Kanisa (church)

Church is supposed to begin at 11am. So after making pancakes, cleaning the whole house, listening to an entire CCF service (our home church sends us cds of the service), writing emails, herding cows & goats out of our yard & garden, making eggs and toast, and relaxing a bit, we headed over to church at around 11:20. We were early. So we began the sequence of greetings, which includes greeting an entire group, but then also greeting each person individually, calling them by their title, waiting for their affirmative “oo” (for men) or “eeo” (for women), then using the normal “supa” “ipa” greetings, followed by questions about their lives, the last few days, even if you don’t really have a clue who they are… During this process, the church elder in charge of our local church, Joseph, handed me a piece of paper with a scripture passage written on it and proceeded to tell me I’m reading in church. Ok, that will be fun, but it also made me nervous. So I proceeded to open the passage in our Maasai and English Bibles, the former to practice my pronunciation, the latter, to actually know what I’m reading.
Eventually we meandered into the church and the service began. This week Matt and I sat together on the left side of the church, where most of the women sit. It’s not required to be gender segregated, but in general, the Maasai choose to segregate themselves. We enjoy challenging those norms and always sit together, switching sides from week-to-week. (Not to mention it’s nice to have someone next to me who is as lost as I am most of the time) The time came when Joseph invited me up to read the passage, Luke 12:49-53: Christ dividing men. Tough passage. So, I did my best to read it expressively showing the intensity of the passage. But as I was reading, laughter started to ripple through the congregation. I’m able to finish well and keep my composure, but I could feel my face turning red. Why are they laughing at me? As I leave the podium applause erupts through the audience. Joseph then proceeds (in Maa) to challenge the congregation to learn to read their own language, how here I am, a mazungu, who’s known the language for 4 months, reading well, while most of them can’t even read the language they’ve spoken all their lives. Applause erupts again. I now realize they weren’t laughing at me at all. They were impressed, excited, surprised, that I could read their language so well. Their laughter was a good thing. They weren’t laughing at me. They were laughing in support of me.
The rest of the service in a nutshell: 3 hour service (relatively short for Maasai). An adorable 6-month old girl in front of us who loved watching us and playing with my beaded bracelet. Dancing and singing in the front of the sanctuary, moving across the room as one unified group praising God. Reading the Bible with a young girl, about 7 years old, who sidled up next to me on the bench. Matt demonstrating his skill at killing flies. 3 sermons and 2 long responsive prayer times. Exit greetings: as you leave, you make a greeting line, like at weddings, except when you get to the end, you join the line, so that everyone greets everyone. I got stuck at one point because a man was telling me to give my head (a sign of respect), but I thought he was in my age group, so I should just give me hand… so then I was so flustered I didn’t know what to do through the rest of the line. We were then told we could leave. Everyone else was staying to talk about some things. We were happy to go home and talk in English.

The Week of Goats

Goats:
This was the week of the goat. All week we had goat meetings, goat markets, goat distributions, and goats in our yard.
On Monday I went with some MFSP board members to buy some goats. In the POMC 1-year plan was an activity to provide 240 goats to 48 community members who are in great need. Monday we bought the first installment of 80 goats to be distributed to the first group of beneficiaries. This was an experience in and of itself. In some ways it was pure capitalism. All the goat sellers were standing around in one area with their goats (and sheep) in a circle in front of them. People walked up, haggled the price and then decided to buy or sell. All the buyers and sellers were pretty much in one confined space so there were not many “secrets”. It was interesting to see the market respond to such a drastic increase in demand, as the total supply of goats was probably about 100, so our group looking to buy around 80 was a major demand increase. People started to come to us with goats, the price started to rise from Ksh 1,500 ($19) to around Ksh 2,000 ($25) and eventually to over Ksh 2,300 ($29). My job was to write down the price of each goat, the seller’s name and ID and any change that was due us or them. People don’t carry change so all we had were Ksh 1,000 bills leading to lots of change eventually being owed both ways. The group I was accounting for ended up buying around 25 goats which we carried to a holding area behind the buying area (I say area because its just dirt with a small wooden fence around it).
After the buying is done, we count the goats, collect our change and drive the goats out through the market. This was quite the scene as our goats were mixing with other people’s goats and just getting 63 animals of any sort to do any one thing is a bit of a challenge. We had hired a shepherd to drive the animals back to Najile (10km away) which he began soon thereafter.
For the rest of the week the goats would be our neighbors, being kept at the POMC farm and being grazed around our house. We soon realized that not having a gate was a major problem as we now have daily goat (as well as cow and dog) invasions. The problem is we are growing some small trees and starting a garden which is not helped by animals munching on every leaf. So a common exclamation to be heard this week was, “Goat!” or, “we have cows!” Even as I type this blog I see the whole herd munching right behind our fence. Random goat fact: did you know goats sneeze? Such is life in Maasai-land.
Other goat-related activities this week included a large goat meeting with MCC. There is talk about stocking the area with more goats as almost all the cattle have died due to the drought and lots of the goats died due to a disease outbreak. The goal is to buy a whole bunch of inoculated goats and reach a large part of the community. We had a meeting with Ron and the partners about the logistics surrounding such a large project and its feasibility.
Now, the only goat activity left for this week, since the goats have been duly branded and inoculated, is to distribute them. I had expected this to take place on Saturday, but there are still goats here so I’m assuming the distribution will happen tomorrow or Tuesday. This process involves not only handing over goats, but also doing a baseline study of the beneficiary population as well as training on the care of goats and procedures for this goat project (usually the first kid of each goat is returned to the project to be given to another family). So ends the week of the goat.

