Happy Holidays!!

Our holiday has started from today onwards till 15 Dec. 

We planned this holiday since few years back. And since the nagging (by you know who) had been frequent lately, in October 2009, I said 'Let us go!!'. Initially we thought of spending time there just before christmas until new year. Since my boss said I do not celebrate Christmas and he is, I was 'ordered' to take my leave early. So we decided that 29 Nov to 15 Dec was the best time. 

We chose Paris, London, Brussels, Disneyland Paris. Then we thought if we have time, we will drop by in Brugge (Belgium) and Switzerland. Two reasons - to visit my friends (Ludo and Fanny) and to experience skiing!! 

To make things easier for us, we hired this tour company owned by this Malaysian guy (Hairul) and Hani (his wife). The name of their company is Kelana Convoy. Google them. Actually, they offer cheap European tours that suits students and people on low budget. But we told we needed them to arrange for our hotels and trains in Europe. They charged us a small fee yet they gave us an excellent service!

Our journey started on 29th itself.

29 Nov - We went to the neighbouring country - Kenya. We stayed at our dear friend's housein Nairobi for one nite as our flight was on 30th to Paris. 

30 Nov - off to Paris!! yeahhaaaaa!!!!

Eid Prayer & Sacrifice

I went to the mosque but nobody was there. My friend told me earlier that he is going to the mosque but he is nowhere to be seen and my calls to his whole family were not answered.

Now I am at home. Typing this post while thinking when and where I will be praying for Eid.

My wife has cook for us Beef Rendang, Nasi Minyak, Nasi Impit and Chocolate Cake. You know what, suddenly I feel hungry. 

After gulping the delicious and sumptuous Eid dishes prepared by my better half, I received a call from my friend. He said he forgot to call me to tell me that the venue has been changed to Arusha Stadium. I was quite upset when I heard it but let bygone be bygone and I am sure to be forgiven by Him.

And the good thing is as Saturday is the official Eid day for Tanzania, I am sure many mosques will hold the Eid prayer. You can bet that I will show up in one of the mosques first thing in the morning.

Then, the question of whether I can slaughter my goats came up. My friend said since I did not pray for Eid today, I could not do the sacrifice. I did not agree with him actually as it is not of the conditions for the sacrifice. Then we consulted two imams. They both said I am allowed to carry out the sacrifice. 

I took some pictures of the 'sacrifice' before, during and after the event. Please be warned pet/animal lovers especially under 12 are advised strongly not to look at the pictures!!

Food that we can't find in Arusha

Let me list them -

1) Kerang

2) Petai (stinky beans)

3) Tempoyak (but we can find durian, rambutan and manggis here in Tanzania)

4) Mee Laksa (Laksa Noodels)

5) Belacan (Shrimp Paste)

6) Kuay Teow

7) Kaya

8) Cili giling

9) Udang Kering

So who wants to donate these foods to us?

Eid Mubarak/Selamat Hari Raya Haji!!

Today I received news that Kenya and Malaysia will celebrate Eid Al Adha/Haj on Friday. But Tanzanian government decided it should be on Saturday. Infact my friend in Malaysian Embassy in Kenya informed me the whole world is celebrating Eid Al Adha/Haj on Friday.

Then I heard rumours in Arusha@Kilimanjaro that some Sunnis are planning to celebrate it on Friday and others are choosing Saturday. The Shias has choosen Saturday but I bet there are some Shias that will choose Friday.

And whatever it is, this thing has really been bugging me and I am really in dilemma.

What if I go to the mosque on Friday and then find out that there are not many people in the mosque. Let say that I go to the mosque on Saturday, what if there are not many people too?

The next question is when can I slaughter the goats (Juma and Alhamisi)?

Whatever it is, we would like to wish our families and friends - Selamat Hari Raya Haji and Eid Mubarak!!

A gift from my wife (She got it from somewhere, most probably from someone else's blog)

EMBRACING IMPERFECTION

When I was a little girl, I could remember, my mom making breakfast and dinner for us. And I remember one night in particular when she had made dinner after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of egg, sausage, and extrmely burned toast in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed. Yet all my dad did was reach for his toast, smiled at mom and asked me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that toast and eat every bite. When I got up from the table that evening I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the toast. And I'll never forget what he said "Baby, I love burned toast."

Later that night, I went to kiss daddy good night and I ask him if he really liked his toast burned.
He wrapped me in his arms and said "Dear, your momma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired, and besides a little burnt toast never hurt anyone"..."You know life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people."

I am not the best housekeeper or cook. What I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other's faults and choosing to celebrate each other's difference is one of the most important keys to crating a healthy growing and lasting relationship.

