Dead Cows and Darkness

January 12, 2018, Friday

It’s been atypically cool here for the past three days with highs in the low 70s and down into the 60s at night. I like the cooler temperatures, but the Tanzanians wear sweaters and heavy jackets to keep warm. The other evening, Mama Kundayo was wearing a leather jacket and over that a heavy shawl. When I joined her on the garden terrace for hot chai, she couldn’t believe I was just wearing a short-sleeved top as always. The truth is if I had brought a sweater with me, I probably would have put it on.

It rained on and off almost all day, so we stayed home. Ray came by in the morning to tell us more about what he wants the police to do to Fake Ray if they catch him. John had me send another email about a delay in paying Anita’s school fees (Not true, they are paid.), and Fake Ray replied almost immediately, saying I could send them next week. So, apparently John and Ray think they can set up a trap for Fake Ray and catch him. I have my doubts. Ray wants to beat him up, but he said to me, “I know you, Madam. You will forgive him.”  Forgiving will certainly be easier than getting the money back.

In the afternoon, my Masai friend, Elizabeth paid us a surprise visit. She looked very posh and had a lot to tell about her short-term assignment with the World Bank this past spring and her shop up on the Kenyan border. There was also a lot of family news to share. The Masai elders mediated the fight between Elizabeth’s father and the brother he had stabbed last year when they had fought over access to land. Of course, Elizabeth’s father was exonerated because the brother had put up fences, which are anathema to Masai. The brother had to give Elizabeth’s father a goat and a blanket, and all is now well. The younger sister, Ngaisi, for whom I tried to arrange hernia surgery  back in 2016, miscarried her baby, and now lives back in the family boma part of the time. Elizabeth’s mother had an ankle punctured by a stick when she was gathering wood, and now she has complications and a lot of pain. I couldn’t figure out exactly what the problem is, but since she had an x-ray at a hospital, the injury must have been serious.

However, the most earth-shaking news of all was the death of most of her father’s cattle. Masai accumulate cattle as a sign of wealth and importance, and while I don’t know the exact count, Elizabeth’s father had many cows and a huge special cross-breed bull, of which he was extremely proud. Because of the drought which lasted from early last year until this New Year’s Eve, there wasn’t enough grazing food for the cattle. So, even though the young warriors would go up in the mountain forests to strip leaves off trees to carry home for feed, cattle began dying very rapidly. Eventually, the very special big bull died, too, and Elizabeth said her father “lost his mind.” I don’t know what mental state he is in now, but certainly the loss of his cattle and a bull worth more than 1 million Tsch. would seriously affect him. Ironically, with the rains since New Year’s, there is now flooding in the Longido area, and the water came up almost to Elizabeth’s family boma.

Cows return to the boma late, so milking takes place after dark.

It was getting too late to serve only tea and cookies, so we shared the chicken vegetable soup I had made for lunch, and John introduced Elizabeth to her first grilled cheese sandwich. She liked the soup, but the cheese sandwich was a bit too strange for her. Elizabeth said she will return again next week, and then I think we will order kuku na chipsie from the little shop around the corner.

Later in the afternoon, just after I had plugged in my computer for recharging, the power went off, and did not come back on. We are very fortunate that two years ago, Mazo gave us a new stove with two electric and two gas burners, so we can always cook. I only needed the two gas burners to make us a fine spaghetti dinner last evening. Life is great with good friends and food even if our showers are cold again.

It's always good to have a backup headlamp.