Too Much Food!

          Tanzanians have a big heart.  And they like to express this by shoving as much food down you as they can.  Refusal is pointless, doing so only means you are very polite, not that you're hungry.
          When my baba was growing up, cars were a pretty new thing.  Baba can still remember the very first one he saw when he was ?????????? years old, a red pick-up truck.  Back then, most people walked wherever they were going, even if this was hundreds of kilometers away.  Thus it would often take hours to reach even a way point on the way to one's destination.  Because of this, whenever someone arrived at a house, they were always universally hungry and tired.  It went without saying.
          Thus the culture formed that whenever someone stopped at a house, the owners had to offer them something to eat.  Always.  How much the householder liked the visitor could be seen in the quality of food offered.  Well liked guests had their hands and feet washed as well.
          Nowadays there are cars all over Tanzania, and it no longer takes so long to get places.  Customs, however, die hard.  It is still good manners to offer good to any guest who comes to your home, even if it's just after lunch or dinner.  Which is why I say that if I come back home weighting a few hundred extra pounds, don't be surprised.
          Having never been to Tanzania before to see any of my relatives, and Baba not having been back in awhile, everyone wants to see us.  And everyone wants to feed us.  Refusal isn't an option, as it would be tantamount to saying that we didn't like the ones providing the food.  Even at Karibu Home I often got in trouble for being too full to eat the food they had prepared just for me.  For this reason alone we are limited to visiting no more than two families a day, one for lunch and one for dinner.
          Ah well, at least I won't have to worry about starving...


E’ya! - Tate