Cake (Because this is Me)

So yesterday I made a cake with my host family. Usually, the USP students make American food for their host families, and my host sisters wanted to know if I could make cake. First they asked if I knew how to make french toast, actually. But when they mentioned it, I told them I could make them a cake.

First we had to go to the supermarket to buy ingredients like real butter. So two of my host sisters took me and we walked into town, past petrol stations, street vendors selling mandazi and chapati and chicken, and tiny shops crammed full of crafts, hardware, clothes, shoes, soda, and lots of other interesting stuff. Dodging taxis, bodas, and other shoppers, we avoided running into any mannequins or displays or innocent people, and eventually made it to the supermarket we wanted.

And when we found it, we were able to get pretty much everything on my list. The butter cost an arm and a leg (my host sister at home said I was overcharged) but at least we found it for this once.

At home, my host siblings helped me mix up the batter with a wooden spoon and a lot of taking turns. The plan was to steam the cake, because we don't have an oven, but I had never done that before. So I was happy to find out that my host mom used to steam cakes and knew exactly how to make it work.

So. We put the cake in the pan and fitted on the lid. Then we put it into a larger pot which had banana stems in the bottom (to raise the small pan) and hot water. We tucked banana leaves around it and covered the whole thing with a big pot, just like the way they steam matooke, the plantains. I'm glad that even in things where I'm taking the initiative, like making a cake for my host family, they're there to help me out, whether it's stirring batter and frosting or showing me how to make sure a cake gets done in a way that's new to me.

But that's not the only cake we had this weekend. It's fun to see celebrations in different countries - I also got to go to my host mom's granddaughter's birthday party. She turned five. Once all the food was ready, the first part of the party was a big meal, even though it was the middle of the afternoon. I found that I'm happiest scooping out potatoes for people or holding a baby instead of trying to awkwardly fulfill the role of an honored guest. And thankfully, they were willing to let me be useful. But that's not to say I hovered in the shadows the whole time - I enjoyed the party even after I was done serving and went to sit down. I think celebration food is awesome in any country, too, and who isn't going to enjoy a full plate of amazing food when it's offered?

There were about thirty kids at the party, and then a whole lot of grown-up relatives, too. There was a cake and presents, a lot like at an American birthday party. But there were also a few thank-you speeches, which I feel like are not quite as much of a thing in the States. Ugandans do a great job of giving credit where credit is due and never fail to give thanks, both to God and to the people around them, and they even say thank you for just being alive.

My Lugandan vocabulary is growing, and I was able to introduce myself a little bit at the party. But I'm also realizing just how much work it is to learn a language and I'm honestly not sure how I'm going to remember it all. But it's super fun and I love the way peoples' faces light up with surprise when I use the few phrases I know so far. Language is so important, and so fascinating, and fun to say and to use and to learn. But frustrating when you can't remember something.  I'm starting to pick up on word fragments and phrases in the conversations around me, but most of the time I still have no idea of what's going on when the conversation is not in English. Still, I told my family I want them to speak in Luganda around me so I learn it faster, so I'm glad that they're doing that for me.

Some lovely things about this weekend: piling into a car for a drive into new places on the way to a party; blue skies and sunshine; also rain while shelling peanuts (aka g-nuts) with my host siblings in the kitchen; wearing a new kitenge dress; good Ugandan food (rice, matooke, Irish potatoes, cabbage, g-nut sauce, peas, beef and chicken, and skumawich which is greens); and hard-earned chocolate cake around the table with my host family last night. I'm starting to settle in.