Ilomon (Visitors/guests)

A typical Saturday in Maasailand….
After waking up around saa are inosu (the second hour and a half, or 8:30 am) we planned out our Saturday. We would try to write some emails, practice Maasai, work in the garden, maybe check out the adult literacy classes at the church and generally take it easy. I started writing my first email at around 1030 and just as I was about to start editing it, the doorbell rang. Three high school boys from the local boys school were here. Why? Who knows. We think they just wanted to hear stories of America. After Steph grilled them about their opinions on the inner-workings of a Kenyan school they asked to see pictures of the US so we got out our laptop and went through some pictures. By around noon they decided they’d had enough and left.
I go back to the office to start the email again and Steph calls out, “we have visitors.” Two women from the church had come over to say hello. The one was our good friend Paulina, the head of the women’s fellowship at church. She has been very friendly, offering to wash our house many times (and doing it about once a week when we let her), bringing us milk, and teaching us new Maasai words. The best part is she speaks slowly and clearly for us which increases our comprehension about 10 fold.
The women were heading to a women’s fellowship meeting at the church and invited Steph to come along. Since things probably wouldn’t start for an hour or so they headed out and promised to come back when the meeting actually began. As they walked out Solomon, the old field extentionist at POMC came in wanting to check in and hear a recap of the POMC board meting the day before. About 20 minutes into the conversation two more friends came over, Daniel (Lepayian) and Daniel (Saningo). They were also interested in hearing about the meeting, drinking tea, and talking about how things are different in North America.
During the chat with these three, a couple children came by (which Solomon shooed away) and then somebody looking for Solomon to pay for charcoal. Then, a woman came from the church to fetch Steph and Lepayian and Solomon had a meeting to go to. Saningo stayed and we talked further about POMC happenings and the most recent food distribution (he is the manager of the FFW program). By about 230 pm he also left, leaving me by myself. At this point I had yet to eat lunch or even finish my first email. After scarfing down some pizza and banana bread, I finally got cracking on emails. It was only a matter of hours however before we had more visitors, this time Solomon’s wife wanting to take us to see their garden (which is like the garden of Eden compared to the rest of the area). Amazingly, we had no visitors all night, which we spent turning back on our water at the POMC farm (people have been turning it off lately), cooking a whole chicken before it went bad in our no-longer-cold freezer, and burning all our trash from the week (one of my new favorite activities). This is life in Maasai-land. There is hardly a moment to yourself, but it is indicative of the relationship-minded people here

