Round and Round the Merry-Go-Round

As you are well aware, we are now in India. However, I wanted to let you know what I was up to last week in Africa while Dan was lying, sick with a stomach bug, moaning in pain. I went to a party! I know that you are all shocked that I didn't sit around and nurse him back to health. (LOL)

We decided to spend our last few days in Africa in a remote part of southern Kenya at a community environmental project called Kudu Hills. We learned about Kudu hills bout from another traveler.

Kudu Hills is about an hour in the back of a pickup from the nearest town. It's in Masai land and the kind of place where you schlep out all your food and water. And yes....be shocked people.....since Dan was sick, I cooked for 3 days....over firewood and a little propane stove.

While out in Kudu Hills, we got invited to attend a community ceremony for a 17 year old Masai boy who had "graduated" to his next level. The Masai boys go through a series of stages where you have to prove yourself in various ways. This boy had recently been circumcised etc.

Here's the young warrior.

Since the men were going to get together and shoot the shit and hold this ceremony, the "mamas" (everyone over the age of 15 is "mama" 'cause presumably you have at least one baby on your back) decided to hold a "Merry-Go-Round."

A Merry-Go-Round is when all the women get together, cook a big lunch and raise some money to help with the school expenses. Each time it is at a different woman's home and she gets the money.

I spent the day cooking with all the women, while the men sat in the shade and drank tea. Hardly any of the women spoke English, but they had no problem bossing me around in Masai telling me to peel potatoes with a machete, (I should note I got pretty good and I think even my grandma Bella would be proud of my peeling abilities with a knife), chop onions, hold babies and stir huge pots cooking on the wood fires.

The men's job was to kill 3 goats. Then the old women hacked the goats to pieces with a machete...nothing like being splattered with goat in the middle of the bush.

Here is the goat (yum)


A few photos of some of the women.

I drank a lot of chai, ate a whole bunch of goat and had my hair played with by about 40 little girls.

Here's one more picture of me and Choo the dog at Kudu Hills (Dan tried to steal the dog and take it with us)