Maasai Language 101 (Enkutuk olMaasai 101)

Since we've been getting lots of questions about pronunciation & word usage, we thought we'd post some tutorials... First of all, we can't really explain the complete pronunciation because it is tonal, but we'll try to give you an overview.

1. All consonants are pronounced as we know them normally. "ng" can either be -ng as in sing or n & hard g sounds.

2. All vowels (except a) have 2 sounds (open & closed- we have yet to figure out which sounds are considered open by the Maasai...) Most of the sounds are pure/round sounds (no southern drawl please)
a = [a] or for those who don't know IPA [a] = ah
e = [e] ay, as in play (no diphthong)
e = [E] eh, as in bleh
i = [i] ee, as in fleet
i = [I] ih, as in flip
o = [o] oh, as in go
o = [u] ooh, as in goop
u = [u] ooh, glue
u = [υ] uh, as in good or yuck, a cross between the two

3. Multiple vowels in a row makes more of the same sound. Example: aataraposhe. (lengthen the ah sound at the beginning of the word) or nchooki [n-cho-oki] there isn't the ooh sound we're used to in English or itiii ( long [i] or ee sound at end)

4. All verbs start with a.

5. All nouns that start with en are feminine. All nouns that start with ol are masculine. All nouns that start with i are plural. Everything has to match within the sentence. Luckily, the words actually follow this pattern. There are very few words that don't start with either en, ol or i.

This brings us to the end of Enkutuk OlMaasai 101. Olesere (goodbye)

Some Pictures from Najile

Najile: Matt's perspective

Matt:

All day I did not feel healthy. My throat was constantly filling with phlegm and as the day wore on I developed a headache. The long, bumpy ride did not help facilitate things. Like Steph, the vast bleakness of the landscape struck me. It was empty and seemingly a weary land for as far as the eye can see. However, whenever we passed shepherds with their cows or goats, life seemed possible. There was much joy in the friendly waves and big smiles. Somewhere, somehow people were surviving even here. Somehow it seems like some people call this place home.

Arriving at the house/church compound was not what I expected. Through some shrubs was our house. In some ways it was further along, and other ways well behind what I had imagined. I was pleased to see how “house-like” the whole thing looked like. The walls were straight, the roof was nicely attached, there were nice grates in the windows and a cute little veranda. The rooms were smaller than I imagined, but I could also pictures this place being a snug warm place to be.

The stop to see food distribution at Ewaso was most useful in starting a rapport with the program leader, Daniael. He complemented our Maasai vocabulary and he felt like somebody I could be friends with. He is smart and friendly, kind and welcoming. He later invited us to the good Friday service in Najile as well as his sister’s wedding. He looked so excited to invite us, I felt truly welcome at that point.

As we came back to Najile to see the final (second) distribution of the day, we had lunch and met some more MFSP/POMC people. Now it seemed like people were starting to warm up to us. The different leaders helped us through Maasai (I was annoyed we couldn’t understand what they were saying even when we knew the words). When I was speaking in Maasai I felt like I was on the inside instead of the outside of the Maasai world. That brought a sense of hope, when we could really speak with these people, be their voice to MCC (not just MCC's voice to them). I hope that we can really facilitate that connection by guiding POMC through the changes they need to do to continue to get the funding they need but also remain true to who they are, basically caring people.

As much as in the development world the idea of simply wanting to help others is poo-pooed as for the bleeding hearts, I think the reality is that’s all we’re doing. In some ways POMC is no different than I am, trying to serve people through our faults and strengths. While outsiders bring their own set of short-sightedness, I don’t think we’re inherently “better” or “worse” than locals. We’re all, local and foreign, trying to just help and I think it takes all sorts of people to address the serious issues facing the Maasai people.

After a long day, I am tired. Going into and out of our future world was like jumping from the cold air into the colder pool, back into the night air and then into a hot tub. By the time I almost had my feet in Najile I was bumping and thumping my way back to crazy Nairobi. I just wanted to rest. It does give me some relief however, to know that our future home is waiting for us, and that there will be just as many challenges and joys as any other home we’ve ever had.

Najile: Steph's perspective

Ngole (Yesterday), we got to visit Najile for the first time. The drive there was long, rocky and dusty. We were thankful for the low level air conditioning we could turn on, to close the windows and keep out the dust. The sheer vastness of the space was overwhelming. I did not expect so much open, dry, lonely landscape. It saddened me to see a land so worn out by lack of water.

When we arrived at Najile I was disappointed. I was disappointed that we were to live so separate from people. It was such a lonely space. Our house is next to the POMC model farm and church. But no other homes, until down the road in Najile. It’s not a far walk, but I had hoped to be across the street from other homes. In our first conversations with the Maasai, it was overwhelming to understand so little.

I’m not sure how to describe my response to seeing our house in progress for the first time. This house, is to be our home. It’s nice. We have a porch, a kitchen, a dining doom, living room, separate shower, toilet & sink, 2 bedrooms and an office. The bedrooms are tight- with the mistakes in measurement, the bed wouldn’t fit in our bedroom…but after some further discussion, a couple small walls will be knocked down to better use the space. We also have a septic tank, and a water pipeline being constructed for our use. I feel spoiled.

