Maandazi Recipe

A maandazi is a tennis ball sized gem of lightly fried dough the mamas in our Tanzanian village would cook for us for breakfast most mornings. This East African deliciousness is even better when stuffed with peanut butter, chocolate, jam, cinnamon, and/or banana OR accompanied with chai (tea in Swahili). 

I had to meticulously observe my mama prepare the maandazi dough so as to know the amount of each ingredient because the mamas do not measure things out. The amount for each ingredient is my estimation and will make about 30 maandazi. 

What you'll need:

- 7 cups flour (we used white, but I'm sure whole wheat is good too)

- 2 cups water (room temp)

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

Do it!:

1. mix the yeast with a few spoonfuls of the warm water. 

2. Add sugar and salt to the water. 

3. Add the flour and gradually add in the water while kneading into dough. 

4. Knead until a smooth and elastic dough is formed - fifteen to twenty minutes.

5. Cover dough and let rise for one hour.

6. Divide the dough into several pieces.

7. Stuff dough with peanut butter, chocolate, jam, etc... if you like.

8. Heat a few cups of vegetable oil in a skillet or deep pot. Fry the dough in the hot oil, turning a few times, until they are golden brown all over. Fry only as many together as can float in the oil without touching one another. 

9. Let cool a little and EAT!!

My Musa - Monochrome

I'm back from Africa and more inspired than ever! I had the most amazing and empowering experience living and teaching English in Musa, a traditional Maasai village just outside Arusha, Tanzania the past two months. I can't wait to share my photographs and stories. Folks, there are many, so bare with me as most of my future posts will strictly be stills from my adventure. Surprisingly, I found solace and comfort in writing while I was there and therefore poured out every new experience, thought, story, and image into my little 100 paged, red-bound zen journal every single day. It has become a testament of the once in a lifetime adventure I lived. Maybe I'll write a book one day... hmm...

The following stills are some of my favorites, shown to you in black and white because I believe black and white has some artistic and emotional qualities that are just not possible to achieve in color photography. My father is a professional photography and he has told me that black and white also focuses the eye on the emotional center of the piece and that probably the best subject for black and white photography is the human face. A lot of my photographs are of the watoto (children) from my village. Black and white gives these stills a powerful aspect. Some even send chills down my arms and make me wish to return so I can be with them. 

Enjoy. 

[Daudi, Faraja, Neema, Agnes, Eppi; a small handful of my village watoto]

[Eppi singing out in the grass field in the center of our zone]

[Enoshi, Baba Ezekiel, and Faraja watercoloring for the first time inside our home]

[Faraja, Dony, and Daudi singing "Boringo!"]

[Eliyatosha, Asnati, Emmanuel, Luka; tutition kids]

[just playing on a wheel barrel]

[Petro un-shelling beans by whacking them with a stick]

[beautiful face]

[the children here don't play with dolls or barbies. they play with smaller babies.

outside my home]

[Last day of school with my standard 6 students]

[Teacher Alex and I with Wazaino, week 6 participation point winner!]

[Mzee, Mbayani, Mikael, and Eliyatosha; some very intelligent boys]

[My beautiful mama]

[Three of my siblings messing around before dinner]

[village rugrats]

[some alone time kicking the ball around]

[Nakupenda sana na Nitakumissy]

[Petro]

[Anna]

[Lucy] 

[Faraja]

[Yacobo and Eliyatosha solving a pretty advanced math problem]

[Enoshi]

all images by one life in stills