Bartering and Braids

Yesterday was market day in Karatu. This market is in a field outside of town and it only happens once a month. It consisted of thousands of people. People had everything from fabric, to shoes, to food, to animals spread out on blankets and tables. There were a few tents but mostly they were set up for people to escape the sun. There must have been a couple of thousand people in the market. It was overwhelming but really the only part I didn't like was the street gang guys who came up to our cars and then spent almost the rest of the time following us through the market and hassling us. One guy that I recognized from another town came up to us and shoved things in our faces and after saying "No I don't want anything" a few times I told him to go away. He hung around for a few more steps and then stalked off, making sure that I heard him call me a bitch as he went. It really made me angry but that was only one man so I tried not to let what he did ruin the experience for me.

This morning I got up early to go to church. There is a catholic church in town that many of the locals go to. When we arrived there was a choir singing outside and a group of children standing nearby. When the service started the choir walked into the church lead by the children and followed by the alter boys and the priest. The children were dancing a shuffling walk, the choir was singing, some of the men were shaking envelops full of rice to keep the beat, a keyboardist was playing and the priest was waving the smoke thing that they always wave when they walk into the service. I didn't actually understand any of the service because it was all in swahili but it was like a service at home plus a lot of singing. And dancing. The children danced for every song and the choir itself swayed back and forth and danced a little for some songs.

There were nuns sitting behind us. Three of them were white women who were about 80 years old. Apparently they had founded the church and are currently trying to pass control of the church over to the community so that they can retire.

We left church after we'd been there for over 2 hours. It was a really long service but they were just doing wrap up announcements when we left. I guess the man who was talking was asking for donations and he jokingly complained when we all got up because he said he was planning to get a lot of money from the white people. He was like "oh no they're leaving!"

After church we came back to camp and helped cultivate the nursery and plant trees. First we took thin plastic tubing that was cut into segments and stuffed it with a dirt/manure/sand mixture. It was interesting because the tubes didn't have bottoms; you just packed the dirt in on a flat surface and it held together when you lifted it off as well as you were gentle with it. After we had each created a few planting pots we each were given a handful of seedlings. We used a stick to drill a hole in the center of each pot, stuck a seedling in the hole and used the stick to push dirt sideways to fill in the area around the plant. Some people were using their fingers to pat the dirt back into place but our teacher said that wasn't a good way to do it because it could create airpockets under the dirt that would cause the seedling to dry out and die. Once all of the seedling were planted we got some seedlings that had time to mature and planted them around camp.

It was pretty cool because we planted way more seedlings than our camp needs and our teacher explained that he wanted to take the more mature seedlings and plant them around the community. The trees could be strategically planted so that they could help combat the severe erosion problems that are occurring here or given to local people to plant on their property so that they would have more access to wood for fires, etc.

In the afternoon we went to the maasai market again. I got a tanzania soccer jersey and a couple of pairs of earrings but mostly just watched other people try to barter. Most the students who are leaving were trying to barter clothes, waterbottles and whatever else they could so they didn't have to take them home. One girl kept getting overwhelmed though so she would just all of the sudden yell "no! mine! Nevermind, I don't want to trade!" I was just following her around and cracking up at her failures at trading.

For lunch we stopped at pizza point. I finally caved and got pizza. It was so nice to have "normal" food. A pizza and a coke. Mmmm.

After lunch we walked around near the restaurant for a while. We found a painting shop where the man was in the process of making a painting.  His paintings were magnificent and it was very interesting to see them in various stages of doneness.

Last but not least, we went back to the orphanage. The kids swarmed us as soon as we got out of the car. They showed us the progress that they had made since we were last there (the bathrooms are now almost done and most of the bedrooms are put together) and then we played with the kids. One girl wrapped herself around my waist and kept rubbing her face on my stomach. It tickled so I started laughing and she thought that was hilarious. She kept doing it until I started tickling her back; then she ran away giggling.

We went to the field that we cleared last time to play soccer but the kids wouldn't let me go long enough to run around. So instead of playing soccer I sat down and let my hair down. Five or six kids surrounded me. They played with my hair and my watch, grabbed my arms and hands, and tried to take off my ring and bracelet so that they could wear them. I thought they were going to break my watch because they were pressing all of the buttons in all sorts of combinations in an effort to get it to beep and/or the light to go on.

My favorite kid's name was Isa. It was really confusing at first because they kept yelling at him and I didn't know if they were talking to me and just getting my name wrong... Isa took two strands of my hair and twisted them together and then tried repeatedly and futilely to tie a knot in the end to hold the twist in. He was singing the whole time with a beat every time he did another twist. Then, when that wasn't working very well, he spent a long time smoothing my hair down as flat as possible. He kept smoothing it over my ears and my face and yelling at the other kids whenever they touched me and messed up his work. After a while of that I showed him how to do a braid. He loved that and picked it up before I was even done with one section (I think someone must have showed him that before). It was great because he started singing again and was saying something like "chop" every time he crossed a chunk of hair back into the braid. When he got to the bottom of a braid he had me hold it so that he could re-position his hands to tie a better knot in the bottom. After a while he got tired and just laid down across my lap. I loved Isa. I can't wait to go back and visit again.


Before we left we sat down with the kids and took pictures. They also sang us a bunch of songs and I tried my best to sing along. We begged Molly to leave us there when it was time to leave. I'm so glad that isn't the last time I get to go to the orphanage!