Last day at Olosheki today. Last trip on those awful roads. Last look at the scenery from this site. The land here slopes gently down towards the river a couple miles to the northeast. The slope of the land plus the sparse vegetation to the east creates a broad vista dotted by Maasai plots of land and mud houses. It’s really quite beautiful. Two weeks ago the only color in this landscape was the browns and grays of a drought-stricken land. Now the recent and abundant rains have added a definite green color. The animals are loving all the fresh new grass that contributes to most of this green color.
At the Olosheki site, we set about putting the last touches on the water tower: a ladder, a few missing cross braces, paint. Others worked on the pipes going to other parts of the site. Several Maasai boys spent quite a bit of time with their jembes, digging trenches or covering up trenches that now had pipes in them.
Before we got too busy, we all gathered at the water tower for a group picture. It was a bit challenging, getting everyone to look in the same direction at the same time, but I think it turned out pretty well. This is the crew that dug trenches, built the tower, made meals, coordinated things, and contributed to the point where we were today.
For tea time, we had the bread that the women had baked over the fire yesterday. That, along with a little acacia honey, was delicious. Joy also cut up a few more mangoes. Tea time was almost a full meal.
I had just finished the last of the welding when it was time for lunch. As we were waiting for everything to be served, I took a few pictures of the activity.
A couple of the women, making lunch for the small army that was here today.
The Maasai are a very social people, and will often congregate around meals.
Couldn’t you just take this little guy home?
Duncan came over with most of the goat and began carving it up for us. Since we were the guests of honor, we were served first. As he sliced off chunks of meat, the center was quite rare, probably a bit too rare for Western tastes, but a delicacy to these Maasai. We opted for the more done portions.
Goat meat, especially when undercooked like this, is very chewy. So it is an exercise to actually eat it. The Maasai like to eat it right off the bone, but Duncan cut off portions of meat for us mzungu. Once we had indicated that we had enough, the remainder of the meat was taken to the Maasai who ate it with relish. That and their ugali made for a handsome meal for them.
It was fascinating to watch the Maasai interact with each other during this whole time. They usually were all grouped together, children included, and there was a constant babble of conversation that we could hear. It would have been interesting to know what they were talking about. Probably about us mzungu.
We were then asked to gather in a semicircle. Several of the Maasai women gathered on a bench across from us and Alex, the area coordinator for Kenya Hope addressed us and the Maasai using a translator. He spoke of their gratefulness for Kenya Hope in bringing schools and clinics to nearby communities, and of bringing fresh water here to this community. Their source of water for a long time was the river, about a mile away, but a large sewage treatment plant was build next to the river and now the river is contaminated by continual flows of raw sewage into the river. They’ve had to resort to earthen dams to collect rain water, which means they were sharing the water with the sheep and goats and wild animals. He said that 90 percent of the problems they have to deal with are water related and now they have a source of clean water. So they are very appreciative of these efforts.
They presented us with gifts. To Willie and I, a beaded belt, and to Dave and Joy, a shuka. They also presented each of us with an Maasai arm band, made by Duncan’s wife. With each belt and shuka, a different woman got up and put it on us, giving us a hug.
Once again, I was touched by the gesture. They have so little, yet feel they have to present us with gifts.
The amusing thing is, they don’t realize just how big a Dutchman is. The belt was barely long enough to reach around my waist, and the woman was having difficulty with the clasp. She finally put it above my waist, where there was a little more give (ha ha).
The wrist bands were even more amusing. Willie was called up first. They greased his hand first with dish soap, and then a couple guys worked it onto his wrist with considerable difficulty.
I was next. I told Alex that this would be perfect for my wife and that it would not fit on my hand. “We’ll get it,” he told me confidently. With that, they soaped up my hand and got started.
Three of them worked at it for a while. With a lot of effort and no small amount of pain, they finally managed to get it onto my wrist. I didn’t think it was possible.
When we were back at the hotel, we tried to take it off in the same way it went on: with dish soap and a lot of effort. We failed. The only way this thing is coming off is to cut it off. Kind of a shame since it was a sincere gift from the community.
We packed up the tools and whatever we had brought and drove back to the hotel. Tonight is the last night at Kim’s Breeze Hotel in Narok. Tomorrow we go to Alice’s place to offload some of the tools and extra supplies in the storage building there and then it’s off to the Maasai Mara for a couple of days. Should be an entirely different experience from what we’ve had so far.
Ever have one of those days where you feel like you’ve lived a lifetime in a day? I have had nearly two solid weeks of those kinds of days. What I’ve described here is just the tip of the iceberg.
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