things are busy with visiting different orphanages and daycare centers everyday. the added difficulty of communication barriers and transportation issues makes the past week and a half frustrating at best. today i visited a law firm to get help with understanding tanzanian law and discovered why i have been having so much difficulty: there are no tanzanian laws specifically regarding children. none. there is a law regarding marriage that says girls can be married at 15 and men at 19, and this has been used to determine at what age people are adults or children. there is apparently a law on education and labor rights which hint at the definition of a child, but only sort of. it's amazing. so, in my report, i will just have to reference the various united nations conventions that tanzania is technically (use your imagination) a signee of and pretend that they actually matter in analyzing how the government has followed its own rules in treating children. there is an act in parliament right now (it might have already been approved and be awaiting the president's signature) regarding the rights of a child, and it's such a big deal because it's the first law regarding children. this is where i am. i'm not sure if i'm doing an adequate job demonstrating my amazement at this government, this government that lets its own people die from starvation so that foreign companies can entertain rich customers and friends; this government that pretends to require primary education, but does not fund it; this government that does not have a single law protecting its children, whose populations far outnumber its adults; the government whose budget is funded largely by developed countries, which absolutely includes the united states. it is hard right now not to revert to my cynical ways and rhetorically ask you, the reader, why governments exist in the first place. because, if i had not for the past 14 years of my life been fed the concept that a government originates from and exists for its people, i would think, based on three months of observation, that it exists as a means of manipulating reality. because there is just no way that what i'm seeing can be real. maybe the people responsible for this sleep easy at night, but i don't understand how this world of thievery and deception can sustain itself in the larger universe of supposed democracy and goodwill. people say that the tanzanian government is poor, but all i see here is dirt roads and 20 year-old failing water infrastructure and hungry children and "public" schools that charge fees for attendance, food, supplies, and uniforms, so i want to know where the hundreds of millions of dollars are going. and then i see the president and his friends and family with their ten cars and personal security and fashion sunglasses and mansions built on people's farmland. and i know that the united states know this, and that the united nations knows, as well. and the local people know, too, but you have to listen for it carefully, because they are too cautious to speak out against their government. because accidents have a funny way of happening.
www.thomsonsafaris.wordpress.com
i'm providing the link above in case you want to see the way that politics are handled around here. when an investigative journalist publishes a story revealing abuse of villagers, the people responsible get away with it by just making up complete lies in rebuttal. they quote a man who supposedly wrote the letter at the top of their webpage claiming to be a maasai man who is offended by the original article. after spending time with maasai people, especially those near loliondo, i can actually tell that this man, based on his photo, is not maasai, and even if he's ethnically maasai, there's no way he is pastoralist or truly cares about his people. the man in the picture is FAT, has a mustache, his ears aren't stretched out, he's holding some weird touristy wood carving, and he's being photographed in someone's modern house. it's the most ridiculous thing. thomson's safari uses this webpage to argue against any journalism pieces against them by completely making up facts. i just about had a heart attack reading through their stuff. if you're willing, take a look yourself by going to the above link and see what you think. i'd like to think that if i hadn't spent time with people affected by this disaster, i still could've sensed BS, but maybe i wouldn't have.
sorry for turning this blogpost into such a negative rant, but the whole thing is almost too much to handle. i hope the rest of you are doing well, and i look forward to coming back home in about two weeks.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[UPDATE] Thomson Safaris stalked this blog for a long time while I was in Tanzania. Based on my blog tracker, I'd say they were able to trace back to my blog when people clicked the above link to their site. They have now taken down the "letter of support" by their fake Maasai man and have replaced it with an entire website devoted to challenging those who speak out against them. I could go on about this forever, but will leave you with three thoughts: 1. Maasai pastoralist elders don't speak English, so how do they make legally binding agreements with Thomsons? 2. When your cattle are dying and your children are starving, it takes a very small bribe to get you to say whatever Thomsons wants. These "testaments" that Thomsons provides are bought, not earned. 3. It's true. Thomson paid for the land in every Western sense of the concept. What Thomsons doesn't mention is that the brewery company they bought the land from had stolen that land from the Maasai a long time ago and had since then allowed Maasai to graze cattle on it. When Thomsons bought that land, they kicked all the Maasai off, because in their mind they had paid for that land. Thomson's website and testimonials reek of the destructive sense of entitlement necessary to take away native people's lands without the blink of an eye.
