Part 5
With no other plans, we decided to visit the Masai farming land, a further 2 hours into the desert. It took us about forty minutes to get organized; find the car and meet the Mama. We gave the car a tune up on the spot. The car was a model I had never seen before with SPALDING and a basketball on the back window. The doors didn't work, so they always had to be locked or they would swing open. There was no gas cap, we had to find somebody that had an extra one kicking around. The tires were flat so we filled them (and the spare) with air. Filled her up with water and oil and she started up with no kitten purr but some sort of old woman cough. Emmason drove with Laura in the front and Abiq (Emmason’s cousin), the Mama, and me in the back. We drove for about ten minutes into the country when sure enough Mama's yelling out the window at some random truck full of men. A man jumps out and jumps into the backseat with the three of us. A bit too squishy for me so I hopped up front with Laura. It happened to be the owner of the car, but I stopped asking questions awhile back.
There was a road in the beginning which soon opened up to a desert landscape. Following previous motorcycle tracks was the route we followed. We drove through three distinct colours of soil and plant life. Then after two hours we took a sharp right and there was a barrier of thorns blocking what appeared to be the exact same landscape we had been driving through. The guys cleared the thorns and we approached two Masai mud dung huts and a vast farming area. Really cool. They offered honey combs straight from the hive and we walked around eating the smokey sweet combs. One farmer and his wife greeted us in the Masai farming land (which is made of raised beds with little paths a foot high to walk on). The man ran up to Laura said "how much" looked at his wife and said "why did I marry you I have never seen Mzungu before now I want one, I don't want you anymore, you go home". Of course he said this in Masai so Emmason was laughing so hard, the wife was laughing, while Laura eloquently said “I am not for sale.” Good times. Then we asked for a picture and he grabbed her hair and tried to put it on his own head. After walking through banana trees, fields of watermelon, maise, avocado, sugar cane, and onions we headed back to our friend Spalding. We all piled into her but this time there was no old women’s cough as she started up. I said "oh shit" Laura said "how much water is left, we have to ration the cookies we bought." We were in the middle of nooooooooo where. So the owner told us to get out and push, and we did. And Spalding started up with no problems.
We headed to a Masai village. Nobody had seen whitey's before. But they did have a massive satellite dish and we walked into one dung hut where there were twenty Masai watching Manchester United play. We wanted a picture but it wasn't okay to ask. We ate rice and beans for lunch. Then pushed the car to a start and drove to a small river to the second area where Mama could rent land. We had to walk for twenty minutes in the jungle and cross the river by walking (there was croc's in it but they're only at night). At the fields, there were women plowing with babies on their backs and one baby sitting in the shade. He was covered in dirt and flies. So I took a picture and sat down beside him. Then Abiq sat down and talked to him. He only said three things "I want my aunt" "Why are you sitting here, we aren't friends" and "I want some of that food over there, I ate porridge today but now I want something else". It was pretty funny. I thought what a miserable baby, just like the UNICEF commercials, but nope just like any other dirty little boy. Pretty casual. After walking across the river there was a Masai teenage girl with two donkeys gathering water. She had never seen white people or cameras before. She was stunned. Scared shitless, curious, angry, so confused. It was crazy. She didn't like Emmason’s toque so she made him take it off before she would talk. Then we took pictures and showed her and she just couldn't believe it or didn't know or god knows what she thought. It was awesome and the pictures are awesome. She was beautiful when she smiled.
We had some trouble finding the road that didn't exist on our way home. Laura was nervous but in the end we followed some random tracks in the sand and took the bumpy, sketchy Spalding home. We got back home around 630, just before dark. What a day in the life. We were so dirty that Abiq and Emmason were white with dust while Laura and I were black with dirt.
Sunday, we got up early and caught a sketchy, sketchy, sketchy bus. The bus had “The Hunting Knife” across the front windshield. The driver’s side of the windshield had been cracked so severely that I’m not sure how he was seeing anything through it. There was a loud high pitched squeal (kind of like a pig dying) when he used the brakes. There were so many people that Laura was squished into the middle section while I was balancing on a pole that surrounded the driver’s area. At one point I took off my Velcro camera case and the sound was very interesting to the driver. So he started staring at me and the Velcro instead of the road until I started frantically motioning for him to keep his eyes on the prize. The final straw was when I noticed motorcyclists and people jumping and veering out of the way to clear the path for ‘The Hunting Knife’ and its path of fury. Too dangerous so we got off at the nearest city and waited for a better one.
That concludes the five part, weekend away, series.