Feeding the Hungry

On Wednesday, POMC was transporting food from Nairobi to Maasailand for the next month of food distribution. I’ve always been interested in the nitty-gritty (logistics) of aid and was excited to go along to see how things worked.
Steph and I were told that the POMC vehicle would leave Najile between 6 and 615 am. We knew that it was unlikely that this timetable would actually be followed, but we were working with a new staff-member and wanted to at least be ready in the case that he had motivated people into punctuality. Neither of us felt particularly great, tired, queasy and just a little grumpy. At 630 I meandered to the POMC demo farm to see what the progress was, and nobody was there. The car was gone and I thought, “have they left without us?” While trying to hold back my annoyance and frustration I decided to simply wait and trust that they would come to pick us up. Steph and I sat down and prayed, prayed that we would be healthy during the long trip, that we would be loving in our words and attitude and that we could trust God to provide for us no matter what happened.
Soon after we prayed, the car rolled up to our house, they had simply gone to pick up other people first and were now returning. So by 645 we were off….sort of. There were still others to pick up and between trying to remember where they lived and where we were supposed to meet them, it was 730 before we were back at the POMC farm ready to go….I think….Yes! And we were off to Nairobi. The drive usually takes around 1.5-2 hours to get to Ngong and then, depending on traffic another .5-1 hour to Nairobi. The plan was to drop Steph off at Ngong so that she could visit with MIDI (our other partner) while we picked up food. The hope was that if they went to MIDI’s demo farm (3/4 the way between Ngong and Najile, on the Najile side of things) they could either drive her back home or at least drop her from a point where she could walk.
Well, we bumped and bustled our way down the Najile superhighway, encountered a entire squad of police/military dudes doing training exercises, stopped after one of the guys in the back puked, and finally made it to Ngong around 9:30. From there we dropped off Steph and headed onwards to Nairobi. Mind you, the loading was scheduled to start around 9 and just as we got going from Ngong we got a phone call saying the trucks and inspection people were at the warehouse and they were waiting for us…oh well.
So we made our way into town. We got to experience the “industrial area” of Nairobi (in the south east for those of you with maps) which is where most heavy industries are located and coincidently enough has deplorable roads. Nothing like following a massive truck filled with steel over a road that would make a US back-road look like the autobahn. Around 1030 we finally pull into the warehouse.
The warehouse was an interesting scene. It was run by Indians (from India-not the kind with peace pipes and wigwams) who clearly were 1. Disdainful of the “lesser Africans” they were surrounded by and 2. Clearly happy to be show off their prestige and power to others. As we entered the compound the owners were looking grumpy and wanted to get things moving asap. Unfortunately, the amounts of oil/flour/beans to be loaded onto each of the 7 trucks (going to 2 different distribution stations) were not yet calculated. Whoops! As Sam, the new field extentionist got out his calculator, the Indians were pacing about making it clear that they were unhappy and that we were wasting their time.
After some frantic calculations and a few signatures, the trucks were ready to get loaded around 11. Each truck was a “10 Ton truck” so smaller than a semi, but bigger than any personal pickup. Each was going to take about 9-10 MT of food in the form of 90Kg bags of beans, boxes of 12 1kg containers of cooking fat, and cartons of 12 2kg bags of maize flour. A normal load would be about 300 flour cartons, 75 boxes of “oil” and around 20 bags of beans. The trucks were loaded from massive warehouses filled with palates of food by a crew of about 10 casual laborers. Unfortunately, only 1 truck could be filled at a time due to space and laborers. Therefore, each truck took about 45 minutes to load and so the loading continued well into the evening.
Fortunately, Solomon and I got to skip out around lunch time (130) and head back home in the land cruiser. The others were going to drive with the trucks to help them find the appropriate distribution center. Solomon and I made our way back through the Nairobi traffic, picked up some seedlings at a local greenhouse, picked up some LPG for our stove in Karen (an outskirt of Nairobi) and then on to Ngong.
Unfortunately, Steph had not only went to the MIDI demo farm near Najile but, not hearing from us about timing (due to no phone reception), then came back to Ngong. This means she had already logged about 5.5-6 hours of driving. Bleh! We found Steph in Ngong and ate at a local restaurant while we waited for the Land Cruiser to get a new alignment. Solomon left us to check on the car around 430 and we sat in the restaurant and waited and waited…..and waited. Around 6 he rolls up with some new passengers and we were back on the road. On highlight of Ngong was that there’s an ice cream stand which Steph appreciated greatly!
The drive home was generally light-hearted. One of the people being transported with us (there are always people catching rides) was named Richard and a very loving and jokey person. We had a great time talking and laughing with him and took some great pictures of the sunset over the rift valley. As night was starting to fall, we approached the steep hills that the road crosses and we remembered the heavily loaded trucks of food that we had just passed. After we got up the hill we stopped and waited to see if the two trucks behind us had made it. The first one slowly climbed its way up the hill, smoke puffing, gears grinding, engine laboring. But, like the little engine that could, it made it.
The second truck….well…..that was one little engine that could not. It tried and tried to make it up the hill but it would inevitably stall out about a quarter of the way up. We went down to see if we could help them. It was soon clear that some of the food would have to come off the truck before it could climb the hill. First we took off all the beans, removing about 1 MT. The truck got momentum, started up the hill and……nope-stalled out. The truck comes back to the foot of the hill and we unload some flour. The truck ran up to the hill again but again…..could not make it. By now it was quite dark and we had accumulated a whole crowd of people watching, helping, and some making fun of the driver. Finally, after taking off a total of about 40 cartons of flour, the truck tried a third time and this time puffed its way up the hill. Now, the land cruiser ferried the unloaded food up the hill in 4 separate trips (since the road is quite narrow, it couldn’t ferry while the truck was attempting to climb the hill). We now reloaded the truck once more and were on our way.