11/18/09
11/15/09
11.15.09
my blog posts from now on will probably be small or nonexistant, both because i am very busy and because after posting about some of the crazy things i was witnessing and doing for the past month, things just seem so tame here. i am living at a campsite within the village i'm working in. i am working at the various orphanages, child day centers, and schools to collect statistics on children in need and at risk in the village. the village chairman told me this was the most helpful thing he could think of me to do, so i figured i might as well do it. i was a little disappointed, because i wanted my independent study project to relate to government policy and even international politics, but hopefully i will be able to meet with some local groups here and connect the issue of national politics with the statistics i am finding (i.e. what laws exist to facilitate an increase in government assistance to the community level-groups who are struggling with an overwhelming number of children affected by HIV and poverty?)
i am in a very good mood right now, because we had our first real weekend today and yesterday, visiting a local craft fair and playing guitar/cards. i've still been pretty busy, though, working on internship applications (done!) and research.
i hope you're all having a great time and that it at least is acting a little more wintery in the u.s. (it's hot here, still, which made the 'christmas' fair we went to a little disconcerting).
i am in a very good mood right now, because we had our first real weekend today and yesterday, visiting a local craft fair and playing guitar/cards. i've still been pretty busy, though, working on internship applications (done!) and research.
i hope you're all having a great time and that it at least is acting a little more wintery in the u.s. (it's hot here, still, which made the 'christmas' fair we went to a little disconcerting).
11.6.09
look up 'loliondo' on youtube. i interviewed two maasai folk who were evicted from their homes by the tanzanian government so that a royal family from the u.a.e. could have the entire area for private hunting. entire villages were burned down, animals killed, women raped, a child lost in the fires, a man shot, many people arrested just for asking questions or resisting. everyone would have burned in the flames if they hadn't run away. if you know someone who works for a large media group (npr, cnn, large newspaper, etc.), i'm working with one of the other students (she got video footage) in trying to get international pressure on the tanzanian government (media > NGOs > large economic AID groups), since about half of the tanzanian government's budget actually comes from outside aid (it's also a common practice to include conditions attached to econ. aid, so that indigenous land rights could be included). there is also a safari company that essentially did the same thing. the name of the company is THOMSON'S SAFARI, and they managed to buy the land that a few thousand maasai had been living on, and then kicked them all off of the land. the land was fruitful and had the water and grass necessary for raising cattle, but now the inhabitants have been forced to live on much less suitable land. combined with the current drought, the effects are fatal. cattle are dying every day and are practically worthless in the market, they are so skinny. the way of life of one of the most renowned tribes in east africa, perhaps even all of africa, is being threatened by people who feel that their desire for entertainment (be it looking at wild animals or shooting them) is more important than the livelihoods of thousands upon thousands of people. all of this happened this summer, as in only a few months ago, and nobody is talking about it.
i have two transcripted interviews and photographs of people and the drastic conditions if anybody has media/large NGO connections.
i have two transcripted interviews and photographs of people and the drastic conditions if anybody has media/large NGO connections.
maasai homestay blog 11.2.09 - 11.5.09
day 1
-we walked perhaps 2-3 km
-claire, kim, and miles are near me
-right now i'm in the house (one room boma)-- me, mama (maluwa), her sister (nalarami), her sister's 3 children (lomelo, nabirr, damitt (baby))
-home remarkably clean, small, hard dry mud floors, 2 elevated stick beds w/ cow hides, fire in middle, small hole at top and side (fist sized) to let in light and let out smoke. not too smokey. there seems to be another room, but i'm not sure, haven't seen inside.
-mama's husband is pretty old, asked me to take a picture of him and i said i would on the last day i was there.