After seeing our house, we set out to see the food-for-work distributions in other areas near Najile. After more dusty driving we came to a site, only to find out that they wouldn’t do the distribution until more people arrived. (Africa time, they weren’t even ready to do the distribution when we came back through) So we drove on to Ewaso, the market town closest to Najile (9 km), through more dusty roads. When we arrived at the distribution site we were greeted by everyone. There was a general excitement over the food distribution, and we hoped that it would help those who were most in need. But how do you really know if the people who need it are getting the food? As the distribution came to an end, we piled into the back of the Land Rover to drive back to Najile for food distribution there.

We gathered for tea with many of the POMC (our local partner) and MFSP (Maasai Food Security Program) leaders, in addition to our group (Ron & Martha- country directors, Emily- phd student studying MCC, & Daniel- Maasai Food for Work program coordinator). The Najile assistant chief, Beatrice was there. We both were slower at drinking our tea (thus left alone to talk) and I enjoyed talking with her. She is passionate about helping Maasai women and sees her role as empowering them through education. I look forward to working with her more.

We went out to join the distribution. Matt & Martha had gone to make changes with the house, Emily & I were recruited to handout food. I gave out the cooking fat “etala” (ay-tall-ah), Emily & 2 others gave out the beans “imposho” and 2 others gave out the maize flour “enkurma”. I was happy being there. Not because I was giving needy people food, but because I was in a community of people who welcomed us here. As soon as they learned we would be living among them, they gave hugs, handshakes and repeated words of welcome. They got excited every time I spoke anything in Maasai. I understood some of the things they said to each other. (yay!) When we went for lunch with the POMC leaders, again they affirmed our progress in learning Maasai. Elizabeth said that before she knew who we were, she thought we were the ones to live in Najile, because of our Maasai language skills. That felt good. Everyone gladly helped us and cheered every attempt we made in Maasai. Instead of feeling like outsiders, I felt like we were valuable new additions to the community. As we drove away, our house didn’t seem so lonely anymore.

Enkare Torrono

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink, well sort of. Our landlady fixed the pump behind our house yesterday so we now get a whole lot of water coming from various places in our apartment. One such place is the side of the bathtub, which created a large puddle in the bathroom yesterday. Oh well, we may soon be able to shower, something that we've been anxiously awaiting.
Tomorrow, tuesday, we may be visiting our project site. The food for work project in our town is starting up and hopefully we'll visit some distribution sites and our house (pictures to come??). Otherwise our weekend was lots of fun, including hanging out with Jill and Nate Milton saturday (at the Rosslyn pool) and Elise's 4th birthday (Elise is the son of one of the MCC couples here). Travel was finally not a problem as we now are feeling much more comfortable with buses, matatus, taxis, and mooching rides from other mccers. So now if we could just find a small group (bible study) here, we'll feel almost at home, in a strange Kenyan kind of way.
No new profound insights on life here. I am expecting to learn a lot from our trip tomorrow so be praying for God's eyes as we meet what will be our home for the first time.

Sundays...

Living without any regular form of transportation has been a new challenge and entertainment for us. In the past few days we have walked between 7-11 kilometers each day, exploring the city. We didn't plan to walk that far... but in the process we have explored much of the southwestern part of Nairobi, where we live, as well as in the center of town.

Yesterday, Sunday, was no exception. We walked a few kilometers to church yesterday morning. We enjoyed worshipping at Nairobi Baptist Church. We felt it was a church rooted in the word and the preacher was really on point. It is a congregation of mostly Kenyans, but the services are conducted in English. The church is huge (6 stories), with much more than a thousand people... We were invited to tea by the official welcome crew, and they are hopefully finding us a small group that meets close to our apartment. We are looking forward to developing a church community.

We then found ourselves walking another few km to meet a fellow MCC-er for lunch at Habesha, an amazing Ethiopian restaurant. While eating there, we got a call from another worker saying that there would be a birthday celebration that night at...Habesha. But we needed to do errands in between. We walked a long way, only to find the places we needed to go closed. Sundays have always been complicated for us. A group of EMM & MCC-ers get together every Sunday evening at the guest house. Problem: we have no transportation. We can walk & get matatus during the day, but getting home is more complicated. No public transportation comes near our house. So then we have to get a taxi...(which are often really busy at night and hard to get) but last night we were meeting at Habesha, which is closer to our apartment. We had hoped to get a ride home, instead of paying for a taxi, but having people we barely know go out of their way to take us home... we called a taxi. 2-hours later, it still hadn't come. Luckily, our hosts, Jonathan & Marti and their kids Elyse (pronounced ay-lee-zay) and Kalina, were happy to have us stay at their place while we waited. Eventually, once they got their kids in bed, they brought us home. It took at most 10 minutes.

We realized that our struggle has been the absence of an advocate. Here, each family is fending for themselves, adjusting to the culture, and filling their role as best they can. We miss our community at home that has stood by us and all the people that would go out of their way to care for us. We hope that this place will help us better see those in need of an advocate. We pray that we can be that person.

