This post is going to be dedicated to talking about life here in Maasailand.I do not know how much land the Maasai currently occupy, but I can tell you that it is a lot.Kimuka is only one of many villages in Maasailand that are spread out throughout the Rift Valley in Kenya and Tanzania. It gets very hot here, as we found out on Friday when we went to Sikeri to visit another volunteer who is working at the hospital there. It is even further down in the Rift Valley, and was probably around 35 degrees.
As mentioned before, Maasai households often comprise a few generations from grandparents to grandchildren living on one 'farm'.There are, including the volunteers, upwards of 10 people currently sleeping at the farm – with a few more people coming and going during the day helping with the goats or other chores.There are also 2 girls currently away going to school.
Kimuka is a fairly modern Maasai area.The village we visited on Friday is much more traditional.Virginia just recently got solar panels for electricity in late December. They have a couple of batteries that the solar panels charge during the day, so we can use them at night. Prior to that they would use a gas powered generator for any power they needed.
Water is collected when it rains, but there is also a 4200 litre tank at our farm which is filled with fresh water every once in a while.However, when it doesn't rain for a week or so most of the water starts running out, and if this happens the women have to walk to a local watering hole and transport water by foot back to the manyatta.The three of us volunteers are trying to think of a better way for them to collect and store the rain water.
Getting from Kimuka to Ngong – the closest big-ish town with shops and internet access can be a bit of a trek, as the matatu’s only run from around 8-10am and the return trip is usually around 3-5pm.We normally go on Wednesdays or Saturdays, which are market days, and thus getting a matatu is a lot easier.Matatu drivers are pretty crazy, and will fit up to 25 people in a 14 passenger van.This happened to Dustin and I on Friday when we went to Sikeri. We were the last people it picked up, so we were hanging off the side, holding onto the inside of the matatu for part of the ride. All the matatus are either 14 passenger vans in very bad shape (the sliding door on ours was broken, and tied to the van with a rope). There are also matatus from Ngong to Karen, which is a town full of foreigners outside of Nairobi. We go there to pick up western items like toilet paper, shampoo, etc. A matatu ride from Kimuka to Ngong is 50 schillings (1 Canadian dollar is about 70 schillings).
Food – The food here is very interesting.All the meals are cooked in one of two kitchens, and all are cooked using wood fires.Most of them consist of some sort of combination of the following:
Rice, Maize meal (flour), potatos, cabbage, beans, goat meat (not very much and usually very fatty), ugali (a dish made out of maize meal.I will take pictures of everything), and chapatti.
Cooking the food involves using tremendous amounts of sugar, salt, and cooking fat – which is basically Crisco.The three of us were all kinda shocked when we saw the amount of “bad” stuff that goes into the food.Back home if we ate this much starch, fat, salt, and carbs, we would be considered very unhealthy.The good thing is that we’re only here for 4 months, so hopefully it won’t have too bad of an affect on our systems :P My body is still getting used to everything, as I’m not used to eating this type of food, with so few fresh ingredients – whether it be lean meat, fresh veggies, fresh fruit, fresh bread, or something like that.
Breakfast is usually shaai (the same as Indian chai – water, tea leaves, whole milk, a tonne of sugar), and bread and butter.White bread, slathered with butter.Overall, very unhealthy from a western point of view, but most of it doesn’t taste too bad if you don't think about what is in it. We do have an opportunity to buy fresh fruit on Wednesdays and Saturdays in Ngong, and the fruit is really cheap. We can get a mango for 20 schillings, pineapple for 20,30 or 50, depending on the size, and a decent bunch of bananas for around 20 schillings. I will add a picture of our fruit dish to my Flickr page.
People – The people here are great.The Maasai are a very polite society with their own set of values, different from western or Kenyan values.As in most traditional societies, women are often not held very highly.Part of the goal of MEAC is to change that however, which is nice to see. The women cook and clean, while the men go to work, or go out with the goats and cows. There are often no men around the manyatta during the day - just women either doing chores or beading.
On a daily basis, Dustin and I are felt by people in matatu’s or people who come by Virginia’s house.They are amazed at the hair on our arms and legs.They often just seem to like touching it.It was kinda strange at the beginning, but we’re used to it now.
This post is very disjointed, and I apologize for that, but it was written over a few days and saved on the computer here in the internet cafe. Hopefully it will help illuminate what life is like here in Maasailand.