One highlight of this moment was the stars. From the top of the hill you could see as many as your eyes could hold. The milky way was bright and clear and I thought of God as I looked to the heavens. Here we were tossing bags of beans and it truly was “feeding the hungry.” It was a real blessing to be literally serving those in need and looking at the stars reminded me that God always is on the ground, with us as we do the dirty work and He is with us as we reach the highest heights and lowest valleys.
It was only another hour before we got back to Najile. By this time we were beyond tired and, after inhaling some chocolate chip cookies (thanks to Mom Kleinert for sending us Chocolate Chips!!!) we collapsed into bed. It was a long day, but this is development work, and we saw God in the midst of it.

Aturito (Digging)

Just a quick update about the friendliness of the Maasai. I wanted to start on our little garden behind our house. The dirt here is hard and the shovels are short and weak. I needed to turn over the ground and enrich the land with manure to prepare it for planting later. Since the shovels are worthless, I started at the ground with a pick and a hoe (of sorts…more like a fork). I set out at marking the beds I wanted to dig, a 5X5 meter plot which goes well with the drip irrigation kit I have.
Well, this was hard work. The earth is tough and each swing of the pick took energy out of me. Within minutes, some men come over and asked to help. Before long, a dozen other women had come over to help dig. While I had hoped to maybe clear one bed-worth of land this day, I quickly realized that we would finish all the digging this morning. What a great blessing to be part of a community that cares for one another. This community that we can barely communicate with is still willing to serve us and show us that they love to have us here. Truly, those who are materially poor have much to offer, especially when they are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Mariani

On Tuesday, this past week, we visited a water pan in Mariani, not far from the town of Mosiro (which is actually on the Kenyan map we have). A water pan is just a dam carved out to provide water to the community. In this case, the project was part of a CIP-community initiated project. This means that instead of being part of the normal MCC /POMC budget, an individual or community gave money for the specific purpose of building this dam. It is neat to see individual initiative in serving the community here, though in many ways it is a lot of hassle for MCC and it preempts the normal planning process (instead of doing the projects that the community decided were top priorities, the money is directed by what the DONOR wants done).
Anyway, after driving about 2-3 hours in a land cruiser packed to the gills (about 12 people in 7 seats) we arrived at Mariani. Along the way we saw Zebras, Gazelles, and trees that got knocked down by elephants (though no elephants). Our first stop was at a local school where we delivered some porridge mix (just add water) which would be distributed to the children. Imagine walking 7km each way to school, on an empty stomach- many teachers reported children fainting in class-this is real poverty. Even a single meal of porridge each day can radically help students learn and grow.
Our second stop was the dam. About 100 women had come to do a food-for-work project, collecting stones on the hillside and placing them on the banks of the dam. The rocks prevent the dam from filling with silt and help hold the banks in place. This is intense and very manual labor. Steph immediately starting helping the women carry rocks and made for a very efficient worker. I was busy talking with a group of young men who discovered that I spoke Maasai. First, a man my age noticed my belt. Most Maasai wear ornate beaded belts and I have been looking for a chance to get one. Well this guy offered to trade belts with me. I was happy to get a beautiful belt in exchange for my plain leather belt. I proceeded to walk around the dam, being greeted by many clumps of women who were all amazed that a white man spoke Maasai.

Eventually, I came upon a group of Morans. Morans are the traditional warriors in Maasai society, and are younger men (20-35ish?). They tend to wear the traditional shuka, often purple or red, as well as carrying a sword, walking stick/club, and sometimes even a spear. One moran came up to me, noticed I spoke Maasai, and asked what age group I am part of. All men are part of an age group, and each age group covers a 10 year range. Boys in each age group are seen as one “generation”, they pass through all the traditional ceremonies together, and they move from childhood, moranhood, to junior elder and then elder together. Anyway, the age group I’m a part of is called Olmeruesi which spans men who are around 17-27 (I think) right now. Once I told this moran that I was Olmeruesi, he was incredibly excited that 1. I knew what an age group was and 2. I was in the same group as him. We were immediately brothers. He took me by the hand, showing me off to all his friends. He pointed to various objects and asked “Keja ena” –(what is that) to see which things I knew the Maasai words for. He was so impressed by me that he gave me a big beaded bracelet (traditionally worn by Maasai) and even promised to give me three of his goats!
Once the work on the dam was done for the day, we ate some fresh meat, some “imotori” (fat dripping soup) and shai. We walked to the top of the nearby hill and could see for miles and miles. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful land. And in the midst of the land was the dam, with life-giving water for this community. As we headed home, we were blessed by one more neat experience. Our car full of men (plus steph) started to sing hymns. I just love the Maasai way of singing, its fluid, its organic, its like each person singing their own song and they weave together their voices into one fabric of song. They all knew the words by heart and these men could sing. I was once again reminded that we work for the living God who made men of every tribe and every tongue. He is truly God of all.