Eid al Haj/Raya Haji

For the fifth time in a row, we are going to celebrate Eid Al Haj in Arusha. In preparing for this holy day, we bought two goats. The goats in Tanzania are quite cheap. You only have to pay for around T$50,000 (RM150) for one matured healthy goat.

We brought them to our home first...I clearly told my kids that they are not going to be our pets BUT my kids still wanted to give them names...I relented at last. Since they proposed names like Echo-echo and Diamond Head (Ben 10 names), I asked my local staff to name them. I told my kids since both goats are Tanzanians, we should let a Tanzanian named them. They somehow agreed.

So my staff called the white one - AlHamesi and the brown one - Juma!! Then every afternoon since last Tuesday, my youngest would come to visit the goats...my wife told me my youngest asked our goats 'Why are you here?, why are you eating the tree (he meant the leaves)?, do want to play with me?'

Today, we sent them to my friend's house. It is for the best. We do not want our kids to be too 'close' to the goats because when the day comes, we do not have to restrain our kids from 'saving' them!

By the way, the number of our chickens had been increased by 10 last week!! Yes, more fresh village eggs soon!!

Ikan Todak rebah di Pangani!!

Dulu masa kecil-kecil, kita selalu dengar cerita bagaimana todak melanggar Singapura...cerita ini jadi hebat lagi apabila seorang budak kecil yang bijak menjadi penyelamat Singapura dimana nasihat beliau meletakkan batang pokok pisang sebagai perangkap telah berjaya menghapuskan si todak-todak durjana itu!! Yang saya musykil sampai sekarang, adakah todak-todak itu telah dijadikan santapan seluruh rakyat Singapura? Jika ya, adakah ia dibakar atau digulai? atau dijadikan bahan utama keropok pada masa itu? 

Jika saya ada pada masa itu, sudah semestinya maggi saya akan bakarkannya. Dan ia menjadi kenyataan baru-baru ini. Kami jumpa todak di Pangani (tengok gambar pantai Pangani di posting awal kami). Kami bukan saja jumpa todak tapi kami jumpa pari, udang dan lain-lain lagi!! Masih segar bugar dari laut!

Jika sesiapa yang tidak tahu apa dan mana itu Pangani...ia adalah sebuah pekan kecil di pantai bahagian utara Tanzania. Lebih kurang 300km dari Arusha@Kilimanjaro. Dulu Pangani ini dijadikan tempat persinggahan utama orang-orang Arab untuk membeli dan menjual hamba-hamba abdi! Jangan terkezut!! 

Pangani ini terbahagi kepada dua oleh sebuah sungai yang juga dinamakan Pangani! Untuk ke hotel kami, kami perlu untuk menyeberang sungai itu menggunakan feri usung yang amat menggerunkan!! rasanya kalau tersilap pijak lantainya, mahu tenggelam kami.

Tengoklah gambar feri tu dibawah -

Sudah tiga kali kami pergi ke sana, syukur sampai sekarang masih tiada bala menimpa feri ini.

Sesudah sampai di hotel kami, apa lagi, dengan bersenjatakan google, pelampung dan jaket keselamatan, kami serbu pantainya. Heheheh, memang inilah bahananya kalau tak tahu berenang!

Sampai tengahari, kami tunggu nelayan balik. Mulai lebih kurang pukul 1 tengahari baliklah mereka. Masa inilah kami rasa paling seronok. Tapi ini tak sama hebatnya seronok tunggu orang pasar keluarkan ikan dari peti ais depa...hehehehe atau tengok ikan haruan/keli dalam kotak plastik di pasaraya Giant!

Nelayan di Tanzania tidak pakai bot enjin, malah mereka tak pakai bot...mereka bukan mewah macam nelayan Malaysia yang dapat subsidi enjin dan elaun harian...Mereka sempoi je, pakai layar dan tengoklah betapa daifnya perahu-perahu mereka...tapi mereka boleh menyelam tanpa bantuan apa-apa alat tanpa masalah dengan senang sekali. Tapi apa2 hal saya rasa hasil nelayan Tanzania dan Malaysia lebih kurang sama je...ye lah, hasil tangkapan laut kita mana cukup sampai kena impot dan bela dalam kolam-kolam. Dahlah yang ade kat pasar tu banyak yang dah merah matanya, pecah perut dan lembik.

Dan yang paling best skali bila depa pulang dengan ikan-ikan idaman kami!! Bila ada yang menjadi pilihan kami, mulalah proses tawar menawar yang hebat...mula-mula kami beli ikan todak!! Ikan todak 5 kilo kami dapat lebih kurang Rm20 kesemuanya.