-helped peel all potatoes w/ blunt knife-- first used a machete, then they gave me a small knife, both blunt. also helped pour corn into sack (not sure if it was for selling or cows)
-i know a few maasai words (from a vocab sheet), but i am lucky and they speak a small amount of swahili
-hopefully i will not need to go to the bathroom tonight, because the gates are closed and there are supposed to be elephants nearby
-translator (linga) visited an hour after i arrived.
-they sing a lot and i almost fully learned one song, and i try to sing with them. it makes them laugh, because i get the words wrong, but it's a joyful laugh, not teasing.
-mama showed me her 3 cows today-- there are only 3, because the others are being grazed far away (connects to land rights issue-- they lose their land to the government, plus the draught means they have to graze far away)
-while looking at cows and visiting claire, i saw a tiny puppy. it was so adorable and i picked it up and am in love with it. they let me take it into the boma and it slept on my lap for a while until they kicked it out. i want to bring it to america. they want me to, as well, but we both know it's impossible.
-there are no bugs in the boma, except a couple flies during the day (note: this changes later..)
-it's hot in the boma from the mud insulation and fire
-i gave my mama beads and she got so happpy and said thank you many times and kissed my arms, which caught me by surprise. maybe she was just happy that i understood how much she and others enjoy beading during their spare time. when we were peeling potatoes today with the blunt knife, i very much wanted to give her the egetable peeler i brought, but i have been instructed to wait until the last day.
-while we were still at camp, all the women came to us and stood in a line, all singing and some dancing or jumping. we were each given a long walking stick and stood in a line facing them. after they had finished singing for us, we sang 'row row row your boat' for them in three rounds, because it was the only song we could think of that we all knew. they they were told to choose a student. my mama pushed two women aside to take my stick, meaning we were together. that was pretty cool.
-when we got to the boma, she served us all very sweet tea and chapati. it was delicious, but i should've remembered to use my hand sanitizer first (after note: two people are ill and one person has intestinal worms, likely from the maasai homestay. it happens.)
-i'm slightly nervous about alarming them by talking in my sleep. hope i won't do it.
day 2
-had difficulty sleeping. every time i moved, mama woke up and spoke to me in Maa, and i didn't know how to respond, so i just pretended to still be asleep.
-woke up shortly after dawn. they asked me immediately if i needed to 'choo,' which is usually a faux pas to discuss in maasai culture, so they must've noticed that it had been a long time since i went (AKA not at all).
-mama led me to shrub fence, apparently a popular place to 'choo'
-went back, drank sweet tea, took vitamins
-collected water with large (her) and small (me) jugs at the primary school. many school children stared at me and yelled greetings.
-brought water back to house, ate 'uji' (porridge), which was very good
-she took me to the shed nearby and showed me all the jewelry she'd made. then she gave me a necklace and two bracelets. i also proposed that i buy one of the larger, thick necklaces for $5 from her later and she seemed to like the idea, but we decided to wait.
-cooked chapati and i helped prepare potatoes and cabbage, which she cooked with 'beef flavor' packets (they used to use cow meat, but their cows are all dying-- cheers to the government taking their land and consequential livelihood)
-before eating we walked out and chopped firewood. it was far away and i have blisters, had to wrap my foot in toilet paper with spit. firewood chopping requires lots of strength. my mama was much better at it than me, probably better than most guys in the u.s. at it, seriously. she still seemed to appreciate the effort, though, when i tried to chop the wood.
-visited claire's house for water
-made anklets. she wanted me to cut off the one i already had from the hadza women, because it didn't match, but i said no, and she didn't seem to mind too much. i think she just wanted my ankles to look cool.
-we had a meeting with the other students which was boring and kind of useless, then left
- beaded a bracelet
day 3
-on the first night, i gave my mama the vegetable peeler, because i wanted her to know what it was for so it didn't just sit around, even though we'd already finished cooking for the day. she used it yesterday. well, technically, i used it, since i peel all the potatoes. she was appreciative.
