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.