Kali ketiga kami disana, kami di'hadiah'kan pula dengan ikan pari!! Udang harimau pun kami dapat tapi terlupa lak ambik gambo-gambonya. Ikan pari ni yang lebih kurang seberat 8 kilo ni dijual kepada kami lebih RM60.

Dah dapat apa yang kami nak, apa lagi, kami mulakan projek ikan bakar!!

Fuh, dengan cicah sambal ikan bakar istimewa hasil isteriku serta maknya...kami bertukar menjadi pirana!! Ikan-ikan bakar tu habis dalam masa 10 minit!

Udang-udang pula kami buat rendang. Fuh, ini lagi maha hebat!! Mungkin ada yang tak pernah lagi rasa rendang udang...sapa yang tak pernah rendang jenis ni, memang telah rugi salah satu nikmat dunia!!

 

Cakap pasal makan rendang, ikan bakar ni mengingatkan saya kepada isteri saya yang telah beriya-iya janji nak buat rendang udang hari tu lagi...air liur dah meleleh ni.

ok sambung jap lagi ye...mana pulak bini aku ni.

Article about High Income Nation

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/business/43851-malaysia-has-lost-edge-as-low-cost-producer-says-world-bank

It might give you some pictures where we stand now.

Do you think Malaysia can transform itself into a high income country?

I am a Malaysian and proud of it!! I love Malaysia. I really want to go back and work in Malaysia.

I am an optimistic person too so I believe one day Malaysia can really become one!!

But answer these questions first - do we really know the meaning of 'high income' country? If the answer is yes, do we really understand it? Does it mean that our quality of life should be raised too?

I raised this subject because I want to know what kind of high income country Malaysia want to be? Does she want to be like Singapore (GDP on PPP 51800us)? or UAE (GDP on PPP 44600us) or Australia (GDP on PPP 38200us) or Hong Kong (GDP on PPP 43800us)?

For your information, Malaysia's GDP on a purchasing power parity basis divided by population as of 1 July 2008 is 15200us!!

When I arrived here, the locals always said 'una tajiri kwasababu unatoka Malaysia!!' and their sentence always ended with a big laugh (like muwaahhhaaahahah!!)...duhhh.

It means 'You are rich because you are from Malaysia!!'. That statement still baffles me until now!!

They added...aahh Malaysia has a lot of tall modern buildings, every type of trains, million of cars, main producer in E&E sector, big tarmac roads, etc etc...but little did they know that to enter Shah Alam, there are 5 glorious highways (Federal Hway, NKVE, KESAS, ELITE, Guthrie) ready to be used BUT all of them take your money away and after using one of them for a week or two, there goes your dream to be a high income person!!.

Now I am sounding like a Mat Rempit (something like a hooligan on a bike, I think)...once I was told by a reliable source..a Mat Rempit got caught by the Police. The Police said 'why cant you do something better?'...and his reply was 'Nowadays, if you want to enter a park you have to pay, if you want to play games, you have to pay, even if you want to use the toilet you have to pay...so if you promise to pay for all these, I will gladly stop doing all these nonsense!'

Anyway, let us focus back to the subject.

So what about you? What do you really want for Malaysia?

For me I just want to go back to Malaysia, work or start a business and then be a multi-millionaire before the age of 45!! (Last time I said I wanted to be a millionaire by 35!!) so that I can withstand the inflation rate effect in the next 10 years.

Am I making some sense here?

I am not that satisified by the quality of my postings

When I read back all my postings, I noticed that there are quite a few grammatical mistakes and some typo errors like I forgot to put the word 'to', etc.

I do not want to give excuses BUT I must say this is a the result of thinking in Malay and Kiswahili (the national language of Tanzania) while doing them. My colleagues who came from all over the world also had some influence on the development of my English! Really can't blame them.

I have been here for almost 5 years!

Many funny, extraordinary things happened.

One example : Can you picture a scenario where a Malaysian family was deprived of chicken meat for more than 1 month? eeerr...Like Malaysia without KFC!! Can you imagine that? In Malaysia, survey shows that on average, every Malaysian ate more than 20 kilos of chicken per year!!

Cow's meat is African's favorite meat. Anyhow, in 2007, a disease called 'Rift Valley Fever' (it is not mad cow, go google it) struck East Africa region killing almost all the cows in the region (people were shunning the healthy cows too)...so naturally East African people changed their diet...BUT there were not many chicken breeders in my area at that time. So they could not cope with the extra demands.

Consequently, we could not find any chicken meat for more than one month!! (and that was one of the reasons why I started my own little chicken farm).