-last night i discovered that there are about 30 cockroaches living in the wall next to where i sleep. this is because the sticks there are not covered in mud/cow dung. 30! \i looked up the phrase 'i am afraid of cows' (which had been provided to us, just in case) and just used the 'i am afraid of' and then pointed at the wall. they laughed and just replied 'hamna shida' (it's not a problem) so i repeated that and said no more of it. yeah.
-still love the puppy. they still hate it (bugs, dirty, needs too much attention, etc.)
-made large earrings and another bracelet today
-took the cows (3 large, 1 calf) out to the 'forest' (2 km) and cut down branches for them to eat since there's no grass. they gave me a swatting stick and later made me a thick stick with a knob on the end for really hitting stuff. it's similar to what maasai use to kill big/medium cats (i think... i was a little confused about how you kill a leapord with a stick). when we got back, mama made the little boy (lomelo) bow his head to me and i had to place my hand on his head. then i gave him the sticks and he said 'ashe' (thank you in maasai). CUTE.
-while making the earrings, mama cut herself (she was using a razor blade to cut pieces), so i ran out (it was raining) and got my bag and treated the cut with alcohol swab and band aid. i guess it was kind of comical, but she was bleeding quite a bit.
-have had no meat or blood (traditional meal things), only animal product has been milk in the tea. people are really struggling.
-turns out it's not my mama's sister living with her, it's her husband's 3rd wife and he just hasn't been able to build her a home yet. she gave me a bracelet today and we took pictures together.
-we walked perhaps 2-3 km
-claire, kim, and miles are near me
-right now i'm in the house (one room boma)-- me, mama (maluwa), her sister (nalarami), her sister's 3 children (lomelo, nabirr, damitt (baby))
-home remarkably clean, small, hard dry mud floors, 2 elevated stick beds w/ cow hides, fire in middle, small hole at top and side (fist sized) to let in light and let out smoke. not too smokey. there seems to be another room, but i'm not sure, haven't seen inside.
-mama's husband is pretty old, asked me to take a picture of him and i said i would on the last day i was there.
-helped peel all potatoes w/ blunt knife-- first used a machete, then they gave me a small knife, both blunt. also helped pour corn into sack (not sure if it was for selling or cows)
-i know a few maasai words (from a vocab sheet), but i am lucky and they speak a small amount of swahili
-hopefully i will not need to go to the bathroom tonight, because the gates are closed and there are supposed to be elephants nearby
-translator (linga) visited an hour after i arrived.
-they sing a lot and i almost fully learned one song, and i try to sing with them. it makes them laugh, because i get the words wrong, but it's a joyful laugh, not teasing.
-mama showed me her 3 cows today-- there are only 3, because the others are being grazed far away (connects to land rights issue-- they lose their land to the government, plus the draught means they have to graze far away)
-while looking at cows and visiting claire, i saw a tiny puppy. it was so adorable and i picked it up and am in love with it. they let me take it into the boma and it slept on my lap for a while until they kicked it out. i want to bring it to america. they want me to, as well, but we both know it's impossible.
-there are no bugs in the boma, except a couple flies during the day (note: this changes later..)
-it's hot in the boma from the mud insulation and fire
-i gave my mama beads and she got so happpy and said thank you many times and kissed my arms, which caught me by surprise. maybe she was just happy that i understood how much she and others enjoy beading during their spare time. when we were peeling potatoes today with the blunt knife, i very much wanted to give her the egetable peeler i brought, but i have been instructed to wait until the last day.
-while we were still at camp, all the women came to us and stood in a line, all singing and some dancing or jumping. we were each given a long walking stick and stood in a line facing them. after they had finished singing for us, we sang 'row row row your boat' for them in three rounds, because it was the only song we could think of that we all knew. they they were told to choose a student. my mama pushed two women aside to take my stick, meaning we were together. that was pretty cool.
-when we got to the boma, she served us all very sweet tea and chapati. it was delicious, but i should've remembered to use my hand sanitizer first (after note: two people are ill and one person has intestinal worms, likely from the maasai homestay. it happens.)
