A Maasai Visit

February 12, 2019

A Maasai Visit

Elizabeth is a friend of Janet and John. She is a Maasai woman who, against the wishes of her dominating father, refused to be a traditional Maasai and got herself a university education. Now she lives close to the Kenya border, not too far from her family Boma. (Refer to the Boma visit on the Safari Day 3 blog for info about a Boma.)  Elizabeth has a little store there. Her sister, Ngaisi is going through a high-risk pregnancy so every month Elizabeth brings her into Arusha to the medical clinic. She came last month but I didn’t write about her then. Here is a picture taken last month.

Ngaisi is the first wife of a Maasai. She had a miscarriage a year or two ago so now they are being careful and making sure she gets some special care.  She is 17 or 18 years old.

We weren’t sure what time they would show up. Janet and I were kept busy planning John’s surprise birthday party and figuring out when to go out to get Kuku and Chipsies for Elizabeth and Ngaisi—their favorite. At about 3, I went down the street and got the food and then they showed up a bit after 4. They were very hot and hungry and thirsty.

 

Elizabeth and Ngaisi eating Kuku & Chipsies

To digress a little…. Last year, Elizabeth told Janet that it would be nice to have some American candy to sell in her little store, so Janet brought various bags of Easter and Halloween candy, each piece individually wrapped. Last month, Elizabeth was presented with all this candy.  She had forgotten about asking for candy so was very surprised and delighted to get it.  She began figuring out how much she could charge and how she was going to sell it. We were looking forward to finding out how her sales went.

In these photos, you can see her with the candy. She’s a bit confused about the glow-in-the-dark M&Ms.

While we ate, Elizabeth told us about selling the candy. Most of her customers are Maasai.  The kids were a bit unsure about the black candy—they thought it must be evil. Elizabeth opened a package and let them taste it and they decided that licorice was pretty good. So that sold out quickly.

Some of the people bought the glow-in-the-dark M&Ms.  When they took them into their very dark Bomas they were afraid and thought it was black magic. They got over it, however, and enjoyed the pieces of sweet chocolate.

Elizabeth said that the women loved the Easter Egg Bubble Gum.  The eggs were quite large and they discovered that they could take a bite and put the rest aside (hidden in their clothes), then the next day they took another bite and chewed away.  It lasted about 3 days because it was so much larger than the gum they got here.

Everyone asked Elizabeth when she was going to get another shipment of candy. Elizabeth told them that it came on a special ship from America which came only once a year so maybe next January she’d be able to get some more candy.  With that said, her inventory quickly sold out.

Stay tuned for next year’s saga.