Before heading back to the Nairobi area, we visited a Maasai village. The lovely women shown above greeted us in song as we arrived. It was the song that they greet their husbands with each time they return. (The women basically run the village year-round while the men take the cattle out to graze for months at a time.)
This is Mama William with her grandson.
It is the role of the Maasai woman to build the house. This is the house that Mama William built. It is a process that takes several months. They use sticks and mud, then they add manure to keep the termites away. There are no windows, but just a few holes, since the darkness keeps the masses of flies out. They make everything out of the stick and mud material, including their bed, which they cover with a cow hide for comfort. An item that Kenyan village women aspire to own is a cupboard to store dishes in. Mama William just made her own built-in shelves, as seen in the bottom left corner.
Some friendly children from the village.
Saying our farewells to sweet Mama William.
(Feel free to contact me for tips on how to style your hair like mine below. Hot, I know.)
It was another good day in Kenya.
We certainly felt the contrast of the rural versus urban that is so extreme in Kenya as we returned. Not to dwell on the negative (Nairobi really is an amazing and relatively well-developed city), but the statistics on this slum we flew over, Kibera, are just shocking. Kibera is roughly the same size as New York City's Central Park, but with a population density estimated at 800 people per acre. The average makeshift home is less than 10ft x 10ft, most housing an average of five people. Two in every three residents must defecate in the open and the waste runs straight into the dam which is used for swimming, bathing and laundry. And the part that really pulls at my public health heart-strings: there are more than 50,000 AIDS orphans in this one slum. The safari was over and it was time to get back to work!
2 comments:
Wouldn't you think the manure would attract the flies? Lovely-looking people. :)
The slum picture reminds me of the tsunami debris or something similar. How sad - how mind opening - how we can better appreciate our circumstances.
Oh, and about the hairstyle - you could always go like the natives! At least it makes it look like you have truly been roughing it ;)
So, how many Parts can we be expecting, or was this it? Would love more. :)
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