When we found chicken meat...we had chicken in our menu for more than one week...chicken curry, chicken kurma, chicken soup, vegetable with sliced chicken meat, bbq chicken...and I started to smell like a chicken too after few days!!

Malaysia is actually a nation of chicken lovers!! Even if the market raised the price of chicken by 20 cent Malaysia per kilo, all hell breaks loose!!

And some Malaysians are trying to bring this culture to Tanzania. There are now 2 Marrybrown restaurants in Dar Es Salaam, the capital city of Tanzania. Thank God Arusha@Kilimanjaro is 650km away from Dar Es Salaam.

Anyhow, I have my wife. She can cook KFC quality fried chicken in no time!!

Marble Cake

Back to modern age cooking.

Today, my wife asked ''what kind of cake you want me to bake today?''. I replied that I did not need one for now considering that everyone said life in Arusha@Kilimanjaro really made me 'healthy and cute!' [...yeah, right bro, didn't you notice that your belly is bigger and more potruding than mine!! Shame on you]

Anyhow, she did not stop. She nagged and nagged. Finally I said 'Bake me a marble cake but with more chocolate!!'.

After a couple of hours...she gave me a slice!! (look at that picture) I tell you...I was over the moon. It was really good [Hey, we did not have a fight just now...and I am not being bias here]. It really is. Just look at it...admit it! Just by looking at it, it really makes you drool, right?!! Admit it!

I love my wife, I love her, I love her so much!! I love her...and I love her cake.

Chow cin cau!!

Kangoro Soup aka Cow's Hooves Soup aka Sup Tapak Kaki Lembu!!

I went to the wet market hoping to find cow's tail. I found it BUT I had to buy other things also. The guy said ' You must take the whole package or you will not get the cow's tail!'. Caught me by surprise. The things were 4 cut cow's hooves!! Since I was deprived of cow's tail soup for almost one month, I bought the whole package. All for T$10,000 (US$8). Not bad for a fresh tail and hooves. If you wondering whether it's halal or not...it is halal!! Meats (except pork) that are for sale at the markets/shops were slaughtered according to Muslim rites in Tanzania...it's the law, there is no but. Anyway, my local staff thought I made a good choice as he said the hoof is one of the main delicacies in Tanzania and the best way to cook it is to make soup out of it. They called it 'Kangoro Soup'. I somehow agreed to his suggestion and asked our local maid to cook it for us.

The whole process took more than 4 hours. They said if they use the orthodox way to cook it, it will take at least half a day. Let me show what I meant. The above pictures showed that you have to 'barbeque' them without taking off its skin. Then when you see that it is 'cooked', you have to scrap it clean in hot boiling water. After you are satisfied that it is clean, you cut them into small pieces. Then you start the process of cooking the soup. We used Malay ingredient for the soup because we thought it will give more ummmpphhhh! Before that, we put the cut hooves into the pressure cooker for almost 2 hours! When we felt they were soft enough...we started cooking the soup. We put potatoes and the usual stuff. Then wallaaaa....I must say it is quite yummy!! try it...if you never try, you never know!

Bla bla bla

One of the objectives of my blog is to show the world how lucky I am (to have a beautiful wife and 3 kids, etc, etc...you know the usual stuff)...how blessed our life is (my wife can cook and bake very well!!)...and to show the beautiful things we have achieved week after week...but dont be surprised that you may witness also our sad moments...life is not perfect, what do you expect? bed of roses all the time?


Anyway, I always tell my families and friends, if you have the desire, the passion and the knowledge/skills - you will always be successful in life/career...and the money/free time you get is just the by-product of your success!! But success is nothing if you are not happy or sick all the time.


But one wise friend of mine told me - if you want a perfect life, not only that you ought to have time, money and good health, you must have 'faith' as he said faith will balance out everything and gives what you really/actually want that is happiness..maybe some people may not buy this. Whatever it is, I really do agree with him.


And I will try to do all my future postings in English. But some will be in Malay...just to keep up with the demand if you know what I mean.

Last but not least, dont be afraid to try...we all know if you never try, you never know. And if you really want something so bad, keep trying and never give up (BUT DO NOT MISCONSTRUED IT by becoming a stalker!!).


I have to stop now. Really.

Apa bestnya Arusha@Kilimanjaro ni?/What is so special about Arusha@Kilimanjaro?

Mcm2 ada!! mcm Astro...talking about Astro, kat sini pun ade cable tv - DSTV. So kami tak le ketinggalan dengan crita CSI ke, Desperate Housewives, English Premier League, World Cup, Nigella cook show, dll.

