Enkang (home)

This is a Maasai homestead, enkang.

The other day we went hiking and got a great view of Maasai homesteads from above. We thought you would enjoy seeing one. It is surrounded on all sides by a fence, made of thorny branches piled together to create a thick-sharp wall to defend against predators.

Inside there are many homes. One home for each wife. The homestead will also include the families of any grown sons. This homestead has 3 distinct sections, which probably means that there is the father & his wives, and then 2 sons and their wives all living at this homestead.

The homes are made of tall branches, which are then filled in with cow dung & mud. The roof is made of branches, dung, mud and are often now covered with plastic (to collect water) and held down by stones. They are built completely by women.

In the middle there is a second fenced area, where the cows, sheep and goats are kept during the night. As the main Maasai livelihood, it is essential the animals are kept safe from predators, particularly hyenas. The branches are cut and built into a fence by the women as well. The women are responsible for milking the goats and cows, caring for all children, and baby animals, collecting water, cooking food, cleaning, basically, the women do everything.

Scheduling

Even when people want to work with you, there are often numerous obstacles to implementing ideas in Maasai-land. Yesterday was a good example of how both my staff and I wanted to meet today, but after a day of phone calls and planning, it all came to nothing.
The idea was for me to watch one of our two partners conduct a training. Recently, both food security partners I work with began a project that involves a lot of community training. I had a clear picture of what I thought should be happening at the trainings, but wanted to check in to see if that was anything close to what was happening in reality.
The first plan was to visit a MIDI training. We were told last friday that a training would be happening in a town about 2 hours away. Monday morning we asked the trainer to confirm the time and place. She said that she wasn't sure what time the training would start so she'd get back to us. This was 8am.
At 10am, we still hadn't heard anything and I saw that the MFSP trainer was around and asked him if he was doing a training tomorrow. He was. This training was close to Najile, so we told him that if the MIDI training fell through, we'd tag along with him.
At noon, we call the MIDI manager again, don't get through to her and then send a text asking her to let us know what was going on. By 1pm she responds that, in fact, there would be no training tomorrow because the people weren't available.
At 2pm, I was in a meeting with the MFSP trainer and we set up a time and place to meet, 1030 tuesday morning at market. Things were going well from our perspective, not least because we wouldn't have to drive 4 hours round trip the next day.
All was fine until 10pm when I get a text from the MFSP trainer. His training was canceled as well, because people weren't informed on time.

So, over the course of the day, neither plan worked out, twice a training was scheduled without the attendees being aware of it and we ended up with two trainers with nothing to do tuesday. Such is life in Najile.

Imbukui (Books)

Books in Maa are a hard find. Other than the Bible, very little has been translated and the high rates of illiteracy keeps the demand low. We were fortunate earlier this month to run into a guy from Missouri who lived with the Maasai for 15 years. He is now writing a variety of Biblical books in Maa to support the church. He's selling the books for less than a dollar each, his goal is to help Maa-language Christians or seekers know and teach God's word.
We immediately knew God was at work when we happened to run into him at the Mennonite Guest House. He gave us some of his work to look at which we brought back to Najile. Everybody here was interested. So many churches here have no pastor and nobody who has any training in teaching the Bible, that these books are in desperate need. We took orders from dozens of people, and had to set up a procedure to keep the orders straight. Next month we'll be picking up our first big order of books and bringing them to Najile, partially funded by a generous contribution from our home church. Be praying that God uses these books to spread His word and His truth throughout Maasailand.

Pajero Junior!

It's now official. We have a car. There's room for 4 people or 2 people & their luggage, so it's about as big as a smartcar, except it has jacked up wheels so that we can get over the crazy rocks and pits of sand. But who cares, we have a car! No more frustrating motorcycle rides. Hallelujah!

Endapidapoi

Recently Matt was asked to speak at our church here in Najile. This would not be out of the ordinary except for the fact that he was asked at the official starting time of the service, which gave him about an hour to prepare. Matt chose the “Wise and Foolish Builder” passage and began preparing his thoughts. In English, the wise man builds his house on the rock. But in Maa, they don't translate it “osoit” (rock), they translate it “endapidapoi.” Endapidapoi, is a rocky place where the water gathers when the rains come. It's the place where everything else gets washed away and all that is left is the rock, no more dirt, no more grass, no more muck, just the rock itself. The Maasai often build their homes on an endapidapoi, because it is solid, there is nothing extra, nothing except the solid rock. Knowing this brought a whole new meaning to the passage. We often talk about making sure we build on a solid foundation, the rock, Jesus Christ, but in Maa it's more than that. It's about building on the rock, once everything else has been cleared away. No dirt, no grime, no nothing, except that rock.

Christ, our endapidapoi.

Great Zebra Migration of Najile

And we're back! After two weeks in the states, we are now back in Najile and settled in. We were happy to find our house still intact and one of our friends had cut our grass and planted 52 tree seedlings in our back yard. It looks great! Well, you may remember that May 30 was our 1 year anniversary of being in Najile. On our first day in Najile we were blessed to see a Zebra in our back yard but hadn't seen one from our house since. Well, it seems like this is the time for the annual Zebra migration of Najile. Today we saw 3 more Zebras from our yard (can you see one in the picture below?). You may have heard of the wildebeest migration in Maasai Mara (hundreds of thousands of animals)....well ours has about 5 Zebras and 10 gazelles, but you know....it's a start