By District Mandate all the Secondary Schools in Ngara district must now provide uji (a thin, slightly sweet corn porridge) to students during “tea break” in the late morning. Most students do not eat all day, so this mandate was met (largely) with great happiness on the part of the student body at Ngara Secondary. While parents are required to pay an extra 10,000 shillings (about $6.50 – a lot for the families of many of my students) a semester to cover the cost of the corn, sugar, and labor involved in making the uji, there are great benefits to eating during the day.
The first uji day was a couple of Fridays ago and it was a sight to behold. Around an hour and a half before tea break, a group of mamas (middle aged women with children, mama being a term of respect in Tanzanian culture) began to cook the uji, with one of the female teachers at my school overseeing the process. The preparations had been begun weeks ago, with the purchasing of several very large pots, and a number of large (5 gallon?) buckets. The day before, many of these buckets were used by students to carry the extra water required for uji.
On uji day all the students showed up with plastic cups, some small and some large. At the bell for tea break, students began to mill out of their classrooms with their cups, many doing what I can only assume were uji dances. The excitement was palpable. In our large hall, the students lined up by form, jostling against one another. Then, the uji began to come. One unlucky student began to carry these nearly full buckets into the hall, and then the prefects began to serve the student body. Four lines quickly became eight, and fifteen minutes passed as 500 students were served uji. Depnding on the size of the students’ cup, they got between 8-14 ounces. An unlucky group of 100 more students had yet to be served, as all the uji had not yet been completed. 15 minutes passed, and the ugi began to flow again.
A group of students who had already finished their first serving asked if they could have another, in a line vaguely reminiscent of a Swahili translation of Oliver Twist. Given that this was the first day, their request was granted, and two new lines began to form, and quickly grow. Here things grew serious. The students knew that they would not all get a second serving, so they began to cut, pushing and shoving until teachers had to intervene. Still, the pushing continued, and I had to create a physical barrier between the students who had not gotten their uji, and the students who had come back for seconds. When all the students had received a serving of uji the barrier was withdrawn, and it was every man for himself. If you read my post about lines in Tanzania you will understand. Around 75 students surged forward, crowding madly agains the two remaining uji servers, holding out their cups. Alas, the uji was nearly gone, and only a lucky ten students received a second portion. 45 minutes later, the first uji service at Ngara Secondary was finished. The only casualties were my shoes and pants, splattered with uji during the confusion of the mad rush.
Uji service takes only a half hour now, and the students are noticeably more energized in periods after tea break. Not bad, not bad at all.