-i'm slightly nervous about alarming them by talking in my sleep. hope i won't do it.
day 2
-had difficulty sleeping. every time i moved, mama woke up and spoke to me in Maa, and i didn't know how to respond, so i just pretended to still be asleep.
-woke up shortly after dawn. they asked me immediately if i needed to 'choo,' which is usually a faux pas to discuss in maasai culture, so they must've noticed that it had been a long time since i went (AKA not at all).
-mama led me to shrub fence, apparently a popular place to 'choo'
-went back, drank sweet tea, took vitamins
-collected water with large (her) and small (me) jugs at the primary school. many school children stared at me and yelled greetings.
-brought water back to house, ate 'uji' (porridge), which was very good
-she took me to the shed nearby and showed me all the jewelry she'd made. then she gave me a necklace and two bracelets. i also proposed that i buy one of the larger, thick necklaces for $5 from her later and she seemed to like the idea, but we decided to wait.
-cooked chapati and i helped prepare potatoes and cabbage, which she cooked with 'beef flavor' packets (they used to use cow meat, but their cows are all dying-- cheers to the government taking their land and consequential livelihood)
-before eating we walked out and chopped firewood. it was far away and i have blisters, had to wrap my foot in toilet paper with spit. firewood chopping requires lots of strength. my mama was much better at it than me, probably better than most guys in the u.s. at it, seriously. she still seemed to appreciate the effort, though, when i tried to chop the wood.
-visited claire's house for water
-made anklets. she wanted me to cut off the one i already had from the hadza women, because it didn't match, but i said no, and she didn't seem to mind too much. i think she just wanted my ankles to look cool.
-we had a meeting with the other students which was boring and kind of useless, then left
- beaded a bracelet
day 3
-on the first night, i gave my mama the vegetable peeler, because i wanted her to know what it was for so it didn't just sit around, even though we'd already finished cooking for the day. she used it yesterday. well, technically, i used it, since i peel all the potatoes. she was appreciative.
-last night i discovered that there are about 30 cockroaches living in the wall next to where i sleep. this is because the sticks there are not covered in mud/cow dung. 30! \i looked up the phrase 'i am afraid of cows' (which had been provided to us, just in case) and just used the 'i am afraid of' and then pointed at the wall. they laughed and just replied 'hamna shida' (it's not a problem) so i repeated that and said no more of it. yeah.
-still love the puppy. they still hate it (bugs, dirty, needs too much attention, etc.)
-made large earrings and another bracelet today
-took the cows (3 large, 1 calf) out to the 'forest' (2 km) and cut down branches for them to eat since there's no grass. they gave me a swatting stick and later made me a thick stick with a knob on the end for really hitting stuff. it's similar to what maasai use to kill big/medium cats (i think... i was a little confused about how you kill a leapord with a stick). when we got back, mama made the little boy (lomelo) bow his head to me and i had to place my hand on his head. then i gave him the sticks and he said 'ashe' (thank you in maasai). CUTE.
-while making the earrings, mama cut herself (she was using a razor blade to cut pieces), so i ran out (it was raining) and got my bag and treated the cut with alcohol swab and band aid. i guess it was kind of comical, but she was bleeding quite a bit.
-have had no meat or blood (traditional meal things), only animal product has been milk in the tea. people are really struggling.
-turns out it's not my mama's sister living with her, it's her husband's 3rd wife and he just hasn't been able to build her a home yet. she gave me a bracelet today and we took pictures together.
