Masai has 2 new churches

Saturday morning we were met on time by the Bishop and the pastor (Aaron) of the Masai area.  We were going to see two new churches in this area.  It took 2 hours over very bumpy, rocky roads.  This has to be hard on his car, we hit bottom more than once. Aaron had given up class to take us to see his people.  On the way we passed into the game reserve.  It is surrounded by a very high fence to keep the elephants inside.  We had been around this area before and was looking forward to new territory.  On the way we notice the people were quite a bit taller and of course they were all walking also. We saw elephants at a distance, giraffe, camels and a zebra.  We got to the first church, and the parishners were inside singing and praying (loudly).  You could tell it was a new "building".  They were given money for a window. We bought a few souvenirs here and moved on to the newest church that had been formed. 
   If you look at the two pictures you can see a difference in the building method.  One question they always asked us was what we did for a living.  I told them I sold houses and land.  They always had a puzzled look when I told them that.  So at this second church I told them I worked with new construction and their method of building with the leaves in between sticks was better insulation and I'd have to take that back and show it to Americans.  That got a few laughs. You can see the difference in the two.  The first is more typical.


Traditional home



Today's home



  We next were shown their homes and we walked over and took these two pictures.  The first is a traditional Masai home with the leaves insulating the sides and cow dung on top.  The second is what they build today.  Can't figure out how these tall people lived in the first one!

Off to 3 more schools.  The school supplies are gone.  We stretched the last 3-4 from what we had given to 1-2 schools in the past.  But they kept adding schools and churches to the list.  The lost baggage could have been used.

That night Bishop William and his wife Katherine hosted dinner for us. Guess what we had... spaghetti, and chicken.  It is a real treat to serve a whole chicken.  I took a bite and heard Jan laugh.  I looked over and she had a hard time not laughing out loud. It was tough, hard as a rock.  I kept chewing.  When we got home she said she pulled off one piece, couldn't chew it and put rest back!  They told me about the arrowroot, not the chicken!!

 For dessert there was some ice cream.  They do not like cold food. It was always a challenge to find cold pop or any drink. Of course most of them don't have refrigerators.  Did I say the Bishop had just gotten electricity the year before?  And the TV last year was solar powered.

Katherine is also the superintendent of the girl's boarding school that we did a cooking demonstration for the first or second day.  She told us the girls came to her afterward and said we had cooked with fingernail polish on.  Their instructor had told them to never do this.  Also we salted the potatoes after we fried some and the teacher right then asked us if we didn't need to "cook" the salt.  Hmmm. 

The school sent a certificate to us.. mine said Jacey Riggs. 





One of better roads



It finally dawned on me that without freezing weather the rocks are never going to break down.  They also still had the volcanic appearance.