Maji safi

Photos: 1-3: fantastic community service event, 4: my DR group with our local Maasai field guides, 5: my guide Mwato goofing around in elephant footprints

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. We finished DR fieldwork last Saturday, so no more exciting new adventures in the bush. In the last days of fieldwork, we did vegetation assessments in an unsettled site (before it was a settled site, so there were people and bomas throughout), so there was more wildlife. We saw elephants while driving around, never on foot, although all of our transects were cluttered with elephant prints. Scary! We also did some more household interviews. My local Maasai guide Jackson and I one day had an interesting conversation about Jews and Maasai. After he divulged that he was a pastor and asked me if I went to church, I told him that I was actually Jewish. He said, I quote, “Oh! I have heard of the Jews! From the Old Testament, right?” Laughing in amusement, I told him he was correct. He thought about it for a few seconds, then told me that the Maasai like the Jews because they can relate to them in many ways: rituals (naming ceremonies, circumcision), family values, and…pastoral lifestyle. Fighting tears from laughter, I explained to him that most Jews are no longer pastoralists – after all, how old is the Old Testament? Anyway, one of the more interesting conversations. Oh, and I found it really appropriate that I spent almost all of Passover wandering around the semi-arid lands of Africa.

After we finished fieldwork, we had a non-program day on Monday. I say this a lot, but I truly think that day had best-day-in-Kenya material…dare I say it may have even made the-best-day-ever list? Back in Lake Nakuru, we had a “debriefing” session with the staff. We said things that we like and don’t like about the program, something that I really respect SFS for doing. Of course it was mostly things that we like, but we did have a few gripes. My issue was the community service activities that SFS had planned. Most of them were really great – the nutrition clinic, building desks at a school. But there weren’t many activities. I thought we would be doing tons of service events and was very disappointed when I got here and saw on the calendar that there were only three or four. A few other people also saw this as an area that needed improving. So we planned a really big event! We held an auction amongst our group to raise money to buy a 5,000 liter water tank and install gutters to collect rainwater for a church down the street from us. We wound up raising over 50,000 ksh. I was really happy that people were willing to spend their money on this. I sold an extra box of matzah and the wooden “authentic Kenyan” Passover set that mom sent, and I bought a lot of baked goodies, candy, piggy back rides (which I redeemed a few days ago, it was glorious), and a bar of soap.

So the actual service day! We built a wooden stand to elevate the tank so that people could drain water out of it. To make the stand stable, we dug holes to cement the legs in. We dug the holes with various tools – a railroad spike, pick axe, bare hands. In the cement we wrote “maji safi” (clean water). Installing the gutters was more of a one-man job. The mamas from the church cooked a large feast, and we helped them prepare it. Nyama choma (roast meat aka goat), rice, and veggies in a broth. We cooked it all in big cauldrons on top of little fires. Some of the young kids sang Swahili/Maasai songs and did really awesome dances. Everyone here has perfect rhythm. To end the event, the pastor gave a short service because they felt so blessed by the occasion, and a few of us prepared a brief lesson on water sanitation and problems in the region. It was such a great event – we raised the money and saw it to completion. It was also really nice because it was at the end of DR fieldwork. During fieldwork we didn’t get to see the other DR groups much, but we got to spend the whole non-program day together as one big unit again.

Since then, we have been doing data analysis and now writing up our final DR papers. Not too exciting. It’s been stressful at times, but it’s already pretty rewarding. I’ve basically planned out what I’ll be doing when the program ends on May 6. I’m staying in Oloitokitok for about 10 days to volunteer at the hospital with my friend Anne. On May 16 our Swahili teacher Daniel is getting married, so we will go there and meet up with some other students who will be traveling after the program. From there, Anne, some of the guys, and I will go to the Indian Ocean coast – Mombasa, Sokoke Forest Reserve, Malindi, and LAMU! Then we’ll head back to Nairobi to fly home on May 30 and arrive on the 31^st. Sounds like a solid plan! The semester ends in a week and a half. It’s amazing how fast the semester has gone by!