Day 4a...meeting the locals

Reading back through my journal, I wrote that my second day in the Mara was "priceless". I guess I could say that about the whole trip but I didn't know that at the time, lol.

 

Side note: Our facilitator said it takes a "special" kind of person to pay thousands of dollars to do manual labour in rural Africa! I'm going to take that as a compliment! ;- )

 

This was the first day we really met and interacted with members of the community. If I was impressed hearing about the wonderful FTC initiatives from our facilitators, I was absolutely blown away to hear the same from the locals. First stop....Mama Jane's house (new and old)!

 

Walk to Mama Jane's house

Mama Jane's new and old house
 

Mama Jane has implemented so many improvements to her homestead and way of life which have made a definite impact on her health and the health of her family. 

Although her English is very good, Justus (one of the trip facilitators, in-country associate directors, and all around nice guy) translated while Mama Jane spoke in Kiswahili. Here she is showing us one of her "projects" which is to dry her cooking pots and utensils on this rack outside to prevent flies and other insects from spreading disease.

Some improvement projects are simple like having a garbage burning pit and drying clothes on a clothesline instead of on trees (where insects can crawl in). Some changes are bigger and require money, time, and/or materials - like building an outhouse or boiling water to prevent contracting diseases like cholera. (I'll talk about water in the next post).

Mama Jane is a pioneer! She has two vegetable gardens and is trying this new, vertical garden. Apparently it can grow just as many vegetables as a patch of land but takes up much less space and, more importantly, water.

We would later find out that people who volunteer at the FTC "farm" can bring back plants to their home in return for their hard work.

Mama Jane's old house - very small for 7 people and animals

 

We also met a number of other ladies that form part of the local "merry-go-round" - another amazing initiative and success story.This is a group of 12 women who donate money every month into a central pool and each month one of the members gets that month's takings. There is a chair person, vice-chair, treasurer, and written rules that must be followed. The group governs itself and there are the "elders" that make final decisions if necessary. Mama Jane was chair of her group but now is chair for the regional committee that overseas all the merry-go-rounds.

 

For the first few years the group decides how the money should be spent and what improvement projects will be undertaken by every member that year. After a few years, each member can decide how she will spend her money. As this group is in its 4th year, I think, many of the women are going to buy dairy cows this year. Mama Jane has been building her new, brick house for 5 years and although she kept saying "it's not finished yet", she was extremely proud of her new home - as well she should be! I'm proud of all the Mamas and everything they are accomplishing - talk about girl power! :) 

 

Our KPMG group and all the Mamas of the merry-go-round

 

Mama Jane and her daughter came back to Bogani for lunch and afterwards they both talked about the life of a Maasai woman - growing up, weddings, and marriage - how it was and how it is now. It was truly enlightening.

 

Mama Jane is one of the most friendly, charismatic, entertaining, and genuine people I have every met. She just loves to answer questions! I thank her very much for welcoming us into her home and teaching us the Maasai way of life - new and old. It was such an educational and inspiring morning!

Just a pretty tree - thought I'd share :)

For those of you that thought I didn't do any "work" while I was in Africa, wait until you see the next post!