With no other plans, we decided to visit the Masai farming land, a further 2 hours into the desert. It took us about forty minutes to get organized; find the car and meet the Mama. We gave the car a tune up on the spot. The car was a model I had never seen before with SPALDING and a basketball on the back window. The doors didn't work, so they always had to be locked or they would swing open. There was no gas cap, we had to find somebody that had an extra one kicking around. The tires were flat so we filled them (and the spare) with air. Filled her up with water and oil and she started up with no kitten purr but some sort of old woman cough. Emmason drove with Laura in the front and Abiq (Emmason’s cousin), the Mama, and me in the back. We drove for about ten minutes into the country when sure enough Mama's yelling out the window at some random truck full of men. A man jumps out and jumps into the backseat with the three of us. A bit too squishy for me so I hopped up front with Laura. It happened to be the owner of the car, but I stopped asking questions awhile back.
There was a road in the beginning which soon opened up to a desert landscape. Following previous motorcycle tracks was the route we followed. We drove through three distinct colours of soil and plant life. Then after two hours we took a sharp right and there was a barrier of thorns blocking what appeared to be the exact same landscape we had been driving through. The guys cleared the thorns and we approached two Masai mud dung huts and a vast farming area. Really cool. They offered honey combs straight from the hive and we walked around eating the smokey sweet combs. One farmer and his wife greeted us in the Masai farming land (which is made of raised beds with little paths a foot high to walk on). The man ran up to Laura said "how much" looked at his wife and said "why did I marry you I have never seen Mzungu before now I want one, I don't want you anymore, you go home". Of course he said this in Masai so Emmason was laughing so hard, the wife was laughing, while Laura eloquently said “I am not for sale.” Good times. Then we asked for a picture and he grabbed her hair and tried to put it on his own head. After walking through banana trees, fields of watermelon, maise, avocado, sugar cane, and onions we headed back to our friend Spalding. We all piled into her but this time there was no old women’s cough as she started up. I said "oh shit" Laura said "how much water is left, we have to ration the cookies we bought." We were in the middle of nooooooooo where. So the owner told us to get out and push, and we did. And Spalding started up with no problems.
We headed to a Masai village. Nobody had seen whitey's before. But they did have a massive satellite dish and we walked into one dung hut where there were twenty Masai watching Manchester United play. We wanted a picture but it wasn't okay to ask. We ate rice and beans for lunch. Then pushed the car to a start and drove to a small river to the second area where Mama could rent land. We had to walk for twenty minutes in the jungle and cross the river by walking (there was croc's in it but they're only at night). At the fields, there were women plowing with babies on their backs and one baby sitting in the shade. He was covered in dirt and flies. So I took a picture and sat down beside him. Then Abiq sat down and talked to him. He only said three things "I want my aunt" "Why are you sitting here, we aren't friends" and "I want some of that food over there, I ate porridge today but now I want something else". It was pretty funny. I thought what a miserable baby, just like the UNICEF commercials, but nope just like any other dirty little boy. Pretty casual. After walking across the river there was a Masai teenage girl with two donkeys gathering water. She had never seen white people or cameras before. She was stunned. Scared shitless, curious, angry, so confused. It was crazy. She didn't like Emmason’s toque so she made him take it off before she would talk. Then we took pictures and showed her and she just couldn't believe it or didn't know or god knows what she thought. It was awesome and the pictures are awesome. She was beautiful when she smiled.
We had some trouble finding the road that didn't exist on our way home. Laura was nervous but in the end we followed some random tracks in the sand and took the bumpy, sketchy Spalding home. We got back home around 630, just before dark. What a day in the life. We were so dirty that Abiq and Emmason were white with dust while Laura and I were black with dirt.
Sunday, we got up early and caught a sketchy, sketchy, sketchy bus. The bus had “The Hunting Knife” across the front windshield. The driver’s side of the windshield had been cracked so severely that I’m not sure how he was seeing anything through it. There was a loud high pitched squeal (kind of like a pig dying) when he used the brakes. There were so many people that Laura was squished into the middle section while I was balancing on a pole that surrounded the driver’s area. At one point I took off my Velcro camera case and the sound was very interesting to the driver. So he started staring at me and the Velcro instead of the road until I started frantically motioning for him to keep his eyes on the prize. The final straw was when I noticed motorcyclists and people jumping and veering out of the way to clear the path for ‘The Hunting Knife’ and its path of fury. Too dangerous so we got off at the nearest city and waited for a better one.
That concludes the five part, weekend away, series.
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