#6 My Week and a bit with the Masai

Day 6 - Monday

Pastor Musa and his wife gave up their room for Dr. Rick, the sons gave up their room for me. A simple house made of sticks and mud. The cool part of my room is that there were termites building their home just inside one of the walls next to my bed.

I spent time observing these little creatures. They are so busy all the time, there seems to be no blueprint for their construction; they just all seem to know what their role is and where they belong. Several years ago when we lived in Tanzania there were some termites after my girl’s small tree house. You could not see the termites for they built their tunnel of mud on the outside of the tree right up to the tree house. I scraped off a section of that tunnel to keep them from reaching the tree house. The next day a new tunnel was there. Almost every day I would go and scrape and every morning there was a new tunnel, for like a year I did this. These things never gave up, they persevered. I was determined to discourage these guys but they never gave up hope. There are some good principles we could learn from the termites.

So, in my little room at Pastor Musa’s place I would watch and learn. They were busy 24/7 all working together in unity to accomplish one mission though having different goals but all for the “kingdom of the Termites”. Why is it so difficult for us to work together??

Today is clinic day and people have been waiting for Dr. Rick to get started. But first we needed to get to the government clinic which was about 18 km away. Well, we were promised a vehicle that Mark arranged weeks ago. The car never showed up, we called the driver on the phone and yes I am on my way, 10 minutes, 20 minutes go by. 30 minutes later we call him again. This went on for several hours. Finally after showing up, there was a flat tire, so now getting out the pump and pumping up the tire. Needless to say we got started a bit late…

Clinic now set up and a few people start coming through. It did not take me long to realize that this was not my cup of tea! But I was a good boy and helped the Dr. get things set up and work with him for a bit, then I was off to teach a group of pastors in a seminar just up the trail.

One of the things that I have experienced here in the churches and working with the local pastors is that many of them do not really know or understand the purpose of the church, so this was my goal for these several days with these pastors. As I was walking out my house in Zambia to go to the airport, out of the corner of my eye on the bookshelf I saw Rick Warren’s book, ‘Purpose Driven Church’. I picked it up and this book was a big help to me and the direction I felt the Lord wanted us to go.

Over the next hour and a half most of the 35 pastors showed up and we started. We started with that very question, ‘What is the purpose of the Church’? In their small groups there was heated discussion and for the next 4-5 hours we broke all this down and had a great time together. It always takes time to get locals to ask questions, but when you can get them started the questions are continuous. Tomorrow we will continue along this same track.

Questions like, ‘What do we do with witchcraft that is in the church’? ‘How can I get my church members to give more?’ ‘How do I build a church, if there is no money?’ and so on. At least a few of these questions are no different than those of pastors in the west.

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Late in the afternoon Dr. Rick has his equipment all packed up and ready for home, but where is the vehicle now?  “Oh the driver went somewhere, he will be right back.” So we went to a near-by town center that had about 7 small houses and sat down for a cup of chai (tea).

When with the Masai you learn quickly that chai is a part of one’s diet. The Masai do not drink much water; for many Masai their water source is miles away. For Pastor Musa’ family; his wife walks 2 km, just over a mile, to get their water. In Marks village you need to go 7 km to get water. Now one may wonder why they don’t move closer to the water hole? Good question. I have asked the question for years and still do actually.

In rural areas throughout Africa the waterhole is a very important part of society, not just for the sake of water but also for social reasons. It is along the trail to and from the waterhole that relationships are developed, women talk of life, their children, husbands, their cows, community, hard times; counseling takes place along the trail. That trail is really the trail of life for women and is crucial for their well-being.

But what happens now when a Westerner comes in with a great idea of putting in a borehole or well. We have not taken the time to understand what take place on this trail of life that leads to the waterhole. Rather we come and look at these poor people who have to walk so far to get water. We see this need and we need to fix it, so we put in a well for them. But what have we just done to the soul of the African woman? She has just lost a major source of life which takes place on the trail. Westerners are thinking of time wasted but for locals time is always coming.

Of course the women are going to come to the pump which is now only a few hundred meters away from their house, I would too. But this brilliant idea which is based on ‘truth’ has just disrupted a value system built on relationships.

‘Truth’ says time is important when ‘relationship’ says my social environment is important. Truth is not interested in relationship really; my relationship with you is completely built on trust, no trust/truth - no relationship.

I non-western societies, relationship is not really interested in truth; my truth with you is completely built on our relationship, no relationship = no trust, completely the opposite. It is not uncommon for a local to lie about you and even directly to you for the sake of keeping our relationship strong. This is so hard for westerners to deal with because of our highest value being truth, where for non-western societies their highest value is relationship. Although in the West the value of truth is really changing these days.

Not sure if all that makes sense to you, but it was a big help for me after years of seeking for that understanding. Maybe it can help you as well.

Anyway back to water, it’s not uncommon for the Masai to not drink water for two or three days, Mark was once without water for 7 days. This is during dry season when there is no water; all the waterholes have been dried up. This is often when the Masai will drink the blood of a cow and mix it with goats’ milk. This practice is not just during a ceremony but also for survival. I have seen so many times these young boys out on the Serengeti plains for days with no water or food. The Masai are just a tough race. They are born tough, raised tough, and live tough; they have to, in order to survive. There is so much to say along these lines but many readers get tired so I will end it here.