Humility

You meet all sorts of people when you travel abroad. Development workers especially strike me as a particularly unique sort. Some development vagabonds have traversed the world many times over and hold the memory of projects as war trophies. Being new to this scene, I am often given very little respect. This is humbling. After a year of studying development and learning about "best practices" its quite an experience to hear a condescending voice say, "You just certainly can't do that!" when you talk about your project. In no way does this affect my confidence in what we're doing here, but to simply let my urge to let loose a verbal rampage fade into a vague smile takes a lot for me. I thank God for helping me learn the art of biting my tongue!

In other news, it rained last night! Praise God. Despite this, our enkare olmuseregi (tap water) is sporadic at best. We are lucky enough to have access to plenty of bottled water, but it reminds us of those who live without water every day. I can tell you this, it really stinks (in all ways) to not have water! Next time we hear rain, we'll be sure to run outside with our basins and collect some good shower water!

History

This past week I've been working my way through "A History of Postwar
Africa" by John Hatch. It is a real eye opener. There is so much history
that I was never taught and it boils my blood to see how poorly people,
God's children, have been treated over the past 60 years. What makes it
worse is that this story is not told. Racism always seemed to be treated as
something from the past in school, something that is long gone. But it was
not so long ago in America and in Africa and around the world that the idea
of racial superiority was national law. An entire section of the book looks
at the Afrikaner ideology in forming South Africa. It breaks my heart to
read about the innumerable injustices white men thrust upon Africans.

The question that I am left with is, where is this going on
today? It seems impossible that people didn't speak out about what was
going on during apartheid, but apartheid stood for 40 years. What
injustices are going on today that we ignore or close our eyes to? Do we
need to repent to our African brothers and sisters for what whites have done
to them? How do we make sure that people hear the story of what happened in
Africa, instead of Africa being the great dark continent? And here I am, in
Kenya, what can I do to repent, to reconcile, and to rebuild over the rubble
of hatred and racism that lived in this land?

A typical day...

We normally wake-up around 7am. After we figure out which toilet has enough pressure to flush, we have our personal quiet times, while the other hunches over the faucet in the bathtub to shower with the barely-existent water pressure. ( we are thankful to have all the water we need) Showering takes much longer because of this... Then we do our best to make breakfast. Today I made whole wheat mango pancakes out of dough I had planned to bake as muffins. Since we couldn't get the oven to light, we added milk and fried it up instead. Our favorite addition to all meals is the ubiquitous mango and passion fruit juices, which make a great combination. Around 8:45 we walk to language lessons at the Anglican Church of Kenya. We have lessons from 9:30- 10:30, then tea break, then lessons again until noon. The afternoons vary. Yesterday we figured out the matatus and citihoppas to get over to the office to meet with our country reps and get insight from Richard, who has worked with the Maasai Food Security Program for the past couple years. Other days we walk to the nakumatt-megaa (similar to super wal-mart) for our shopping or to Zucchini's (a store for fresh produce). In the evenings we spend a few hours studying Maa, trying to get the words and very different grammar to make sense. We have entertained ourselves creating nonsense sentences to get used to the pronunciation. Dinner is a process. We have yet to figure out how to cook much, but we are hopeful that we will improve. We are hoping to find ways to relax and not feel so trapped, since we can't leave at night (night-time in cities, especially for white people- it is assumed we have lots of money). This is how much of our time is spent. Yesterday we had the joy of meeting 2 children who live upstairs, Walter & Jenny, who have already decided we are their good friends. Eventually our brains can't take anymore, our bodies are worn-out from walking so much, so we climb into bed. Each day bringing something new...

Our first week

Matt and I have now been in Nairobi for one full week. We are glad to be here. We've had a mixture of emotions from nervousness & excitement, to frustration & hopefulness. Some highlights:

• Meeting our Maasai partners: Pastor Steven, Solomon, Daniel, Abraham & Dennis
• Steph being given a Maasai name: "Nashipai" which means happy
• Semi-successfully maneuvering the local public transportation, on matatus (14 passenger van-buses) or citihoppas (more like our tour buses) neither of which have maps of the routes- which assumes they even follow a set route..
• Moving into our apartment after staying at the Mennonite guest house the first few days. Can you find us? Mara Apartments across from the World Bank on Lower Hill Rd.
• Saturday Welcome Brunch with our MCC colleagues, hosted by our country reps
• Sunday Mennonite hymn sing- praising God with 40 voices!
• Successfully flushing our toilets, getting out stove & refrigerator to work (We have yet to get the oven to light-literally), unpacking, and beginning the process of cleaning the layers of dust & dirt off of everything.
• Starting language training in Maa on Monday: Enkutuk e Maa (literally: language of Maa)

Prayer Requests:

1. Maneuvering the infamous transportation system, especially because it it takes multiple changes in routes to get from language training to the MCC office & we don't know of any stops close to our apartment.
2. Patience with ourselves as we seek to move beyond survival in a new setting.