I tried to blog last night but the words that I kept typing felt so ingenuine and too polished. I'm starting over this morning. I've been having the most incredible time out here at Olkari with Katy and Philip. With my days I have been meeting and getting to know the Masai, hiking through the most surreal of places and getting to see the workshop where Katy and Philip have been running their impressive business. During the nighttime Kate, Philip and I relax under the stars and in front of their fire pit drinking box wine and tusker beer. The discussions are what I favor the most once night falls because we have seemed to talk about everything together. The stories that they tell me are insightful to hear. Both Katy and Philip are so young but still so incredibly wise. The words of advice that they each tell me seem as though they have practiced saying before they even knew I was going to ask. My travels have been really fun like I knew they would be but the thing that I have been eating up the most has been my discovery of people’s lives. I am so thankful to have spent time with everyone because I have fully been able to understand their world. That has been one of my most favorable discoveries yet.
The Maasai are great! They are some of the most gracious, happy, beautiful people I've ever met. Driving from camp to the workshop I see young Maasai boys herding cattle every time. They can't be any older than six. Six years old and they are already able to take care of an entire group of cattle as well as be able to defend themselves incase something happens. I'm so impressed. The other day I went with Katy and a group of the Maasai men to collect wood for the Leakey Collection. Sabit's son, Nguire who is 12 years old, wanted to come along for the ride. The six men stood in the back of the truck while Katy drove Nguire and me. The two of us shared both the middle and passenger seat. While the men worked getting the wood into the back of the car, Nguire and I went off to take pictures, look at animal tracks and talk. He pointed to the ground explaining each animal track to me, "elephant," "giraffe," "wild pig," and then he gasped and stopped... "lion." It was funny but should I have worried? Nguire seemed to ignore worry so I decided to follow along with him. His dad Sabit has raised him to be very knowledgeable and smart toward nature. He has also taught Nguire to be very chivalrous and helpful toward women and this is how the Maasai are raised. They are raised to be kind hearted and instantly you will know that at first impression.
Once we all got back to the workshop Katy thought it would be fun if Mariam and I had a chance to meet each other. Mariam is a Maasai girl who is my age. Mariam and I were so excited to meet each other that we sat for about an hour just talking about our lives and enjoying a coke from the bottle. She speaks English very well so it wasn't too difficult to converse. The two of us sat under the roof of her patio a few steps away from the workshop. She was draped in beautiful, bright colors and I sat in black capris with a simple tank top. By our appearances it was plain to see that we both came from two entirely different worlds but once our conversation began it felt like a group of old friends. We talked about our love for cooking, our interests in life, our families and our religious beliefs. It was fascinating. She told me she loved to bake, I told her that I was spiritual, she explained her love for school, I talked about my family and she explained everything there was to know about the Muslim faith. Talking about her religion perked my interest the most. I don't know that much about the Muslim religion so it was wonderful to hear her explain it to me. She asked me if I had any Muslim friends at home and I had to say no. She looked at me and said, "Well, at least you know that you have a Muslim friend here in Kenya." I couldn't stop smiling after.
Tomorrow I am traveling with Katy, Philip and two of Philips close friends to the Maasai Mara to camp for three nights. I am so excited because this is the place where the animals live drought or no drought. I probably won't bring the computer with me since I won't have a place to hook it up and it is extremely dusty while driving but I'll be back on Friday.
Bye for now. Love you (0:
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