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Noloholo, Day 43-44: Restful
Yesterday was a quiet day. I get involved with work and don’t end up going down to shoot with the Hadza in the evening. I eat too many chapati, and then too much at dinner. Sleep is elusive, and when I finally do fall asleep I dream about high school reunions, old practice partners, and stealing someone else’s identity so I can get free fruit tarts ( Read more... ) -
Nolholo, Day 42: Killing Rats From the Back of a Moving Zebra
A cold wind blew all night, and continues now into the day. The sun works hard to break through a thick layer of clouds, but my fingers slowly stiffen nonetheless from working on the patio in the wind all morning.
Work goes well today; I complete a leadership and project planning training for the natural resources committee, drawing heavily on my ( Read more... ) -
Noloholo, Day 41: Arrow-making (Part 2), and Bow-making
After running up and down the hill twice, I headed over to the staff area to work on my bow and arrow. With Shayo’s translator help, we were able to complete the task quite quickly, though I'm sure the Hadza normally work at 3x the speed that we did ( Read more... ) -
Noloholo, Day 40: Impressions on the Subjugation of Women's Choice in Maasai Culture
Towards the end of the evening at Tobiko’s celebration, we are standing near a group of dancing warriors and women, showing the children and girls the photographs we just took of them. Suddenly we hear a loud, *crack!* and several of the women shriek and scatter away. I turn to look back at the circle, and see one of the men walking away, ( Read more... ) -
Noloholo, Day 39: Arrow-making, part 1
Every day begins gray, now. Our ascari (Maasai guards) prowl like ghosts in the cold air, bright red shukas wrapped tightly around themselves. It remains cold well into the afternoon; today is the first in some time that the sun never makes her appearance ( Read more... ) -
Noloholo, Day 38: Mid-point Review
The day begins wreathed in gray. I look out of my mesh tent ceiling, feel the air’s damp chill, and decide against doing pilates in the cold. Instead, I do them in the heat of midday - not the best plan either. I guess there are some kinks that I still need to work out.
Today is a mini-landmark day. I’ve now been here at Noloholo for more days than ( Read more... ) -
Noloholo, Day 37: Lazy
A very lazy day today. It started out well. I woke with the sun, and did pilates on the dining hall patio in the morning. I’ve lost a lot of strength, which I think I can regain given effort and discipline. I’ll be waking up early every day for the next month to regain as much strength and flexibility as I can without actually being able to dance ( Read more... ) -
Noloholo, Day 36: Celebrations
I attended my first Maasai celebration today - a close family friend of Laly and Buddy’s. Actually, it was a celebration for the age-change ceremonies for his family and all of his relatives. We estimated that between the total 20 cows slaughtered (keeping in mind that here, cattle= wealth), 15 goats and a number of sheep, not to mention all the ( Read more... ) -
Noloholo, Day 35: The Example I Set
Lazaro, who is in 10th grade, came to speak to me after dinner. He had mentioned two days ago that he really admired me because I had 3 degrees. Today he asked me what advice I had. How could he achieve his dream of attending college in America? Lazaro is one of our most outgoing scholars, and although he comes off as cocky sometimes, he is ( Read more... ) -
Noloholo, Day 34: Cotton Eye Joe and the Maasai flirting
Tonight was the second to last night of summer camp. Skits were involved of course. We then taught the children the steps to “Cotton Eye Joe” - apparently a song by a Swedish band but meh, details - and then learned the version of the Electric Slide that is danced here, which apparently comes from South Africa. This then devolved into a general ( Read more... )