learning from experience

Visiting the Masai Boma (village) on Monday was quite interesting.....the chief welcomed us and Darren announced that he wanted his decorative walking stick. The chief's first stop was to show us a homemade map of the village out of rocks and sticks. They keep their cows in the middle of the village to protect them from predators like lions. Their huts are made out of cow dung so that paired with the cows meant a LOT of flies. I had the video camera out when this became an issue for Darren and Kahlil. I mean, there were a LOT of flies. The chief, who luckily had a sense a humor, handed Darren something to swat them with. "What is that?" Darren asked. "A wildebeest tale", the chief replied. I got this all on camera mind you. By some grace, the boys held it together, even enough to go inside one of the huts to appreciate its size and build. Extremely small; a few small holes in the walls for light. A bed of cow skin and little stools for sitting. The pens where they keep their cows/goats are made out of sticks and the top part is one big spider web. Th boys learned how to make fire with sticks and I participated in a welcoming dance the women did for us. They adorned me with necklaces. Beautiful women. Unfortunately, I think the fly situation overwhelmed the boys' appreciation of Masai culture. I hope they absorbed more than it seemed. We were able to buy souvenirs from this village, appropriately named "View point", and it felt good to know that we were directly supporting a group.

Before we left, our waiter proposed marriage to me OR proposed that we go into a cell phone business together. Also, Andy the owner said he looked forward to our next group of ten (btw, I found out that Mara West originally began as a mission camp-- the economy section was the original part). Mark (our guide) also made it clear, that if I ever return with more students, he's ready to be our personal guide. :-) (I might have fallen in love him.) Mark is actually a Masai himself, which I realized when I saw he was missing his two bottom teeth. He grew up herding cows, and later ended up going to college. He wasn't wearing traditional Masai clothing, but we ended up talking quite a bit about his experiences. That's how he knew so much about the animals and where to go.

Taking off in the plane from the Masai Mara was emotional for me. Maybe it was the fact that Mark told us he was going to miss us with a depth that made the hairs on my arm stand up. Darren and Kahlil were the first Black Americans Mark had met on safari, and I think on the whole, we were very friendly and interactive with him in a way that probably is not common. He really enjoyed seeing our excitement and appreciation of EVERYTHING. Darren wanted to show him EVERY SINGLE picture he took. Maybe my spirit was shaking because of the sheer magnitude of the land and creatures living on it. Maybe it was the gratitude I felt for being able to afford to go on safari at all..AND experience it with these two young men. I don't know....but my spirit was trembling.

My friend Mwangi (I lived next to his family back in 2008), arranged for a trusted taxi diver to pick us up from Wilson Airport at 5:30pm on Monday. Our taxi driver Karanja was wonderful. I knew his car wasn't going to break down so that's the first important thing. Next, since we were going to be driving back to Nyeri in the semi-darkness, it was important to be extra careful. I wouldn't have done it in a matatu or with a random taxi driver. Thika Road (the highway we must take) has no street lights, or even a line to divide the road into lanes. Karanja drove slowly, because sometimes there are cars driving without lights themselves, and also bandits sometimes leave traps to give cars flat tires. The boys slept most of the way...and I was his extra set of eyes.

At some point on the drive, the boys initiated a conversation about college which lasted for about an hour. It was pretty awesome-- we talked about their college admission essay and what they might say.

Along the way though, it became clear that Darren was experiencing some kind of bladder infection. Fortunately, I had medicine with me (he is totally fine now). But again, thank God we were in a taxi. And Karanja knew safe places to stop.

When we arrived back at St. Mary's, it definitely felt like we had reached home. We were excited and triumphant.

The boys will be writing this afternoon. I am writing in Michael's office.
Thank you for the comments and emails I've received. They mean EVERYTHING. I am definitely running out of steam. Although Darren and Kahlil have more than adjusted to life here-- there is still so much to explain and be understood. I think they often forget that the boys here...although they often act like regular kids, have NOT had "regular" lives, and many of them have known incredible loss and pain. I also wonder how much Darren and Kahlil understand the generosity and protection we have been shown by the Brothers and my friends here. They have gotten much better about saying thank you and being helpful, but I'm still not really sure they understand how much people have gone out of their way to feed them, keep them safe, etc. These are things that might take time to register.

Before we left for Safari, I asked the boys to clean the floor of their room which was splattered with mud. I didn't realize until we returned, that they had not only used the mop, but also one of their BED SHEETS. Jane, our house mother and cook, was NOT HAPPY AT ALL. Nice Sheets are expensive, hard to come by, and washing is no easy task here. Of course, Darren and Kahlil weren't thinking about any of that when they decided to use it. "What's the big deal?" I was pretty upset, but had to remind myself that this was a important learning experience. So I had them wash their clothes by hand (the sheet is ruined), much to their horror. They were not happy at all about it, and Darren kept yelling "Child Labor!". I will tell you this though-- by the end of it...they had a better understanding for why Jane was upset.