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