Entumo

Hello friends and family, we are now through with our second full week of life in Najile and we’re starting to find a rhythm to life here. This week was punctuated by meetings. At the beginning of the week I was starting to wonder what exactly we are doing here. Our assignment is by nature very flexible. Since we are focused on catering to our partners’ needs, its up to our partners, in many ways, to tell us what they need from us.
Well, during week one we settled in but didn’t get to talk with either POMC or MIDI and so starting week 2, we felt like we needed to make meeting with the partners a priority. On Wednesday we met with Dennis and Abraham from MIDI (Maasai Integrated Development Initiatives) at our house. Despite fears of how they would respond to my presence and how to lead the meeting, it went very well. I learned a lot about MIDI , their goals and their dreams. It was clear that they had a defined mission and purpose and were very much thinking long-term. I was also encouraged to see how happy they were to have our help. They were very positive in regards to the skills I bring to the table, namely, project planning/management/reporting/evaluation/clarifying donor expectations. They set up for us to meet at their demo farm about 15-20 km out of Najile this Monday. Steph even made some banana bread which was enjoyed by all.
On Friday, I was able to finally meet with Pastor Steven of POMC. In addition to pasturing about 27 parishes of the POMC denomination he is the manager of the POMC development project. Needless to say he is a busy man and it took a full week to catch him with some free time. Our meeting went well also. We talked about POMC’s goals and projects and it was clear that I could help with the day-to-day management of the project. Since pastor steven is gone at least a few days of the week there is a need for somebody to oversee the various staff the rest of the time especially as the staff is almost entirely new (starting this month). Also on Friday, I was able to look over and edit some reports that were coming due. This again reinforced the idea that I have real skills to offer here and to me was a way of God showing that He will not forget or forsake us after calling us to this assignment. Praise God for a week of meetings! Hopefully next week will be a week of doings!

Entomononi olMaasani

with Sarah in our living room, after she helped me dress in traditional Maasai attire called Ilkarashe

with Paulina, the head of the women's fellowship at POMC church

Home sweet home

(Off) Road Trip

In Maasai terms, Najile is a relatively cosmopolitan area. We have electricity and a water line, most people have at least some education, the market is nearby, the town is located on a crossroads of all the main routes throughout the area, and there's much more crossover between traditional and modern ideas.
On Tuesday we took a road trip to Mosiro, deep into more traditional Maasai land. It was a long day. We left around 9am and got back around 9pm. There were 6 of us making the 3-hour trip, plus many 25 kg bags of uni mix (porridge) and sugar to bring to a primary school (which is part of the MCC Food-for-Work program going on currently). Most of the children attending this school and another in the area are the first people in their families to go to school at all. To get to the school, there wasn't really a road. There were 2 murran (warriors) who were chopping down bushes and clearing large rocks, so that we could drive wherever we could find an opening among the trees, bushes and rocks. One of our group asked us if this was our first off-road experience. We'd been driving on a lot of bad roads, but this definitely topped them all.

When we got to the school, I was struck by the difficult conditions in which the children are learning. No electricity and few books, shared desks and notebooks, 1 teacher for as many students as show up (which could be as many as 50 in a class), walking long distances to come to school and no food to eat, except the porridge provided by MCC.

After visiting the school, we joined a large group of men and women gathered at the recently built, Mariani Water Pan (through an MCC Community Initiated Project- CIP). This water pan provides the only water available for hundreds of people. Today they were gathering rocks to lines the edges of the water pan. And by they, I should specify, the women were doing the labor, the men were hanging around talking to each other and relaxing in the shade. This is the norm in Maasai culture, women do the hard labor: chopping firewood, gathering rocks, carrying water, etc.
Matt and I split up. I joined the women carrying rocks. They loved that I was helping them! One of the women gave me her bag and taught me how to carry the bag with the strap hooked over my head as they do. I ended up mingling with various village groups, just spending time. They were thrilled to speak with me in Maasai. We even sang and danced (they loved that I've learned to do the Maasai neck dance, I don't how to explain it better than it looks like a graceful chicken).
Meanwhile, Matt was making new friends. One young man, attired in the traditional ilkarashe,(as most people were) asked Matt which age group he belonged to. On discovering they are in the same age set, Olmerwuesi, he was thrilled! He gave Matt one of his beautiful beaded bracelets and promised to give Matt 3 goats when we come to visit again. This new friend, led Matt around, asking him what things were in Maasai and was ecstatic that Matt knew the name of the Maasai walking stick (engudi), club (orinka), and many other things. Matt also ended up trading belts with another man, so he now has a beautiful beaded belt. (Even if Maasai men wear more modern clothing, they will always be wearing something with Maasai beadwork, a belt or bracelet. ) I was bit jealous, I didn't get any presents, until later.
On our way home, we stopped at a woman's homestead to pray with her and her family. I didn't really understand most of what was taking place, but I do know that she seemed very blessed by our coming. As we were leaving, she brought out a beautiful necklace and placed it on me, saying "Emayiani Enkai" (May God bless you). I was shocked, but felt so blessed by her gift.
We continued our journey home, stopping 3 times to gather firewood! Someone in the car would spot a dried out dead tree along the road, so we'd stop, break the branches, load them up in the back of the land rover and head out again. I was amazed. Did we really need to stop for firewood? It was already getting dark, with a long drive ahead. And yet, it was such a good idea. Why not collect a readily available resource that would otherwise have gone unused? They always need firewood... To pass the time (and keep ourselves awake in the darkness), for the last couple hours of our journey we sang song after song in Maasai. Singing praises together was a wonderful way to end the day.
I praise God for the gift of today.

