A Visit With the "Mamas"

 Our visit to the "Mamas" (my post 02/23/2012) was one of the highlights of our trip in 2012 and I'm sure looking forward to another visit!  Last time we bought lots of their jewelry, brought it back, and sold it on Andi's online store, JamboCreations. Everything we made was used to help the Mamas and their children through the building of Nashipay Kindergarten, which is under construction as I write this.

Now, we need more of their creations.  We are going to take some raw materials from here (beads, wire etc), give them to the Mamas when we arrive and they will have our custom order ready 2 weeks later when we leave.  So, come summer, JamboCreations  will have some beautiful new pieces to sell to support the school.

Shopping Trip

Fabulous Fiddlestix, Monkey Mischief, Toobers and Zots!!  Sounds like fun.  I just placed our first order for things to take for "our" school.  I can just imagine the look on the kids' faces when they see these "toys".  To us they are educational toys, but to them??  You see, they have never had toys before.  What a joy to experience this with them for the first time.

Jim and Lorraine got boxes of crayons the other day -- hard to believe crayons aren't widely available in Tanzania, but good crayons aren't.  Just a few more things to get here to take with us and the rest we will shop for there.  Just watch us become kids again!

Maasai Mash

We partied for money!  And what fun it was -- we threw a bash complete with DJ, a cake walk, spot dances, a looney tooney draw and even a short concert.  We crammed a lot into a few hours and all left feeling full.  Full of fun, full of the satisfaction that comes from doing some good in the world as this was a fundraising event for our partners, the Maasai of Makuyuni.  We made the Cook Street activity Centre rock!!!!

Creativity manifest and donated for the cake-walk.

We crammed a lot into a few hours: dancing, cake walks, spot dances, a looney tooney draw, a concession.  And we raised over $1000 for our cause.  A win-win.

It takes a village!  Look at all these beautiful volunteers!  Hugs to all!

And even some costumes ......

The Invitation

From the beginning of our planning process, we had been going to stay in Makuyuni Village in relative luxury.  Private room with bathroom, running water, indoor plumbing -- all the conveniences we take for granted in our daily lives.  I thought this looked pretty comfortable, considering that we were in a relatively small village in a rural part of Tanzania.

Then, a week or two ago, we got an invitation via Cathy, the director of the Maasai Conservation Fund, and the angel that is planning our whole experience.  Cathy says:

"The villagers of Makuyuni Maasai village are anxious to invite all the volunteers to stay at their boma (homestead) rather than the volunteer accommodations that have been arranged. 

This is a wonderful opportunity for you to experience life in a traditional Maasai boma where you can take part in such activities as milking cattle, Maasai games, story telling around a campfire, visiting Maasai wells, walking with warriors to learn about local plants and animals, how to identify various animal tracks, traditional Maasai dancing and singing, beading with the women, fire starting etc."

All I can say is WOW!  What a great opportunity.  Then the doubts came flooding in:  How will I bathe, wash my hair, keep my clothes clean, go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and on, and on ad nauseum!!  And this got me thinking about how, in our comfortable world, we take the basic needs of life for granted.  They are just there for us, without us having to participate much -- except maybe to pay the bills.

And how kind of the Maasai people there, Clamian and Cathy to go to so much extra work to ensure our health and comfort.  We will each have our own tent, private chemical toilets, water daily and even someone to prepare special meals for us.  Such high maintenance, but still they invite us, still they want us to share their lives with them for a couple of days.  What generosity on their part!  And on my part, I am so grateful that they have extended this invitation that will open my eyes and my heart to a new view of the world.

Dancing the Night Away

We had a fundraising event last week called the "Maasai Mash" to raise money to furnish "our" school.  What fun we had!!  It is amazing how many people it takes to make an event like that happen.  There were a lot of moving parts!  A cake walk, spot dances, a short concert, a looney tooney draw and a concession and we raised money by charging a looney or a tooney to enter each one.  Each volunteer gave it his/her all -- it was a total team effort.

 The cakes for the cake walk were donated by members of the community.  They were beautiful and creative!

We planned and promoted for the previous 6 weeks and by the time the evening came everybody was pumped.  The icing on the cake (pun intended!) was that we were able to celebrate the ground breaking that had taken place in Tanzania just 2 days before.  A great cheer broke out when I made the announcement.

When all was said and done, we raised over $1000 to furnish the school and had a great time doing it.  A win-win for sure!

A Good Foundation

We had such great news last week.  They have started the school in Tanzania!  We had the most uplifting and encouraging e-mail from Clamian, along with some pictures.  The world seems so small and accessible.  We can send money one week and the next week see it put to good use. It feels like a true partnership, with each partner having a equally important role to play.

Clamian shares, "As I am writing this email, I have just arrived from Makuyuni where we went to lay the foundation for Nashipai!!!!! I tell you, we have a great time of laughter with villagers today. (Nashipay is the name of the school -- it means "friendly people" in Maa, the language of the Maasai people)

It's indeed a dream that came true. It was amazing and exciting to see villagers coming out to work and spend their whole day working for Nashipay. We even planned to celebrate with a little football playing.  But, because Nashipay is very lucky, we got some rains in the afternoon and could not have chance eventually. I tell you, people where very happy,cooperative, and very helpful to Ngowi [the builder]..."

Looking things over

Getting to work!

Getting it right!

I was so glad to see the women involved too.  

Happiness in action!

The Next Step

The brick-maker was funded and working.  Men were learning new skills.  The site of the brick-maker had become a gathering place for the community.  We felt we wanted to do more, take on another project, but what?  There was talk back and forth about a clean water system -- that sounded reasonable to us.  The question was; one big system for the whole community or individual small systems that could be installed for each family.

Clamian met with the other Maasai Elders and they discussed it.  In fact, it seemed to us like they discussed it "pole pole" (slowly, slowly).  And while we waited we continued to raise money, knowing that it was important that we partner on a project that they determined was their top priority.  And finally they decided.  The first priority was a kindergarten school, the second priority was a medical clinic and the third was a leadership centre.  We had no argument with those priorities!  I can only imagine the process of discussion, commiseration, consensus that likely took days and numerous cups of tea.  It was a partnership made in heaven -- we raised the money and halfway around the world they found the land and made bricks every day, knowing that one day we would have enough of both to build a school.

We had the vision for the school and uniforms from a school that Clamian went to see in Kenya.  It was great to see what we were working toward.

The Road After

Usually when I return from a trip, I think fondly of the places I've been and get on with my life.  Not the case with Africa.  I was warned, "Africa gets under your skin."  In fact, several people told me that in the months before we left.  Now I know what it means.

Before we left, our Spiritual Community had decided to undertake a global outreach project.  We didn't know where or what, so when we made our departure Rev. David said, "keep your eyes open for something that might be a fit for us."  I had no clue and no expectations!

Clamian turned out to be the connection we needed.  We evaluated several options, but each one had 40% to 60% of their donations go toward administration.  This was not a good fit for us.  We chose to help the Maasai of Makuyuni because it fit with our objectives and because we could send money directly to Clamian and the Maasai through the Maasai Conservation Fund, which was totally run by volunteers.  This meant that 100% of anything we sent would be put to work to help the Maasai.  A sweet deal!!

Our first undertaking was to fund the brick-maker implement they requested.  Through generous donations both inside and outside of our Community, we wire transferred the money.  Before long we received pictures and a receipt for the purchase of the brick-maker.

 Learning to become "manufacturers" is a whole new way of life for these Maasai Warriors.

The first 2 bricks!!!!

 The site of the brick-maker has become a gathering spot for the villagers

A great start for our first building project -- Nashipay Kindergarten School.