Sprinting to the Finish Line

It gets harder and harder to find time to write postings. With only about two weeks left before I leave Longido (probably January 31st), the list of things I really want to get done seems to be never-ending.

And just when it's time to leave...I'm getting signs of yet another step forward in my acceptance here. Little Arnold is finally happy to run to my arms for a hug. Today I saw (and contributed to the demise of) the biggest spider-like critter to have ever appeared here in our relatively bug-free guest house...yikes, I'll be tucking in the corners of my bed net tonight! My young housemates seem to have forgotten that I'm mzungu, and think nothing of offering to share a humble dinner of sorghum porridge (which I'm actually quite okay with accepting, so long as it's not an every day thing!). I continue in my role of problem-solver, but as the weeks go by the problems become far more personal and at times far more serious. There are still a lot of shared laughs...but now we've grown into occasional shared tears as well. In short, I'm feeling very much like part of this huge family.

My TEMBO colleagues called the other night from Canada, asking what I wanted stocked in my fridge on my return. At the time I was so taken aback by just the thought of having a refrigerator, that I couldn't come up with much in the way of a list of contents for it. But a few hours later I found myself food-obsessed for the first time since arriving here (other than my craving for Indian food which I've satisfied twice now in Arusha). I'd actually been able to put all thoughts of missed food out of my mind since arriving here. Amazing to remember how much I love cheese, yogurt, whole grain bread, asparagus...the list goes on and on. Actually, the list DID go on and on when I got around to sending an emailed reply to the grocery provision offer.

So yes, it'll be great to come home for a while. To see my family, my friends...celebrate a little late Christmas with them...toss a log onto my fireplace...stare at the fridge in awe...remember how it feels to be cold...thrill to high-speed internet...all such things.

The $180 Bath

Okay, so I said I wouldn't do it. But you know, after 2 months and a long recent stretch out in the village I really needed a chance to recharge and my bathtub craving was becoming obsessive. So, here I am in Arusha having spent 2 nights at the rather lavish (by my current standards anyhow) Impala Hotel (chosen because of the existence of tubs). I'm now well rested, and feeling cleaner than I have since November. Add in the great Indian and Chinese food served at the hotel and hey, this was a good Christmas present to me. I'm ready to head back to the village this afternoon and work like crazy for my final 3 weeks there....refreshed and relatively clearheaded.

Almost New Year's Eve - December 30th

This will be one of those meandering posts. It's been raining every day since the 27th...today the sun peeked through for the first time in days. Add a nasty cold to that (why, with all the medicines I packed, didn't I think I might need something potent for cold and sinus conditions), and yeah, I'm feeling a wee bit blue.

I guess it shows on my face. As I walked home from lunch in the village this afternoon, at least two people sympathized with me for being so tired. The real clue that my mental state may be a little on the obvious side, was when Maalai popped by to say hello, and I learned through Joseph's translation that he was asking me how I was doing with my loneliness problem. Yikes! In my best efforts at African-ness, I certainly have never told anyone that I was even a little bit lonely. On top of everything else my favorite askari is a mind-reader!

Mostly though, I'm just more than a little tired. Yesterday I taught a dozen people the basics of preparing business plans. I actually had quite a bit of notice that I was going to be leading this class...a whole week in fact...but of course Christmas and the Boxing Day adventure took priority over course planning, so I was less than well prepared to do this. Apparently though, the very fact that I'd pre-done a course outline was downright impressive, and as a result the man who was supposed to co-facilitate the session with me decided I was more than able to handle the full day solo! A quarter of the scheduled participants missed half the day because their vehicle had been stuck on the road from their village (probably the same crevass that caught us on the Maasai wedding trip, only with a few extra days of rain added to the problem!)

Teaching adults, here at LOOCIP, is a whole new experience. Essentially, anyone who has any information that might be considered useful to others, is a potential teacher...with or without benefit of any notion of how to actually teach. And, the most surprising people have the capacity to simply stand up, without any preparation, and teach a class for hours. Of course, I was determined to create an interesting day out of potentially dry material, especially once I discovered that most of my students had really limited reading or writing skills. Language, of course, was problematic, but the head trainer here at the centre did a valiant job of translating my efforts a sentence at a time, even doing his best to mimic my tone and delivery. We did have some fun...I tossed in a few little dramas, got the participants answering questions (and led wild applause each time a correct answer was given), and told as many personal stories as I was able to toss into the mix. I learned a fair bit about the ins and outs of some of their proposed microbusinesses -- buying and selling goats, making bricks, setting up a 'dry grocery' kiosk in a remote village. And the class learned a fair bit about me. I opted to teach them the principles by using a simulated business, and chose in true Canadian style, to establish an imaginary sort of Tim Hortons by the roadside here in Longido. Coffee (kahawa) and Mandazi (almost doughnuts) were our only products, and the name "Kahandazi" seemed to fit well (yes, I did check first to ensure it wasn't a swear word in Swahili). The class was a little taken aback by my enthusiasm for ensuring we set ourselves apart from other eateries by having a super-clean latrine, assuring my rather skeptical audience that this could have make-it-or-break-it consequences when it came to attracting the passing tourists. Mostly, it worked out well though I'm a little concerned that next time I come to Longido I may find a rash of coffee & doughnut shops have sprung up along the roadside. I wouldn't mind a bit if a whole lot of super-clean public latrines were to spring up along the same stretch.

Boxing Day Adventures, Maasai style!

Okay, so maybe I didn't find the best Boxing Day sale ever, on who-knows-what. Maybe I didn't manage to score my usual haul of bargain priced wrapping paper for next Christmas. And maybe I didn't get to eat seemingly endless leftover turkey and dressing. BUT....I did have a pretty interesting Boxing Day nevertheless.