Sakoni (Market)

Mondays and Thursdays are market days. There were some things that I needed, so mid-morning I asked a girl my age name Esther, who knows English to go with me to market. We walked to the main road and got a matatu over. There were 2 goats and about 20 people piled into one of those 12-passenger vans that was quite worn out (they even have to tie the door shut with wire so that it doesn't open accidentally while driving). It was pretty comical. It was fun to have a buddy to go with. She helped me buy the traditional Maasai attire (pictures coming soon), get them fitted and then other food items. Interestingly, you can find most basic food items: tomatos, onions, potatos, rice, flour, oranges(but these are green, not orange), bananas, sukuma wiki, lettuce..
Everything's slow... you greet everyone, and of course everyone wants to talk to the Mazungu Maasai to quiz me on what I know. But I was able to answer questions well and understand them more often on the first try, which is always fun. They were also impressed with my use of the Maasai hand signs for numbers. So 1ish Esther said that we'd need to wait until evening to get a bus back home (there is no public transportation most of the day). It's probably 10km away from our house, so I'm thinking, I'm finished here, I just want to walk and get home. But everyone keeps saying "etii kelakua, oleng" (it is far, very) But I'm thinking, not really... and I don't have that much stuff that is heavy that would start to make it difficult. It was a relatively cloudy day so my normal deterrent, the hot sun, was less of an issue. But I couldn't convince her. I would just go, but I didn't know the way.

So we begin the normal Maasai just filling (it feels like wasting) time. We got food at a local restaurant, which consisted of small chunks of meat on the bone and potatoes in a lot of grease and chapatis (Kenyan tortillas). It was a pretty good meal. We sat with some other ladies from the church community and we had fun talking about how many kids everyone has, how many they want(Esther is engaged), why I don't have any, etc. We then went over to the local hair salon, which is also the place where you can buy feminine products and random toiletries, charge up your cellphone, or you can come to just buy a cold soda, sit and chat. So we sat and chatted. a lot. Many people come in and out. With each entrance of someone new begins the usual round of greetings and then the sequence of questions what's your name, how are you, and your husband, how is he?, where is he? how old are you? Where are you from? Where are you staying? When did you come to Kenya? Where did you learn Maasai, etc.. It's exhausting.
I just wanted to go home. By now it was after 5pm, with no sign of going home. Soon Esther said the bus was getting ready to go, so we headed toward the bus (I was the first person on, it took another half hour to before we actually left), After so many questions, I had no interest in talking. A man tried to make conversation in English. I felt horrible, I couldn't even talk to him. I just wanted to be by myself. But amazingly God is so good. 2 little children climbed on the bus and one snuggled in next to me. His comfort sitting with me (I even picked him up and held him) was a gift. I didn't have to talk to him, I did a little. But just the loving presence of a child was what I needed. Outside the window, another little one was happily drinking milk right from the carton. She was spilling on herself and the ground, but she was perfectly content with her milk. It made me smile.

The challenge with Maasai culture for me so far is there is no clear end (or at least not an easy one). The bus took us to the nearby girls school and then we walked home. Now in the States, as you get to your place you usually go home, not here. If you've spent the day with someone you continue with them to their house. So Esther came over to our house. We gave her a drink and she stayed for a while. I longed to just vent to Matt, but I couldn't. Plus, everything I tried to say to Esther in Maasai or English on our walk home and at my house, she misunderstood. Everything took multiple tries in both languages before I made any sense. It was just so frustrating. I didn't want a guest, but you can't not invite them in... Eventually we parted ways and market day was over, 10 hours after it began.

E-kiji ngai?=What's Your Name?

