Today, the group was lucky enough to go to Same’s Sunday market. Every Sunday, farmers and shop keepers congregate at a massive common ground, set up their stands, and sell all of their fresh produce, clothes, and wares. Beyond the simple commercial aspect of the market, this is principally a social event. All of your neighbors are out in a common place, catching up and joking around. The group explored the market place; buying produce and kanga’s. On the way back to the motel, we stopped at a private water supply. The man that ran the facility and gave a lot of data about his bore hole, his tanks, his fees, and the construction. Sharing that plot was a man that made concrete block, he gave us information about dimensions and cost. The students split away to learn some Kimasai from a Masai that works in the town. Kateri facilitated the great opportunity to sit down with a man and learn a language that doesn’t exist as a dictionary online. Finally, we convened with Professor Hagenberger and Tony to have an authentic Tanzanian meal for supper.
Melanie McDonough – We have been extensively working with a non-governmental organization called Kilimanjaro Hope (KiHo) since the beginning of this past school year. Kateri is our main contact from the organization, without the support and help from him this project would not be possible. Previous to coming to Tanzania I had some anxiety about how invested and interesting KiHo actually was in our project simply because of long lulls in communication and many questions going unanswered. We had actually bought our plane tickets at a time when we had not heard from him in a long time and this made me uneasy. However yesterday and today completely put my mind at ease and showed me how truly invested not only Katari is but the entire organization. He even said something to the effect of our project being top priority and plans on being with us the entire time we are with the community. It just feels really good to have people that are so important give us such great attention and care. Africa seems to be full of people like Katari- people that see hope for Africa and work so extremely hard to make it a better place for their children. People who have a vision and stop at nothing to achieve that. This is how the world progresses. People that care deeply about other’s discomfort in spite of their own situation, whether that be a comfortable one or not. It can be human nature to forget about those that are suffering, especially if they seem to be a world away, however we can not forget. We are all brothers and sisters.
Patrick Enright – Today had by far the most cultural exchanges of any day this trip. The first was the farmers market where all the rural farmers brought their fruits, vegetables, and other items to a large field behind KiHo. There were hundreds of people from villages in every directions, and Mbaga and Kateri led us around and assisted us with buying things and speaking with the local people. The people and the music and the entirety of the market was so foreign to the normal American experience and it was very eye opening as to how things are done in other parts of the worlds. The second important cultural exchange of the day occurred when we were waiting for Kateri’s Maasai friend to come teach us Kimaasai. We sat and talked with he and Mbaga for nearly an hour and a half about the similarities and differences between American and Tanzanian culture. We talked about the courting process for men and women as well as language amongst other things. We bridged many cultural gaps talking about how similar many aspects of the culture were. They were just as curious to learn about American culture as we were about Tanzanian culture, which made the exchange that much more productive. Lastly, Moses, Kateri’s Masai friend, arrived and taught us how to say some basic things in Kimasai- which is easier said than done, there are eight different ways to say hello and they all very depending upon who you are talking to. This exchange he was the most impactful one of the trip because it was truly incredible to be taught a small regional language from a member who is engrossed in that culture. The information
he imparted to us cannot be found on the Internet by just simply googling it, we tried. The Masai and known for being great warriors and his humility and soft spoken attitude surprised and he was willing to help us in any way. I sat next to him and we both laughed and smiled as our group tried to pronounce the complicated Kimasai words, it was a remarkable cultural exchange. It was truly a privilege to have that experience and it was one I will never forget. I will always look back upon today as a day that opened my eyes to the way many parts of the world operate, both similarly and differently than us.
Alex McWhirter – I had a wall shattered in my core today, a truth I had held since a young age, something that has gotten me very far in life, and tonight, a man named Moses proved me wrong.
There are some things you can not find on the Internet.
Moses is from a Masai tribe, like the one we will be working with (starting tomorrow) and he taught us greetings in Kimasai. It was a truly humbling experience. Knowing very little Swahili it was like trying to jam a square peg in a round hole that already had another square peg jammed in it, but as we continued we learned some patterns and we all walked away changed.
We also had the chance to see the market today. Row after row of produce and goods were worked by smiling faces, trying to sell a slightly larger eggplant or avocado (and trust me, they were HUGE). But something we noticed was the sense of community. When we were trying to buy some blankets, one stand recommended us to his neighbor. This was just one example of selflessness that we continued to throughout the day.
Ashe poakin
Sierra Heaton – Language/Communication is such a fascinating thing. Today has made me realize how great it actually is. We signed the book at KiHo so they have record of us. Mbaga, a leader of KiHo walked us over to the market. The Same market is a weekly occurrence where people from all over the area head to sell their produce and goods. It was so busy. Watching everyone move around, working, and interacting with everyone, I just stared in awe. We used Mbaga and Kateri to help us communicate with others and to purchase items from the market. Even though they were there, we tried to communicate as much as we could by ourselves. It was amazing to see how much we could do just by body language or using our hands. Over all today, the culture experiences were at an all time high today. It’s so much fun walking around and exchanging a few words in Swahili. I woke up this morning and in our meeting I said “today’s going to be a great day! I can feel it”. My feelings were right, today was an amazing day. I am very excited to meet more Masai and enter the community of Marwa tomorrow.
Randall Berkley – As today winds down I’m starting to remember just how much we actually did today. At the start of the day our only real plan for leaving the hotel was go to the market with KiHo. Instead, after the market and lunch we went back to meet with Kateri and Mbaga (also from KiHo) so they could introduce us to the brother of Kateri’s good friend who’s name is Moses. The reason we met with Moses is because he speaks Kimasai (language of the Masai people) and he graciously agreed to help us learn a few phrases before we go into Marwa. This lesson was supposed to be a brief one hour session. However, when I and the other students arrived at 4 though, KiHo was meeting with the Masai leaders preparing them for meeting with us and he asked us to wait 15 minutes. In case we haven’t mention how “Africa time” works before, they will say 15 minutes but it could be two hours (which it was). As we sat their anxiously for our meeting, it gave us time to get to know more about each other. There was some great bonding today and learning about everyone’s life. Once the KiHo meeting ended, we headed to a nearby hotel to meet with Moses. As we sat around waiting for Moses, it allowed us to talk with Kateri and we found out a lot about our different cultures. One of the main topics was marriage/engagements and all the different traditions. It was so interesting to learn about Tanzanian culture and Kateri’s life specifically. Then at the perfect time, Moses arrived and began teaching us Kimasia which can not be learned anywhere besides with a native speaker since it is an indigenous language. The Masai really focus on different roles in society and that is reflected in their language. We learned 6 different ways to greet groups of people based on age and gender. To leave you with one thing we learned, intoo emaiyan indai engai poakin or God bless you all.