Back to the subject, Arusha@Kilimajaro adalah gateway to the wild parks like Serengeti National Park, Kilimanjaro Mountain, Lake Manyara etc.

Gambar pertama pantai Pangani di Tanzania, bole tahan cantiknya.

Gambo kedua - Tree Climbing Lions at Lake Manyara.

Gambar ketiga - puncak gunung Kilimanjaro.

(Summary of Translation : We do have cable tv and it is better than Malaysia's Astro Cable TV. The pictures show some of the things that Arusha@Kilimanjaro can offer.)

Karipap/Curry Puff

Isteri jantung hatiku amatlah pandai masak serta baking!! Maknya pun mengaku kalah!! Ckp je apa yang dia tak pandai...hingga menjilat jari, fuh!!

Tengok la karipap ni. 

Hampir tiap hari balik dari pejabat, ada je masakan baru yang dibuatnya...of course, kekadang tu ade yang tak menjadi first time, heheheh.

Yes, saya mengaku kekadang tu rasa mcm 'guinea pig' yang selalu kena test mcm2...tapi mana nak cari karipap kat Arusha@Kilimanjaro ni...kat Kg Baru, pun dah takde karipap camni...kalu ade pun kentang/ubi dlmnya amat lah sedikit...dan at least 50sen satu!!

Cuma sampai sekrg dia masih dlm proses utk meng'pro'kan dirinya utk buat roti canai segera! 

(Summary of translation : My wife is really a good cook. She is good in baking too. For example - this curry puff. It was so good. It is hard to find even in Malaysia, a curry puff as good as my wife's. Almost everyday when I am back from office, she always surprised me with some new 'inventions'. She is now trying very hard to perfect the art of making 'paratha bread') 

Macamana kami dapat bahan makanan Melayu?/How do we get the usual ingredients for Malay dish?

          

Senang je...mulakan kebun sayur dan bela ayam!!

Tengok gambar2 kami ni...kami ade daun kunyit, ulam raja, kuchai, lengkuas, cili api, kangkung, bak choy, serai, etc...

oh ya, berkenaan serai, orang jati arusha@kilimanjaro guner daun serai untuk buat 'teh'...tak la sedap sgt mcm teh lenggong atau sabah.

depa tak guner batang serai utk masak...depa heran apa la org melayu ni guna btg serai utk masak...hehehehe. 

Lepas tu kami bela ayam kampung...dpt telur ayam kampung 5 biji sehari!! ingat nak tambah lagi 5 ekor ayam betina...hari tu (sebelum Jun tahun ni)...kami ade lebih kurang 15 ekor ayam kampung...ayam jantan kami, kami bela dari kecik...besar giler, dekat 7 kilo!! anyway, 3/4 ayam2 kami ni mati diserang cirit birit (jenis penyakit lebih kurang sama ngan cholera)...punye la sedih...tapi kami beli lagi 7 ekor baru-baru ni.

tapi takpe, life goes on.

(Summary of translation : It's easy. We grow our own vegetable and spices. We have galanga, chives, tumeric leaves, etc. We do have our own chickens that never stop giving us, on average, 5 eggs per day! June this year, a third of our 15 chicken died of 'cholera'!! So sad. We bought their replacements recently and life goes on.)

We are Malay

Melayu di Kilimanjaro?!!

Kami ini melayu dari Malaysia. Yang bapaknya dibesarkan di Selangor manakala yang maknya asalnya dari Nogori. Dikurniakan 3 orang anak, perempuan 9, lelaki 6 and 3. Syukur.

Kami bukan sesat jalan. Cuma rezeki kami disini. Sudah hampir 5 tahun kami menetap di pinggiran Kilimanjaro.

Jika sesiapa yang masih ingat subjek Geografinya, Kilimanjaro ni adalah gunung tertinggi di Afrika!! Tapi kami belum panjat lagi walaupun bau Kilimanjaro amat kuat! Pekan yang kami duduki ialah Arusha.

Blog ini ditujukan khas untuk sesiapa yang ingin tahu kehidupan kami orang Melayu yang seronok duduk di benua Afrika tetapi masih sayang dan rindu akan Malaysia!

Sertailah dalam dunia kami secara e!!

(Summary of translation : We are the only Malay in Arusha@Kilimanjaro. We are from Malaysia. We did not get lost. It is just that I found my dream job here. We have stayed in Arusha@Kilimanjaro for almost 5 years. For your information, Kilimanjaro is the name of the highest mountain in African continent. We did this blog to let you know the life of a Malay family in an African continent. We do miss Malaysia a lot!!)