Sunday night the first homestay group arrived back at River Camp. The second group is at their homestays right now, hopefully having a wonderful time.
On the way to our villages, we stopped at a big gathering of a local tribe (Sambul/Samburu?). It turned out it was a dancing competition of two age groups that only happened every couple of years! The dancing lasts for 4 days and nights until someone is declared the winner. During this time, no one sleeps. They switch out in groups so that they can eat and then get back to the dancing. It was a huge honor and really awesome to be able to see this. The eight Michigan students all joined in the dancing and tried to keep the beat. We were all incredibly tired after a couple of minutes of dancing. We couldn't imagine how this could go on for four days with no rest! Everyone was covered in colorful beads and dressed in traditional clothing. The men painted their heads red, and the women painted their necks red. Despite all the tradition going on, it seemed like everyone had a cell phone! We also met a Peace Corps volunteer here who was working nearby.
We all got dropped off at different manyattas/bomas in pairs. When we arrived at our boma, there was more singing and dancing going on outside. Our host explained that everyone was happy that there had been so much recent rain, so they were celebrating and also helping to welcome us. A boma is a group of homes that is surrounded by a fence made of acacia tree branches which are covered in thorns to keep the wildlife out and the livestock in. The homes are made of tree branches for the roofs with cow dung walls. Our manyatta (Alyse and Bridget) consisted of five of these homes, a bathing area, an area for goats, and an area for cows all surrounded by the thorny fence. The "toilet" was a hole in the ground surrounded by four posts connected with tarps (with no roof). Right at the beginning, the adults decided that there was no way that they could pronounce our American names. In a very serious ceremony, the elders and adults discussed what our names would be inside of a smoky room. We were finally presented with our names. Alyse was Nabaru, which meant that the community would be blessed with many people. Bridget was Nashaki, which meant that the community would be blessed with rain. They later dressed us up in traditional clothing and beads on our necks.
We were able to get familiar with the typical women's work for the Masaai. This included collecting firewood, fetching water, milking the animals, cooking, and cleaning. The first night we arrived, we milked the goats and went to get water. The goat milking was pretty unsuccessful. The whole weekend, the 2 year old showed us up every time by getting more milk than the two of us combined. The first morning, we were responsible for opening up the "gate" of the boma, which was really just more acacia branches. We also got our second try at milking the goats. Bridget thought she was succeeding until the goat kicked over her milk. We then cleaned out all of the goat's poop. The poop is collected in a large pile outside of the boma that is sold at the end of the year for manure. Later we helped take the cattle and goats outside of the fence to graze around the boma. The cows don't need to be watched to carefully because they won't go too far without being milked. The milking of the cows was not something we participated in, probably a good thing due to our lack of milking skills.
Next was fetching the firewood. With dull tools that I guess could be called machetes, we were supposed to cut dead branches into uniform pieces of wood and somehow smooth the edges. As we sucked down water and missed the branches with our tools, the Masaai women just laughed at us. The wood is tied together with a long strap that is then used to carry the weight of the load on your forehead. This was super hard, and we finally made it back to the boma with about half the wood of the other women and tons of thorns in our hands. Next was collecting the water, which when compared to the wood gathering was relatively easy. The water was removed from a pool of brown standing water which looked like it may have been a perfect mosquito breeding ground in the right season. The water is carried back like the firewood, attached to a strap so that the weight of the water is concentrated on the lower back and head.
Though the children were all pretty scared of us when we first arrived, our host assured us that it was just because they had never seen white people before. They eventually warmed up to us on the second day, where we are allowed to participate in their games. Games included variations of hopscotch, and lots of hand clapping games. We were eventually overwhelmed with the amount of children around as they examined our skin and braided our hair.
There is a fire inside the homes that is always lit, which assured that they were hot and filled with smoke. The meals were all traditional Kenyan food. In place of breakfast was tea consisting of water, goat's milk, tea, and lots of sugar. The same tea is offered throughout the day and at every meal. For lunch and dinner, ugali (maize meal, water, and vegetable fat) was a stable. On the side, there was a dish consisting of vegetables, beans, or lentils. We were offered way more food than we ever could have eaten, but our host luckily told us we didn't need to finish everything since the children would eat the leftovers. Aside from the milk, getting food is a challenge for the people. There is a market a couple of times a week, but it is at least a 2 hour walk.
We were surprised to find out that the kitchen is the same room as the sleeping quarters. There were two raised beds with bed frames of sticks and animal hides covered in a blanket. Though we brought sleeping bags, they fire made it much too hot to begin with. Bridget stayed awake because of all the smoke, and Alyse stayed awake with sticks in her back.
After dinner both nights, we were told a number of folktales. There was one about a 8 headed giant who ate people, a couple about the hyena and hare, another about a man who ate children, and the last about a warrior retrieving his stolen property.
On Sunday morning, we were picked up from church and met up with the rest of the group. We toured an ecolodge where we ate lunch. We also toured a school where a portion of our fundraising money and all of our school supplies were donated. The school was clearly in need of school supplies and books, so we hope that our money will be put to good use here.
The homestay showed us a different side of Kenya that we hadn't seen yet. We now have two more days before the group departs back the the USA. We are planning on having a goat roast tomorrow night so we can thank the Mpala staff and say our last goodbyes.
See you soon!
- Nabaru & Nashaki (Alyse & Bridget)
No comments:
Post a Comment