Still full from all the Christmas meals, I was picked up late morning by a crew of wazungus from Arusha. The family of Cheri who had been my housemate here for some time, were all visiting for the holidays (some from Canada, some from Sri Lanka), and we'd all been invited to attend a traditional Maasai wedding celebration in the small village of Engarinaibor. I have no idea how far away it is...can only tell you that it takes an hour and a half to get there by jeep, on some incredibly bad roads.

We were warmly welcomed on arrival and introduced to the bride and groom. Everyone except our party was in full traditional Maasai dress...even Steven who is the Executive Director of LOOCIP and normally wears only Western clothing, was fully decked out in his Maasai finest--sword, stick and all. The groom's face was decorated with designs drawn in red ochre, and his hair was pulled into a top knot which had a very blond extension flowing from it...looked like some sort of animal tail. Overall, the effect was really pretty scary. The bride's face was partially covered by a special headdress. She was really tiny, and looked to be about 12 years old, but I was assured she was actually 18 (from a family of uncharacteristically small folks!) The actual wedding had taken place on Christmas Day. We were there to share in the celebration portion only.

First we were taken for a walk away from the house, where the men were cooking a slaughtered cow and some rice. We were offered cooked meat and bowls of rice to share. The meat arrived in our seating area, a little way apart from the main fire site, carried on a large stick. Steven's brother proceeded to carve off chunks and serve them up for us. Women are not typically invited to share in any of this. However, it seems that it's acceptable for any woman who is not wearing typical Maasai clothing, to take part (though perhaps the presence of three mzungu females accounted for us being seated away from the main group).

Next, we walked back to the house to watch the women dancing. Turned out 'watching' was not an option. Before I knew what I was getting in for, I accepted an offer to join the group. I was then given two large neckpieces to wear...one about the size of a pizza pan, the other a bit smaller, as these are critical to the dance moves. Essentially, if you get your shoulders going just right you can make your neck ornamentation bounce just so. I was placed in the centre of the group and was doing fine to that point, bouncing like I'd been born to it. And then, the jumping began. Now, most of you probably know that the Maasai are known for their jumping ability--from a standing start, they can make great vertical leaps. Silly me, I thought only the men jumped but was about to be proven wrong as again and again I was urged to join with another woman at the centre of our group, and leap like my life depended on it! One small problem arose though. As often happens, I think this group of gals mistook me for a much younger woman, and they really weren't open to accepting that I was quickly worn out by all of this. Oh well, it was a blast and I've got the pictures to prove it!

Next, a well deserved breather, accompanied by a cup of milk-chai and then we were off to watch the arrival of group after group of morani (Maasai warriors). They came in single file processions from all directions, and began a sort of dance competition that lasted for ages. Each group in turn formed a chanting and dancing circle and then they too got into jumping mode. What a sight! I have no idea how many people were ultimately in the main pasture field, but the crowd seemed huge. After a group had danced sufficiently, they slowly moved off and let another begin.

Still panting from my own dance experience, I decided to take a breather and go inside the house to download my photos of the day. I had a chance to show them (once again thankful for the longlife battery on my laptop) to a group of moranis who had gathered in the house. As always, everyone was thrilled to see the pictures on the 'big screen'.

Night was falling (the sun always sets just before 7 here, year round) so the wazungus were asked to join the men of the family at a bonfire a short way from the house. On arrival, after almost stepping in a warm goat carcass in my flipflops, we were seated on benches around the fire, elbow to elbow with the group of men. Goat meat was cooking on sticks over the open fire, and everyone wanted to tell and hear stories from the others. Unfortunately, we rarely had a translator available, so clearly something was lost there, but the spirit of it all was tremendous. I got some extra points by being the only mzungu who accepted the first meat offered--fresh roasted goat liver. Stephen had assured me that this was one of his own herd, and that his goats are faithfully dewormed every 3 months. I happen to be a fan of liver when it's properly cooked, and in recent years have stopped eating it mostly out of fears about the various hormones and such that we're told are given to our cattle back home. With this one being 100% organic, I was happy to partake. It was delicious, though I couldn't get the thought of an accompanying pan of fried onions out of my head!

After the rest of the meat was cooked and shared, it was time for us to pile back into the vehicle and make our way to a guesthouse in the nearby village. We were doing great until our vehicle slipped into a crevass in the muddy road, and left us hung up to the axle on one side. After a fair bit of fruitless pushing, our driver and Joseph (the only one of us who could speak the language) decided to leave the rest of us behind and try to get to the village on foot, find a rescue vehicle, and return to tow us free. So, that left 6 of us, with only one small flashlight, standing around by our vehicle under a sky threatening rain, with at least a 3 hour wait ahead of us. However, one of our members was Felix, ( the Ghanain who was also one of my earlier housemates) and he's not one to stand around not working on a problem. Felix managed to find the jack, rig things up, and get us in a position such that one quick push freed the vehicle. We piled in and drove to catch up with the others at the village. By the time we got there, the guesthouse had given up on our ever showing up, and had given away our rooms. So, not long before midnight we decided to pile back in the vehicle and make our way home. There had been some rain during the day and at times the roads were unbelievably slippery. Luckily our driver has had many years of experience driving in Africa, and got us through everything the road tried to throw at us. Round about 1:30 am, we got back to Longido, and I opened the guesthouse doors to the whole crew. We were all totally exhausted, and 'home' has never looked so good.

Guess the holiday sales will have to wait 'til next year.

Jotu