11/9/09
10.26.09
there are so many things i could share with you right now. i could tell of my awe-inspiring farmers tan or the battered condition my legs and ankles have found themselves in. or I could tell you about my five hadza arrows (three that i traded my watch for and two that i gave $8 for) that i have safely strapped to one of the roof supports in our safari truck. but, perhaps best of all, i could tell you the story that connects all of these, and it begins at 5:30 in the morning, because the best hunting is before dawn. today i stalked animals in the desert with a hunter from the hadza tribe, thought to be one of the original people, and the last full time hunter gatherer tribe in africa. i huddled fifty feet away while i watched him shoot a giraffe with his bow and arrow. we had been sitting on a cliff, him smoking tobacco in our notebook paper and the four of us (rachel, jazz, elly, and myself) snacking on peanuts and dried pineapple, when he told us he had spotted giraffe. we had already encountered a small herd of them earlier, though they quickly were alerted by nearby birds and our scent, as we had been upwind. we had also stalked a warthog, a bird of prey, and dik dik (small ungulate). after spotting the second giraffe, we quickly headed down from the rocks, me making sounds of nervousness and galumping awkwardly the whole way. to us, in our untrained minds, we were walking without aim or purpose, and i did not connect his announcement on the cliff with our current wanderings. sure enough, after ten minutes of us tripping through bushes and ripping through thorny (2 inch long thorns) acacia branches, he motioned for us to get low. we complied, and he did the same, taking off his red shirt and sandals silently and then crawling in a way only comparable to a lion for fifty feet or so, finally crouching behind a large bush and waiting. we must have waited for ten minutes, muscles tightening and minds wandering. i didn't even see the giraffe until it started galloping away, at which point he jumped out and shot his arrow into the giraffe's behind. it was a poisonous arrow, and i write this while we rest back at camp before trekking out again to collect it it. it is "kubwa"-- big-- and a mother. we followed the injured beast's trail for twenty minutes or so, by its trail of staggered tracks and occasional small pools of blood.
--later---
in the end, we did not catch the giraffe. we left the camp after lunch, perhaps twenty students, the teachers, and ten or so hadza hunters. we walked quickly and sometimes ran, following what eventually became a fresh trail left by the giraffe. after an hour, they declared that the giraffe was unbelievably still alive and "drunk" off the poison from the arrow, staggering and weaving, even once running into a tree. at one point, two of the hadza spotted the giraffe, which led to a frenzy of running to try and follow it. we ran for a long time through acacia and shrubs. twice i had to quickly stop and pull long thorns from my feet, before running to catch up. the group got separated and we continued trying to follow its trail. after two hours, the sun was getting ready to set and our professor told us we had to go back to camp, lest we get lost in the dark. i was so utterly disappointed. the hadza man i had been with told me he would try to find it tomorrow, but i could see the disappointment in him as well. even for these guys who hunt every day, a giraffe is a big deal. two other groups had caught hyrax, but nothing like this. the walk back was excrutiating, physically and mentally. after hunting all day and then running/jogging/tripping for the past two hours, i was unbelievably sore and had blisters, cuts, bruises, and the like all over. plus, it was a two hour hike back, after having lost a giraffe. when we got back, i skipped dinner and just went to sleep, waking up the next day in a significantly better mood.
--later---
in the end, we did not catch the giraffe. we left the camp after lunch, perhaps twenty students, the teachers, and ten or so hadza hunters. we walked quickly and sometimes ran, following what eventually became a fresh trail left by the giraffe. after an hour, they declared that the giraffe was unbelievably still alive and "drunk" off the poison from the arrow, staggering and weaving, even once running into a tree. at one point, two of the hadza spotted the giraffe, which led to a frenzy of running to try and follow it. we ran for a long time through acacia and shrubs. twice i had to quickly stop and pull long thorns from my feet, before running to catch up. the group got separated and we continued trying to follow its trail. after two hours, the sun was getting ready to set and our professor told us we had to go back to camp, lest we get lost in the dark. i was so utterly disappointed. the hadza man i had been with told me he would try to find it tomorrow, but i could see the disappointment in him as well. even for these guys who hunt every day, a giraffe is a big deal. two other groups had caught hyrax, but nothing like this. the walk back was excrutiating, physically and mentally. after hunting all day and then running/jogging/tripping for the past two hours, i was unbelievably sore and had blisters, cuts, bruises, and the like all over. plus, it was a two hour hike back, after having lost a giraffe. when we got back, i skipped dinner and just went to sleep, waking up the next day in a significantly better mood.
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