Mazungu Maasai Day 2- Sunday
Exhausted from the previous day, Steph and I woke up late around 8am. Martha announced she'd just watched some neighbors slaughter 3 goats for the occasion, outside our window. In a new place, everything took a little longer to do, ironing clothes, making breakfast, practicing violin for church, cleaning up the house...Many people began arriving outside our house and at the church compound next door. We prayed together with our country directors before the day's festivities began. (It is an incredible gift to pray with your bosses. Knowing that they too are seeking to live to God's glory in all that they do is such a privilege!) Daniel arrived with a script for us for the house dedication. We practiced it until we had it memorized. Around 10:30 we started hearing the singing. A procession of people, dressed up for the occasion, led by Pastor Steven sang their way to our door. After arriving at our front door pastor Steven knocked 9 times (we're sure he had some reason for nine---maybe 3 3s) and asked to come in. We responded, "Entijingu, kitishipata tenebo te nkarna Olaitoriani, Yesu Kristo" -Come in, we are happy together in the name of our lord Jesus Christ. A mass of people streamed into our living room and we led pastor Steven and the elders into one room at a time. Each room was blessed with a prayer (in Maasai) specific to the activities and objects in the room. After each room was blessed (including the bathroom) we went to the main living room and knelt for a general blessing prayer over us as the community surrounded us in a big circle. It was a great encouragement to see the extent to which this community valued God's blessing and work in their everyday lives.
Part two was the tree planting. About 5 local olive tree-lings and 4-5 small bushes were then planted around our house. Each was planted by a different person/group, including ourselves, Ron and Martha, the pastors, the children, the women, etc....After the tree planting we headed to church. The building was already starting to fill and Steph, Ron and I were given seats in front of the congregation with the elders as Ron was giving the message and we were reading the scriptures. Then came the choirs. Choir after choir entered and sang their songs. Each one was admonished by the pastor (the second pastor, Julius) to sing only one song. Very few listened to him. The singing and accompanying prayer lasted for an hour or so. I was already starting to get hungry.
Finally, it was time for our part in the service. We were called up with Ron and Martha to sing a song and we sang "Come thou fount" in 4-part harmony. To the delight of the crowd we sang the last verse in Maasai (O to grace...) and were soon joined by most of the congregation. The church was now almost completely packed with people, many standing, and many others peering in through the windows. It reminded me of Zacheaus climbing a tree to hear Jesus speak, seeing little heads pop up and down outside the window to see what was happening. After a warm round of applause there was more prayer, more congregational singing and then our second part came, reading the scriptures for Ron's sermon. The congregation was stunned that we read in Maasai and literally cheered after each phrase. Even after introducing the passage I got a full round of applause!
Before Ron's sermon, we then had our naming ceremony. The Maasai were anxious to give us "Maasai names" so that we would be fully part of the community. They praised our efforts and intentions to work with the community and named me "Tobiko" -he who stays- since we are staying for 3 years, and Steph "nalotuesha" -she who comes with rain, since it has been a very good rainy season. We were given various Maasai ornaments including an orinka (ceremonial club), necklaces, and bracelets. The service had now lasted a solid 3 hours and Ron had yet to speak. I was getting really hungry.
Ron's sermon was on grace and our salvation based on grace not works. After it, Pastor Steven (who had been translating for Ron) continued to add his own sermonette reinforcing the message with his own flair. There was an alter call, more singing and prayer. As the service wrapped up, we walked out the church into the normal recieving line. Every person greets every other person, which means about 300 "Meisisi Yesu"s (praise Jesus). It was a lot of hand shaking (and head bowing for Steph).
Finally, around 330-4 we got back to our house. Dinner was to be served soon, but we soon realized that our house would be full of church elders and other interested parties and this would not be a quaint mealtime chat. Steph and I stood in the kitchen, giving chairs to more senior community members and enjoyed our spinch/goat/rice/chapati meal. Around 530-6 the festivities started to die down. Ron and Martha left for Nairobi to beat the dark (since driving in the dark here is a challenge) and Pastor Steven was leaving. Now another set of interested children and women took the others' places to surround us physically and bombard us with questions to test our language. Fortunately, one of our age-mates helped us clear people out and at least set some boundaries as to showing us respect and privacy. We continued to talk with some guys our age who hung around for most of the evening. it was not until the evening when our house was again our own and we were free to russle up some dinner and process what had happened.
It was a long day to say the least but we certainly felt all of your prayers as we were truly blessed by this community and had grace and patience to appreciate their joy upon our arrival as a blessing and not a curse. Our day ended with a quick call to Steph's family and a crash to sleep. So ended day two of our Najile adventures.

Mazungu Maasai Day 1- Saturday

Hello all,
We send you greetings from the African bush! We are settling in to our house in Najile (the Maasai village we will be living in for the rest of our 3 year term). We've had a strangely full and yet slow few days.

