#4 My week and a bit with the Masai

Day 4

Today we need to buy some supplies before heading to the village, a mini burner to sterilize the dental instruments after use, drinking water, a few chocolate bars to keep the taste buds happy... A couple of other things and down to the bus stand to find some transport. We did find a small station wagon type vehicle, which it looked like it had been in Africa a long time. Africa has this effect on all vehicles; they just have this look about them that says, ‘Please, not another day.’

The car fully packed and off we went, passed through parts of Masai Mara, one of Kenya’s wildlife parks. The road was paved but soon we turned on a dirt road that quickly seemed to get smaller and smaller. We saw some zebra and wildebeest or gnu, a few giraffe and of course the Masai shepherds out on the plains with their sheep, goats and cattle. It is not hard to spot a Masai for he is generally always wearing the red shuka (cloth wrap) and carries nothing but a spear and a stick.

The young boys (ages 5-10) are responsible for the sheep and goats and the older boys (11-16) are responsible for the cattle. The women who are also herders are responsible for the donkeys and all the milking of both goats and cows. The milking takes place back in the boma or the homes.

You do not see many young girls out and about, very rare actually; they are back at home taking care of house chores and their younger siblings. They are also responsible for the baby sheep, goats and cows.  It is interesting but all the lambs, kids and calves sleep in the little mud houses for their first two months. This is for protection but it also builds closeness to people. The Masai have a very close relationship with and great respect for their animals. As mentioned before the cow is the Masai’s highest value. This of course has a bad side to it as well, which I will get back to on a later day.

Car overheating.....

Everything here is still green for the heavy rains have just stopped about a week ago, we pass through a few small few villages as we make our way to our destination. Well, the car starts to overheat. Driver says, “No it is ok, it happens all the time.” So we stop the car and out the door he goes with a water bottle in hand. Off through the bush like he knew where he was going. 10 minutes later he appears with bottle full of water that he got from a nearby stream. Put water in the radiator and away we went.

Beautiful rolling hills and a blue sky as far as you could see, scattered Acacia trees dotted the landscape, the poor car crying all the way leaving clouds of dust in the review mirror, how good can it get? Feels like home to me, not sure what Dr. Rick was thinking. Mark and James were glad to be out of the city and heading back into their world, the open plains of Masai land.

One thing I have learned to appreciate Mark for is his care for me and my guests. He has always been very caring. He knows that I am somewhat African so he is not worried about me but cares for me. Now my guests; he worries about them. Always asking me how they are doing. He is so often on his phone talking away in Ki-Masai, making sure things are ready here and there.  He planned that we stop and greet a small group of believers in a church who were meeting. A quick greeting and off we drove for another hour.

Finally we pulled off onto another yet a smaller dirt trek so I knew we must be close, a few minutes later we arrived at Pastor Musa’s home. He and his family all came out to greet us and welcomed us into their home. I had met Pastor Musa some years back, for he has always made his way to Mark’s village for the big conferences we have had there. Pastor Musa is an older man and there is a lot of respect for him among the younger pastors like Mark and James.

Masai "Cowboys"

Pastor Musa raised up his boys in a very nontraditional Masai way. Young Masai boys are taught to be rough and tough mentality and physically. When they become a Moran or warrior in their tribe, many of these young warriors are rude, violent, and ready to kill if need be. So Pastor Musa’s sons grew up with a different picture and of course criticism from the community but I will say that these two boys are smart, educated, and have a great future ahead of them. They also know how to serve their mother in the kitchen and home duties which to a Masai man is usually a big taboo.

I have been talking to Mark about serving his mother and his wife to be, (he plans to get married this December) that he needs to help her in the house, do the dishes and even go and get water. Well Mark struggles with this lots, especially thinking about doing some house chores. “Simba there is a lot that I can do; I will protect her from lions and hyenas, but not the kitchen…”

Sounds like many men all over the world… Anyway, I take my hat off to Pastor Musa for a commendable job that he has done for his boys, even his daughter was not given to marriage till age 24 and she got to choose her own husband; now that is not at all Masai culture.

            This is a whole other thing to write about but girls are very often promised to a man at age 8-10, and then married by the time they are 12-13. Many of these girls become not the first wife but very often become the 2^nd or even 4^th wife. There is a whole book that can be written around the life of a Masai woman. It is a complicated life for them, not easy but it has been this way for hundreds of years, perhaps thousands and old traditions are hard to break. A lie told long enough becomes believed truth and this is how it is in the Masai world, many living under a lie.

            When I work among the Masai I never condemn their culture; rather I may challenge their culture with a biblical perspective. I have discovered that many of the Masai pastors just don’t know of another way, they have never been shown another way, so this is where I see my role has been over the years, to walk with them through this process of discipleship.

            An example is that the Masai circumcise their girls about the age of 12-13. Now we Westerners get angry at this, but we also do not understand it, so it is easy to judge another tradition from our own traditional perspective. We need to understand this tradition not from a right or wrong perspective but rather from a Masai perspective.

To a Masai girl this is a big stage for her to enter into, a very important stage for her. It gives her identity and self-respect. It gives her honor not only from other women but also from the man. Now it is not good to just rock up in my Western ideas and start condemning this practice which happen all too often, rather I have taken the time to try to understand this practice and speak into it from a relational angle rather than a right and wrong angle. Now I have been able to slowly back into this tradition and talk about it from a biblical perspective.

I so want the Holy Spirit to bring the correction and not some white guy people call Simba. I am learning that you cannot really reach people you do not understand. Pastors at times need to get out of the pulpit and try to understand the very people they are trying to reach. It is so easy to get stuck in our offices; we often don’t feel the heart needs of the ones we live among.

The Masai culture is so deep in traditions and rules, more on this in the coming days.

Pastor Musa’s wife cooked a fantastic meal for us, and under the flickering glow of a few candles we enjoyed our dinner. The moon is almost full and the night air is nice and cool. I can hear the cry of a distant hyena; it is nice to be back in Masai land once again. Thank you Lord.

By the way, I forgot my socks in the window; I blamed Dr. Rick because he was the last one in the room... Anyway the good news is that I am sure they are dry by now….