 

Back at Pastor Musa’s home, I went to check on my termites, they were still going for it. We had a great dinner and just being spoiled with the hospitality this family gives us. I am sure it is because of Dr. Rick, I am living under the favor of it all. I have never been treated like this in the previous years.

Marks village is coming up and there I have only ever eaten once a day so we will see… Meanwhile let me enjoy this hospitality. Thank you, Dr. Rick!

#5 My week and a bit with the Masai

Day 5 – Sunday 

Milk gourds

            Today is Sunday and they say there will be a full house, if the driver shows up on time we will be on our way shortly. I went out for morning stroll in the bush and saw some impala making their way back up to the hills. They come down during the night hours to the valley to feed. The mist is heavy today, cold.

They offered us a shower this morning but standing in the nude in a tin bucket did not sound to exciting this cold morning. I will make do with washing my face and of course brushing my teeth. You know Dr. Rick is here; I need to make a good impression, that I am a good boy and take care of my teeth.

Speaking of teeth, it is no wonder Dr. Rick pulls out so many teeth. The chai/tea here is intensely sweet, full of sugar. Your teeth just cry out for mercy. Anyway to be culturally polite, I simply ask for chai without sugar…. Goats milk is generally used in the tea, cow’s milk is too precious for mixing in your tea.



A good healthy cow will only give about 1 liter of milk a day here; in the Western world a good cow will give 20+ liters a day, a big difference. Cow’s milk is used for making a thin sour yogurt; it is used for special tribal ceremonies. It is also used as an offering for the dead ancestors; placed on the grave to appease the spirit of the deceased. Without this offering several times a year it is believed that bad things will come to the family.

The milk of the cow is the top honor that a guest could receive. Milk is highly valued. It is stored in gourds; these gourds are often decorated with beads. These gourds also need to be cleaned, hot ash and charcoal is used to clean out the bacteria etc. This then also give a smokey taste to the milk, so you have smoke flavored milk, smoke flavored yogurt, even smoke flavored tea. Now that is one flavor that Starbucks does not have, the Masai are one up on Starbucks!! Maybe I should market that flavor and raise money for our missions support, what do you think?

The church service is full; ladies generally all sit on the left and the men on the right side. There is one thing about the African people which I love; it is that they know how to celebrate in song and dance, now that is something that we Westerners could get a dose of in our churches.

A thing that is unique to the Masai traditional music is that there are no drums, where in most of the African culture there is always a drum somewhere. What is also interesting is that when the music is playing most people move with the music side to side, but the Masai go front to back. There are times when the men will just begin to leap high into the air showing their strength and celebration. This practice is used throughout the Masai culture.

Dr. Rick gave a short word of encouragement and showed the church where he lives on the globe. Most Masai women in the area have not been out beyond those hills over there, the men get out a lot more due to taking their cattle for many weeks looking for greener pasture. So for the Masai to see Dr. Rick blow up this plastic globe, that in itself was quite an experience.

Today I spoke on the ‘Mind’. This is our biggest enemy, you know. All the lies we believe and live by. Wrong mindsets are lies that keep a person down, and there are many. I tried to show that poverty is not a money thing rather it is a mindset thing. The Masai may have hundreds of cows which are worth lots, yet they believe they are poor. This poverty mindset has cursed the African race for generations, we whites feed that lie because of our own mindset that says that Africans are poor, so we, the west treats them that way. It is a vicious cycle.

The bible speaks a lot on the mind. The corrupt mind, un-renewed mind, passive mind, the carnal mind; but we are to put on the mind of Christ. It all starts in the mind, everything. From there is goes to the heart, then eventually goes back out through the mouth. In the end we all prayed for our minds and broke the curse of the lie and then spoke truth to our minds. There are many superstitions that the Masai live under. For the most part these are all lies that have been passed down for generations which keep fear in the hearts and give authority to spiritual powers. Romans 12:2 says that “Transformation comes from the renewing of the Mind.”  

          After the service was over there were lots of handshakes and thank you(s). Now that the driver was actually in church this morning, we have a ride home. He did have another flat tire last night actually. Speaking of being poor, this poor guy needs to get some new tyres…

A very needed time of rest for the afternoon, another walk through the bush taking pictures of flowers and trees; you know, things you do when you are in Masai land.

A goat is being cooked for tonight's supper, a meal that I always enjoy. It is cooked over the open fire, they bring in a whole leg at a time with a local Masai knife for each and away you go, carving your own dinner.

I miss the family back home, wonder how they are doing. No phone reception here.

Love you all at home,

From Daddy  ♥

#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…. 