Day 1: Bright and early Saturday, around 5:30am Matt and I got up to prepare for the moving truck, which would arrive at 6. We had packed up & moved almost everything into the living room, but there are always those last little things that seem to be everywhere. By 7:15 the truck was loaded, our country directors Ron & Martha came with their land rover & we were headed toward Najile. I don't really know how long the trip took, probably about 2.5 hours, but we measured the driving distance: from Ngong to our house is 46km. As we were pulling into our house we saw throngs of people. Pastor Steven, who is the head of our Maasai partner organization, Presbyterian Outreach Mission Church (POMC), and Daniel, who runs the Food for Work project, greeted us with the message that "the house isn't quite finished, but will be in a couple of hours." The electrician was still wiring some parts of the house, the plumber was working on getting the water to work, and there was the normal mess that accompanies construction projects. So, we stood around outside. For a long time.
Matt and I got up the nerve to start going around and greeting people and try out our language skills. The children gravitated toward us and took great pleasure in picking up an object and quizzing us on it's name. Our food had accidentally gotten packed among our stuff, so we hadn't eaten anything except a banana all day. At one point I tried to nonchalantly have some banana bread, only to have a group of people gather around me and stare.... I only ate 2 bites and quickly tucked it away. The waiting continued. Overall, we were feeling very successful with understanding people's questions, being able to communicate what we wanted to say, and just doing our best to reach out to our new community.
Around noon the floors had been mopped, all debris cleared out, the electricity was working, one sink had running water, so the house was ready for us to move in. There were many hands to carry in all of our stuff. Meanwhile, Ron & Martha went with Daniel to see food distribution for Food-for-Work nearby. With them, they took some of our stuff that was still loaded in their car, including all the screws to put the beds together, curtains, our perishable food items, etc.. As soon as there were chairs inside, there were people sitting in them. It seemed like everyone from the community was showing up. They would just walk in, sit down in our chairs, wander through the house and look around, maybe leave, maybe stay. We left to take tea at Pastor Steven's house, many still stayed. There weren't any women around at Pastor Steven's house to make tea (the men don't cook), so we just sat and talked to Pastor Steven. Eventually I just left and went back to our house to unpack. Matt stayed with the other men who showed up, including church elders and people involved with the MFSP (Maasai Food Security Project). They were very impressed with how much he could say in Maasai. They asked him about his family, why he's here, why is he learning Maa and many other things. All of them were willing to correct mistakes and help when needed with vocabulary and grammar. Meanwhile, I was having a similar experience with the women and children in the house. I was unpacking our clothes and they all found it very interesting to watch. Normally this would have made me very uncomfortable. I value my space when getting settled, but God gave me the grace to just enjoy their curiosity and the opportunity to get to know some people. They asked me lots of questions and got great enjoyment out of anything I said in Maasai. I started asking them the names of the various household objects and articles of clothing. It became almost a game, I'd take out a piece of clothing from the suitcase, ask its name, they gave me the name, and I'd tried to say it, they'd correct my pronunciation and I'd put it away. I'd make little comments, like "Aata inkilani kumok (I have lots of clothes), and they thought that was fabulous. Eventually I was called back to Pastor Steven's house for tea and lunch. Matt was asked to pray (in Maasai) for the meal. It was now about 4pm.
After lunch, we headed back to the house to try to get more settled. Many people had left, but some were still around. Daniel, Pastor Steven, Ron & Matt set to work building the beds. Meanwhile the mason was fixing our table (that had broke on Thursday). Martha, Paulina and I were putting up curtains, putting away dishes and other items. Paulina, the head of the Women's Fellowship at church, was so great. She speaks Maasai, I speak English, but putting a house together doesn't require words. Over the next few hours Ron, Martha, Matt and I just kept unpacking, arranging furniture, etc. People might wander in and look around... we just kept keeping on. At some point when night had fallen, men started gathering in our living room. Matt and Ron carried the conversation as Martha and I continued to unpack more boxes. The conversation continued outside when they built a fire using our boxes, newspapers and other unneeded packing stuff. Much of the conversation centered around language learning, the differences between Maasai & western cultures. It was very interesting how the language would switch between Maasai and English. We spent a lot of time translating what we understood to Ron & Martha. Near the end of the night Pastor Steven even asked us to translate his speech of welcome for them (even though there were many people who speak much better Maasai & English in the room). Around 9pm Esther brought over dinner that she had made for us. There were as many people as we have chairs, so I think about 12 of us. Around 10:30 everyone went home. The office was the only room not yet unpacked or arranged, so we worked quickly to get it put together. We practiced music with Ron & Martha for the service the next day, got ready for bed and crashed. It was a long day.