Market and goodbye party

The 22^nd was a fun day. I started out the day very early since I had cook crew, and even before that decided to go and play guitar for a little while by the edge of camp. It was beautiful and misty, and I wished I had done it more often.

Cook crew was fun; I made pancakes. The rest of the day was dedicated to planning for the party we were having that night and taking one last trip to the market.

Cloth booths at the Kimana market

I don’t think I have fully explained how cool the Kimana Tuesday market is. It is really fantastic. I remember being quite shocked the first day we went. It’s kind of like a different universe. The market takes place in a dusty square about the size of two soccer fields, and gets packed with people on Tuesdays. Almost all of these people in the town are Maasai, so the market is a blur of jewelry and colorful red toned clothing. Music plays at one of the clothing vendors’ areas, and a guy dances around advertising different articles of clothing. A line of women sells vegetables and beckons you to inspect their buckets of potatoes and greens. One corner is full of sandals made of old tires and beads. Another holds Maasai men resting on their motorcycles and selling cattle and goats. Another is a maze of colorful cloths, mostly red. If you are lucky you will evade the “mamas” for a few minutes before they circle and bombard you with beautiful jewelry that you absolutely do not need but somehow end up buying anyway. Each one of them is wearing more jewelry than you could ever buy. If you say you don’t have money, they come in close and speak as if telling a secret, “ok mama, how much? I give you good price.” If you buckle under the pressure, a hand waving, finger-counting match goes on until you come up with the right price. Overall, the market is a loud, colorful, moving mass of people and animals that sweeps you up and doesn’t let you go until you run to the car, pursued by a pack of bargaining Maasai women who put all their jewelry on you and then promptly take it off before you get into your land rover.

The mamas!

On our last trip to the market, I saw two of our askaris, Saibulu and Saringe “sa-ring-ay” in town. My friend Liz and I happened to run into Saringe just after seeing women selling small gold-painted paper packets on the side of the road, and asked him what they were. He answered that they were packets of ochre, the red dye that the warriors use to color their braids when they go through the “young warrior” stage and have long hair. Of course I had to get some after that. He helped us bargain for the packets, and dyed our hair for us when we got back to camp. The dye is supposed to be mixed with animal fat, but I opted for water since apparently the fat is never really supposed to come out of the hair. Glad I was warned of that beforehand. Even using water, the red was pretty intense! In the afternoon we dressed up in Maasai clothing for our goodbye party. We had bought a live goat to roast for dinner as a present to all the staff and askaris, and all ate it by the fire. I have to admit, (and I didn’t say this before for fear that you all would think I had become a different person all together,) I have participated in a goat roast once before, and actually helped to skin the goat. For someone who is a vegetarian at home, this seems like a big leap, but here’s why it wasn’t: I am not opposed to eating meat, though as I mentioned before, it is difficult for me to come to terms with killing animals. What I am opposed to at home is the inhumane process of meat animal production and slaughtering. Here, the animals are taken good care of and given freedom to roam for their whole lives. Not only that, but none of the meat is wasted and even the bones, organs, and skin are used. This seems like the best way to do it.

Staff at the goat roast

A formal event requires Maasai gear, of course...

After the goat roast, we (the students) sang a silly Kenya-themed rendition of “Party in the USA” for the staff. Later we did “Twist and Shout” one last time, just for good measure. I still love that song, no matter how many times it’s been played here… it always makes people dance and smile. After the song we presented Molly our program student affairs manager with a huge wooden elephant we’d ordered for her on the way back from Tsavo. She had wanted a specific one, and since I couldn’t find it at the market, they had told me they would carve one specially and deliver it! It was gorgeous. She really liked it. I also gave a bunch of the staff and askaris photos I’d taken with or of them over the semester. Finally, after the gifts, we all went to the main chumba and watched a video I put together of a bunch of fun memories. I will put it on youtube sometime and you can all watch it!

Later we had a dance party that a few of the askaris joined for a while, and roasted marshmallows on the fire. Katrina, Elaine and I stayed up with the askaris afterwards, talking and taking ridiculous pictures of us all jumping in the air and talking on fake phones. Getting to know the askaris has made me realize how much false perceptions of each other or a culture can separate people unnecessarily. I felt so intimidated by the askaris at first, and thought they must be really serious and unapproachable, but as I got to know them I found that they liked to play around and be silly just as much as I do.  I think we often perceive people to be unapproachable or very different from us, but I keep on finding that we are all more similar than we realize.

Talking on flashlight phones. You know, the usual.
For some reason the Maasai always seem to like to pose with their phones.