Forkin’ hell

Today was the lightest day of the week and the afternoon was given over to an internal awards ceremony recognising achievements. I was grateful, and surprised (as I am somewhat on the fringes of the office as the only foreigner and working on a transboundary programme) to receive a certificate for advancing our work to connect the landscape efforts between Tanzania and Mozambique.

We were then called at random to take a piece of celebratory cake and partake in the Tanzanian custom of eating it off a fork proffered by someone in front of all spectators. I am about 1.5 feet taller than Halima who was assigned to feed me cake. The photos are highly unflattering.

I was hoping that the cake would be accompanied by a retirement announcement for someone rumoured to be going very soon and whose exit would be…beneficial. I’d eat a whole bakery worth of cake off someone else’s fork in front of the paparazzi to have this news confirmed.

My own end-of-the-week celebration was to meet my friend Adam for tea and chocolate pancakes before he takes his leave in Australia.