I could do it every day for years on end but I still wouldn't get used to it. It leads you to call into question the utility of life itself. I am talking, of course, about the early morning wake-up. On this occasion it was about 5am as we tried to get the 6am bus to Handeni. The 6am bus, naturally, left at 8am. Sleep happened a little but then we left the tarmac and as the corrugated road rattled the fillings out of our teeth it became obvious to me that trying to sleep was pointless. As we were being thrown several metres into the air, M still snoozed happily. She manages this all the time but I'm still at a loss as to how she does it...
Attempting to impress the locals in Lengusero and probably not doing well
I like these project visits in a way that it really gives us a backdoor into the local community, a way to enter into a social sphere without doing it as a tourist. On this occasion we suddenly found ourselves chairing a meeting of several dozen Maasai herders in a small village some 40km from Handeni, none of whom spoke a word of English so we relied on Adam to translate our questions and the answers to them. We chatted for a few hours in this way, got shown some cows, received gifts of Maasai necklaces, and then, somewhat strangely, ended up having a conversation with two young guys from the village in Spanish. It was a tranquil place where life went at its own pace (i.e. slowly), kids ran around playing football with balls of rags, and people sat around discussing everything and anything at great length.
Chairing a meeting of Maasai herders - as ya do
Handeni town is nice – nothing in particular to see or do but it's a typical African small town. It also is away from any main road and doesn't see any tourist, which results in a complete lack of Jambo-men. Instead, people say hello and wave and ask how you're doing. Also, our hotel room was more of an apartment and came at a price which probably couldn't even get you a mattress on a roof in Dar es Salaam. As a result, we sat and wandered and sat some more and just took it in, before retiring to bed early. We had grand plans to get going early and get as close as possible to Nairobi as we could.
Could we succeed where we have failed so consistently before?
M gets gifts of necklaces from Lengusero village, while T is totally caught out by the camera
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