I realize that it has been around three weeks since I last updated my blog. My sincerest apologies! As I told you all before, the internet in Kenya is just horrific. We went a whole week with out internet then when we got it back I still could not update my blog. But it was well worth it, It has been a very eventful first four weeks. 

These past four weeks have been so fantastic, I’m not even sure where to begin. I really want to talk about everything, but today is sticking out in my mind most vividly. Today we had our home stay, which is when we are paired up and are dropped off at masai bomas. This is not the stereo-typical masai tourist home stay where you pay “masai” people to live in their house for a day. These were real pastoral masai homes that never see tourists, only students. The people live traditional lifestyles, making their homes out of mud and cow dung, herding cattle, cooking over open flames, and the list goes on.

Today my good friend Judith and I were paired up to go do our home stay. We walked about seven minutes outside of our camp bearing gifts for our future mama’s. We were dropped off in front of our mama’s house and quickly escorted in by our hosts (just incase you are wondering, the term “mama” is used in Kenya to describe any woman of child bearing age, so mama describes most of the women that we come into contact with in Kenya). The boma’s are tiny little huts made out of sticks, mud, and (here’s the kicker) cow dung. Yes they live in little houses made of cow shit. But really, it is not nearly as bad as you may be considering. From the out side, the boma’s look like tiny cramped one room mud huts, but they are anything but. The floors for the bomas are dug out so they are much deeper then they seem, and they are compartmentalized, anywhere from two to four rooms in a single boma (at least from what I have experienced). They have straw roofs, thick walls, and no windows. It is a good place to go when you need to escape from the raw African sun.

Boma’s do, like any other house, need repair from time to time. Although repairing a boma is much easier then any home maintenance that I have ever experienced. This is actually how Judith and I started our day with our mama. Their boma needed repair, but to repair it, you need water. I will never take water for granted again. The three of us (Judith, our mama, and myself), walked down to the little pond that was once a river, and collected two or three gallons of water each and carried it back on our heads (and if we were not there, our poor mama would have to do that more than three times a day). Once we got the water back to the boma, our mamas oldest daughter took us out to the cow ring to (yes I am 100% completely serious) collect fresh cow dung. Judith and I both had gloves on, but this little girl had no problem picking up the freshly laid turds, some of which were much bigger then her hands. I will not lie, I was a complete whimp and could barely pick up the turds, even with gloves on. My partner Judith on the other hand preformed like a champ and had no problem collecting cow dung. Once a sufficient amount was collected, we dumped it in front of the house and collected dirt to mix with the dung. Judith and I stood and stared as our twelve year old translator mix dung, water, and dirt to make the mud walls. Once it was mixed, all three of us took huge handfuls of the wet gloppy mixture and through it up against the wall. I’m not going to lie, it was really hard to take huge handfuls of cow dung and spread it all over a wall to fill in the little crevasses that are not covered. But I’m in Kenya to challenge my cultural norms, cow dung is the only way to go.

But to be honest I would take cow dung over the smoke any day. Cooking is done inside of the boma, over an open fire (like that of a camp fire). Boma’s are not ventilated and the fires started in those things are huge. You find your self one minute in a cozy little boma helping your mama make tea, the next thing you know you’re choking to death about to vomit and running for the exit. Both Judith and I had a lot of trouble with all of the smoke. I personally had a lot of trouble with it. I felt so sick that I could barely step foot inside the boma for the rest of the day. It was not fun. When our teacher came to check up on us, I almost threw up into his lap. He fortunately was able to translate to our mama that we were getting sick and that we could not go inside. We were only able to go in one more time to eat lunch, but fortunately there was much less smoke and we could handle what was there.

Lunch was a very special event. Even though Judith and I could not contribute to much to cooking lunch, we were able to serve lunch to all of the children and our mama. There was a cultural hic-up that occurred during lunch that neither Judith nor myself were comfortable with. It is custom for the guests to eat and finish their meal before anyone else can eat. This, to us, felt so rude in the sense that they should be eating with us. But in the reality of the world, that is just another cultural norm that we will have to change our perceptions about.

 So for the rest of the four hours that we were there, Judith and I sat outside taking pictures, or just kind of staring at each other. Quiet the uneventful afternoon. We sat and watched as our mama and her daughter made us bracelets. I was super disappointed that I did not get to bead with them, but the fact that they made the bracelets for us makes them that much more special. I don’t plan on taking it off (except of course if I am in the shower).

                During the time when Judith and I were sitting and staring at each other, we got to talking about how lucky we were, and what a surreal experience this was for us. I think it is fair to say that this is an unusual program in that if you were a typical college student who, on a whim, wants to go abroad for a semester, Kenya would not be the first pick. To come to a program like this, you have to have been dreaming about Africa, the people, and the wildlife your whole life. It is amazing for me to finally find thirty people who have been doing just that, just like me. To be able to sit in a real boma with a traditional masai family, something we have all been dreaming of our whole lives, was just… unworldly. I know that I am doing something amazing, something that I know will change my life forever, and change it in so many different ways.

This is Judith sipping tea with our host mama and her daughter Joyce. Perhaps the most shocking part of the day was how excited our mama was for us to take pictures. This photo was all posed by our mama. She had us posing for all sorts of pictures in all sorts of places. She then got a hold of Judiths camera and took a lot of self portraits (all of which she was posing in). Our mama and her daughter were so hospitable, it is an experience that we will never forget.   

                But of course I must update you on everything else! In the past four weeks we have been to Amboseli National Park, best known for their abundance of elephants, three times. And yes, we did the whole safari thing and I don’t think there is anything more fun than it. We all loaded up in the safari trucks, popped the roof hatches off, stood up on the seats, and counted all the animals we could. If you have ever heard of the term “off roading” when talking about safaris, it is when jeeps drive off the roads and into the rough terrain. In tourist world, this is a big no no, it damages the terrain and seriously disturbs the animals. The only people lucky enough to (legally) go off roading are students and scientists. Yes, we got closer to the animals then I ever dreamed possible. We were all so quiet when we approached the large herds of zebras and elephants that it was almost like they didn’t know we were there. 

Picture of a mother elephant and her two calf’s. The older one is about five or six years and the tiny one is about a year, the smallest elephant I ever saw. In this picture the baby is suckling from its mother. What a magical moment to share with a wild animal. 

I realize that I have been rambling on, but I feel like I have let you all down with the lack of blog updates. Hopefully the internet will not be so spotty and I can update you more. 

 Kwahari everyone! 

Location: Kimana, Kenya