Sorry
it’s been awhile… These past 2 weeks have flown by! As of Thursday I have been
in Africa for a month and still have 2 weeks to go, and let me just say if it weren’t
for school, I would be extending my time here. This experience has been so
incredible, that the thoughts of leaving soon make me tear up.
Ceremony
A couple weeks ago, us
volunteers at Hillcrest got invited to a Maasai Circumcision Ceremony… Our
teacher Elizabeth is Maasai (Issac isn’t) and her littlest brother was going
through the ceremony, which is a big deal in the Maasai culture for it’s said
that the boy becomes a man. I’m sure reading this you are probably thinking that
shouldn’t this happen when he is born… Well he is 16. The Maasai don’t circumcise
their boys until they reach age 12. This ceremony and procedure only happens
every seven years, meaning one every generation. So the ages for this procedure
can range from 12 to 30. This story gets more interesting.
So
when we first got there, we were greeted by the boy’s father (Elizabeth’s dad)
and were told that all visitors are to try the traditional Maasai food. Here in
Africa, it is rude to decline the offer, so we put on our happy faces and said
yes. I really wish we said No… When the food was handed to us, Issac started
explaining that it was soil milk with cooked maze. We all looked at each other
with the most scared faces, but sucked it up and took the first bite. This was
the most AWFUL thing I have ever tasted, all of us could barley choke it down. Thankfully
Issac said that we didn’t have to finish it, and then after we were served a
delicious meal that I gladly ate. As we were eating our dinner, Issac explained
a lot about the Maasai culture and the ceremony that was about to take place.
This is were things started getting very interesting… As I noted before, the Maasai boys do not go through this
ceremony until they reached 12, but the ceremony only happens every 7 years.
The ceremony starts with prayer then all the Maasai go outside and surround the
boy, start dancing and chanting around him, they do this for a good hour. The
Maasai have their own language, so Issac had to get what they were saying
translated. During the chants they were telling the boy how they were going to
do the procedure and that it is going to be very painful but you can’t show
fear, you have to be strong and courageous. After the ceremony they take the boy into the forest and perform the procedure,
then the boys wear all black, paint their faces white and can’t return back
home for 3 months. During those 3 months, they have to live on their own, provide
for themselves, and after the 3 months are up, they have to bring a cow to the
family to show that he has completed the task and is now a man. If a Maasai boy
goes to the hospital to get the procedure done, then he is banished from the
family and is considered to no longer be Maasai. I wish I got a picture of our faces when Issac was
telling us this; we all had the look of disbelief and just complete shock. We
all understand that this has been a tradition in the Maasai for years, but it’s
just hard to get over how barbaric it is.
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| Maasai surrounding the boy |
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| About to take the first bite |
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| Ewwww |
Even
though it was hard to wrap our heads around the fact of what was going to
happen to this boy in the forest, we were all really happy that we got to come
to this ceremony and see a part of the Maasai culture that most people don’t
get to see.
Shanga
“Shanga Shangaa was founded as a for-profit company to create a
community that would support and empower those Tanzanians who have been
marginalized by their disabilities. By providing an open and safe environment,
disabled Tanzanians are able to realize their potential, develop new skills,
build relationships based on respect and improve their own lives.”
Shanga is a little
slice of heaven here in Arusha. It is known for their glass blowing and their
relaxing environment. You can come to Shanga just to enjoy the relaxing vibe
and check out all the wonderful art and glass or you can also enjoy a nice
lunch at the restaurant that is part of shanga as well. One Sunday, Ashley,
Rachel and I decided to head to Shanga to have lunch and to see this wonderful
place. When you first arrive, you are greeted with champagne in the garden,
were there are monkeys freely running around. You then go inside to the restaurant and have a
4-course meal. Our first course was a choice between spinach soup and tomato
ginger soup. The second course was Samosa’s with Mango Chetni (most
likely spelled that wrong). Our third course was a salad bar and our choice of
BBQ meat. Then last but not least, our fourth course was dessert that consisted
of coffee, fruit and a little pastry thing. The food was incredible, probably
the best I have had yet in Tanzania. We got this lovely four-course meal for
only 25,000 Tanzanian shillings, which converted to USD, is only $15 USD!!!!
This type of meal in the states would be close to over $100 USD. After the
lovely lunch, we hopped into the group that was touring the glass blowing
areas. Some of the glass that they blow and the art that they make is in incredible and so beautiful. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough
money to get anything, but more of a reason to return to the beautiful shanga.
New Faces
On July 1st
TVE/IVHQ received close to 40 new volunteers. And 8 of them came to the new
house. So now we have 12 volunteers living in the new volunteer house and they
are all girls! Everyone is manly from the US, Australia, and the UK, and we all
get along very well. Every night we are cracking up at someone or something.
Here is a photo of some of the girls from our house and then a picture of all
the volunteers during social night.
I will have a post about Safari soon!!