Day 3 - My week and a bit with the Masai

14,500 Times a day

            Once again we were up early, ate a few tasty mangos for breakfast and off to board a bigger bus this time and off we were again north to Nairobi. Now Dr. Rick was up and ready to go, “Jetlag - what is that?” he said. Well, not far down the bumpy road I felt sorry for him, his poor head was rocking like he was listing to some heavy metal rock band from the 80’s!! I did not even have a pillow to offer the guy. Anyway, he will get over it - I hope…

            Back into the traffic of Nairobi, black exhaust spewing from vehicles; cars everywhere and piki piki’s – motorcycles - were diving in from every direction, down the center lanes. They were going faster and that was just not fair, right? So secretly in my little evil brain, (or what is left of it..) I was wanting to see some truck driver open his door right as one of these corkers was passing, it was not like we were driving fast. If you were there I am sure you would have secretly wanted to see the same thing. The good part of all this is that if it did actually happen we would feel sorry for the guy and go and help him right, after all, I have Dr. Rick with me and at least he could pull some of the broken teeth from this poor fellow. I never did ask Dr. Rick what he was thinking. Dr. Rick…?

            Anyway for two hours we slowly made our way to another bus station, crammed our stuff into another minibus and after an hour of waiting, off we drove. Dr. Rick and I in the front, Mark and James were mashed in the back with their now new family whom they had never met before. All strangers but they seemed content. This is a 10 passenger van, but hey, 15 will fit just fine.

            We were making our way out of Nairobi to a town called Narock. Well, you can’t get anywhere without some kind of problem. The timing belt was making noise, but you don’t stop and see what you can do to prevent a potential problem you just keep going and pray. The louder the noise the louder you pray. This is how many locals attempt to fix their problems. Now most Westerners are ‘prevention’ thinkers, looking for a way to keep a problem from occurring in the first place. Africans in many ways are ‘God will fix it’ thinkers, so prevention and maintenance are not very strong initiatives. These two types of thinking patterns have brought many a frustrations for the locals and the outsiders who work together.

            Anyway, we eventually reach a town and park next to a shop. The driver disappears without a word for at least 30 minutes. Finally he comes back with a so-called mechanic with a timing belt. Well, the timing belt is not for this type of vehicle but we will make it work, so with a sharp knife and some good carving skills the belt eventually fit. And off we drove again hoping to reach Narock before the sun gets too low.

            I didn’t ask Dr. Rick too many questions other than small talk. Sometimes people just need their space to process everything going on around them, although we talked a bit about life in Africa and some of the challenges of mission life. There is a few…

           

We arrived just in time for the prayer call from the Mosque just down the street from our guest house. The Mosque definitely made a statement in this community; it was if to say Islam is here and here to stay. This mosque demanded your respect somehow. A green glass dome seemed to be watching everything going on.

            East Africa is about 45% Islam and another 45% Christian, the remaining 10% is local/animist beliefs. There are still many superstitions that lie deep within the soul of an African, Christians included. I have never met an atheist in Africa, I don’t think there is any such thing. Many laugh at the idea that some people believe that we have come from monkeys, they think this is too foolish to believe, such rubbish.

Throughout East Africa and especially along the coastal region, Islam definitely has it’s strongholds in certain areas. But for the most part in East Africa, Islam and Christianity live side by side in peace. The struggles come when Christians begins to take a stand. We have Christian friends who have taken a stand and they have gone through serious levels of persecution.

If you held a high position in Islam, and become a Christian, your salvation is anything but free; it costs you everything and still some. Maybe this is why we have so many half-committed Christians around; their Christianity costs them nothing really so they don’t really value it. Perhaps we all need to go through some religious persecution from time to time, it is spiritually healthy, it makes you mature and go deep, if you don’t you will not make it. The west has no idea what millions sacrifice everyday to be called Christian. The sermons of today are all about prosperity and how God will bless my life. Tell that to the man who is on the run for his life because he was just baptized, or perhaps the persecution he experiences is because he just does not have enough faith…

            Islam proclaims its prayers five times a day, building its authority in the lives and spirit of the community. This is proclamations 5 times a day, 35 times per week, approximately 150 times a month or 1825 a year proclaiming its deception over the minds of the community. Now you take a town like Arusha let’s say, it has approximately 70 mosques x 5 times per day, that is 350 times. This is 2,450 per week, 10,500 per month and 127,750 times a year. Getting the point, now we wonder why Islam is such a stronghold. Istanbul in Turkey has 2,900 mosques x 5 = 14,500 times a day.  Istanbul (former Constantinople) used to be a Christian stronghold, It all happened because the Christians didn’t do much other that talk; now Islam dominates Turkey. What is happening in your nation? We also need to be a people of proclamation, not just churchgoers, Amen!

Back in Marock the sun is setting fast. The minaret or tower of the mosque holds onto the last colors of the red sun as it goes down over the hills, casting the last shadows of the day over its dominion.

            We found our way to a local restaurant and enjoyed a tasty pepper steak with chips and of course a coke and smile to wash it all down. Even Dr. Rick had a coke, I was surprised - he being a dentist and all. But I will have to say that I think that was the only coke he had during the whole trip so he did good, I was not so good…

Taking our last hot shower for who knows how long for tomorrow we head into village life, I washed a pair of my socks and hung them in the window, just hope I don’t forget them there in the morning when I pack up.

            Lala Salama – Sleep well!