Maasai, Black Panthers, and Mud...

I'm becoming Maasai!! This past weekend, I went on safari to a remote Maasai village, perched right on the Kenyan border of Tanzania, called Lesoiti...and I had an amazing experience!! Especially after Friday, when we didn't have water at the home base for a 24-hour period, it was so good to get away...but it sure makes you appreciate turning the handle on the faucet and have water come out of it all the more! Again I say, the staff here is amazing, carrying water in for us and doing 110% above the norm. But I digress...the safari began on Saturday, and was led by the Maasai warrior I work with at Kitumusote, as this safari is one of the small business projects he has started to bring income into the village and share Maasai culture at the same time. It took about 2 1/2 hours to reach the village, with a stop at a Maasai market along the way. We arrived to children running to greet us, and the women of the village singing and dancing, which we joined in with and boy, did they showed us how it's done, I'm here to tell ya! If you've ever seen pictures of Maasai women with the large beaded collars around their necks, and the way they dance sends the collars bouncing up and down...well, I learned how to do that, and the secret...it's all in the shoulders! So then we got a chance to sing and explain to them the significance of the songs in Western cultures...there has never been a better rendition of the first verse of "Amazing Grace" and "Happy Birthday" in the history of Maasai, I'm sure of it!! We also went on a hike with several Maasai warriors, got to try our hand at spear throwing, and tasted the most amazing berries...it was like fruit roll-ups growing on a bush! We came back to the village just as the sun was starting to go down, and the warriors prepared the highlight of the weekend...the ceremonial goat slaughter!! Yes, that's right, I witnessed a traditional goat slaughter (although I've never seen one before, so it's my best guess that this one was traditional). The goat is suffocated, then skinned, then the insides were taken out, leaving all the blood in the carcass, which acts as a bowl, from which the warriors dip into and partake of the blood, inviting us to do the same...only one in our group did so, and it was not me, let me assure all of you. I did opt for the goat skin bracelet, made for me by one of the warriors, which I'm still wearing as I type this. It's blessed and is supposed to bring good fortune...we'll see. After the sun set, we got to dance again, only this time with the warriors! I have never experienced anything like it in my life...the sound that all of them made, and seeing 21 silhouettes around the fire, under the clearest night sky and the brightest half moon...chanting and jumping, it was incredible, and they go until 2-3 in the morning!! (I only lasted until 10 mind you, when I crawled into my tent between the cow dung enkajis/houses). Sunday we got to go inside one of the enkajis, and once our eyes adjusted to the darkness inside, I was surprised how roomy they are! Right before we left, I got a chance to learn how to make a bracelet with beads Maasai style, and what each of the colors means in their culture, i.e. white symbolizes clouds and they wear mostly white ornamnentation during the dry season to bring on the rains. As we rolled away from the village on a dirt path only a Maasai could find, I was thrilled to be able to see and be a part of, if only for a weekend, the culture that I am working so closely with on my project.

So by now you're probably wondering when Black Panthers are going to come into the mix...Monday I got to hang with one of the prominent former leaders of the Black Panther Party. After being charged with the offense of carrying a shotgun across state lines in the U.S. in the late 60's, Pete O'Neal and his wife Charlotte fled the country, ending up in Arusha, Tanzania. They have continued the work they started in Kansas City (minus the gun-toting) by founding the United African Alliance Community Center, which teaches classes, sports, and arts, emphasizing free expression, to local students. The compound is absolutely beautiful, and we had a down-home cooked meal (BBQ chicken and the works)! It was almost surreal hearing him speak one minute in his southern drawl and the next speaking Swahili to the students. I don't necessarily agree with him politically or philosophically, but it was an amazing opportunity to meet him and discuss current affairs with him, one of the last leaders of the Party still alive, living in self-imposed exile for the last 32 years in Arusha. Even his dog "Blackie" has dredlocks (a sign of revolution)!!

OK, now for the mud...Tuesday I went on a fieldtrip!! Every week, Kitumusote has a general committee meeting in Eluai, which is the home village of the organization's director, located in Monduli District, about a 2-hour drive west-ish of Arusha. The village is nestled right into the hillside of Monduli mountain, and it was absolutely breathtaking, both the drive into the village and the views from the village itself looking down into the valley, which is basically Ngorongoro Crater on the other side of the mountain!! I got to see the store and classroom that has been built for the Maasai Women's Cooperative Society, as well as the vegetable garden and the 40-some new trees that have been planted as a result of the reforestation project. I also got to meet those in charge of the store, the garden, the tree-planting, and the teachers of the English, Swahili, and math classes. The meeting was well-attended, and the director translated/paraphrased everything for me. But the best moment was hearing all of the women in attendance introduce themselves in fluent Swahili, (and participate in the meeting in fluent Swahili), and then see 2 of the women absolutely beaming with pride as they introduced themselves in English!! I was happy to assume the role of photographer, snapping away like crazy to get pictures for the brochures, newsletter, and then came the identification card pictures. Kitumusote has agreed to produce ID cards for all members, which everyone was buzzing about as soon as that particular agenda item was introduced. To watch these women primp and pass around different pieces of jewelry, or get their large dangling beaded earrings just so, in order to have their picture taken, was absolutely wonderful, and I couldn't help but smile at their excitement! The pride that all of the members of the organization take in themselves and their community, wanting to learn and become educated, but maintaining their culture at the same time, is something I'm so grateful to witness and share with them. So the dirt road to the village is quite bumpy, but navigable, unless it rains, which it did during the meeting. We made it back down the mountain, getting about halfway to the main village of Monduli Juu, when we got hopelessly stuck in the mud. We did give a valiant effort to push the car along, for which I got sprayed with mud from the spinning tires, but it proved to be too much for us in the end. We had to abandon the car, and walk about an hour and a half to the village center, in mud the consistency of clay, having to stop and kick it off my shoes every 5 steps because it looked like I had platform or high-heeled shoes on. Once there, we hitchhiked a ride on the back of a pick-up truck, travelling at an alarmingly fast speed, weaving in and out of livestock being brought in from grazing for the day, gratefully disembarking at the depot where we could get a daladala (small bus) back to Arusha. The stares I encountered from nearly every person we drove past, with a white girl, a Maasai warrior, and 2 other Africans dressed in executive attire, riding in the back of this pickup into town, brought my experience as a minority in a foreign country to a whole new level, and was quite hysterical! I hope to return for the weekly meetings, as the women have guaranteed that under their tutelage, I'll be fluent in Maa by the time I leave next month. However, with the rainy season upon us, I think I'll also be the best mud hiker this side of the Great Rift Valley and will have a host of other tales to share with each trek to the village!!

So there you have it...my adventures thus far...can't believe I'm almost finished with my 3-week orientation period...my free afternoons are looking very good right now!!