Sundays

By Peter McTiernan

Sundays are generally a lazy day at foodwatershelter's volunteer village. It can be easy to get stuck on the computer writing back home to friends, family or foodwatershelter Australia. It is much more exiting if you get out and have some fun with our neighbors, or the Kesho Leo residents.

That is why Craig and I jumped at the chance when Mudi, our Tanzanian Kesho Leo Manager said that he was going to take the boys who live at Kesho Leo down to a nearby market on Sunday. Mudi said that he wanted to shout the boys lunch, I am always shocked at how much Mudi is willing to give, his 9 to 5 job is to support these boys, and their Mamas and sisters, amazing that in his spare time, with his own money he wants to take the boys and buy them lunch!

We all piled into the car and drove through the local area, across dirt roads with a swag of boys in the back playing, chatting, yelling and bouncing around. It was great to have the full troop back at Kesho Leo after many families had gone away for Christmas to visit extended families.

The drive is an interesting one, on one side you have all the signs of a booming area, new houses are under construction and the quality of many of the houses shows the wealth entering the area. Houses built from concrete with roof tiling are not the norm in these parts, the dirt road and the farms between each house tells you where you are, but some of the houses would not look out of place in suburban Australia. On the other side, in a total contrast the local tip lines the road, large enough for a few cricket grounds and some more.

How these relatively luxurious houses are next to the tip I do not know, but it makes for an interesting ride with the boys roaring away in the background.

We arrived into Kwamoronbo and I am wanting to grab a seat and eat because my eyes are too big for my belly. I knew I was not the only one, because after returning from ordering goat Mudi tells me “I am going to find some livers, I want to see how much these boys can eat.”

After a round of soft drink for the boys our first course arrives. Liver, and for those who opt in a good dressing of salt, with pill pili vegies (pili is Swahili for chili) and deep-fried plantons. That is when I knew Mudi was serious when he said he wanted to know how much these boys could eat.

The second course was a few legs of goat cooked on an open flame with salt on the side. Absolutely delicious, however the boys stood no chance in finishing this after the first course. Mudi later told me that he wanted to know how much they could eat, literally, because we have a couple of goats at Kesho Leo which will be up for slaughter later in the year and he needs to know the right number of goats to kill so that our residents and workers can be amply fed.

The boys knew they were lucky to get such a feast, and fortunately, as always with fws nothing went to waste, we took the excess home for the Mama’s and took the bones for the security dogs that live at the volunteer village.

The girls did not miss out either, they will be going along next week, Mudi wanted to make sure they had the same experience.