo hair could hold on to the fake hair anymore...
As you can see, I'm sweating from the moment I get up. Very hot these days...

My hair is big though...

The dream team in "Heavens Kitchen" (vs Hells Kitchen)

Getting the meatballs ready

"Remember to turn the meatballs every now and again" 

Dessert! Frozen bananas with chocolate!

Seemed like we were happy with it

Always fun with company in the kitchen

We know it's awesome, even before we have tasted it!

100% concentration while we are preparing the apples

After a while, Dinah got a bit sick of my sarcastic comments. I thought I was funny though, like always 

The sauce to the right, and Daniel is ready to help me getting it a bit thicker

The joker wanted to put sugar in the water/flour mix. Dawn is doing the dishes while we do the last finish on the dinner

Eating dinner. Yummy

In the end. The dessert. (Telemundo on the sceen)