Amazing...

My life here at the four month mark is far richer than I had ever thought possible. All week I have been working at an orphanage during my spare time. Eighty children live in what I would normally consider condemned buildings. The word rubble comes to mind. But they lucked out. A CDC family here has taken extraordinary interest in them and are having a huge impact. They have even gone so far as to set up a non-profit fund to raise money for them. That, in turn, has attracted the attention of a man whose family owns Overstock.com and this guys has decided to travel the world building schools for needy people. Is that not the coolest job? He has dropped a bunch of money to build a school here AND money to set up an internet café (very big in Africa) so they can generate some income. They are just breaking ground with the school building but are at the final stages of setting up their internet café. That’s where I’ve come in. I’ve been wiring the place, setting up networking. It’s been great fun getting to know these folks; they are warm and very appreciative. What little Swahili I’ve learned has started coming in handy too.

As I was leaving, headed to my car tonight, out from the school building came five Masai warriors. All in their mid to late twenties. They are a tough, confident and surprisingly friendly lot. Apparently there are about fifteen of them taking English and Swahili classes at the orphanage. They wanted to do their ‘dancing’ for everybody.

Masai in Kisumu are mostly employed as guards. They wear their cloth ‘skirts’ and some jewelry, a blanket, carry their weapons which consists of a special stick and a long knife and you DON’T want to get on the bad side of one of these guys. When a boy Masai comes of age he is sent out in the bush, alone, to kill a lion. When they do, they come back with the hind leg and tail of the lion to prove it and they get a special marking on their arm (some of the guys I met today had three such markings, three lions!) now would you want to mess with a guy who can kill a lion with a stick and a knife?

I digress. So they ‘danced’ for us. Now they sing this amazing song, rhythmic, hypnotic and each of them in turn would ‘dance’ which is basically jumping in place. They try to see which of them can jump the highest. They jump with their arms straight at their sides and straight up and down. Have you tried this? It ain’t as easy as it sounds and they jump high and many times before giving up the stage to the next guy. Apparently this is what they do if they come after you; they jump up like a rabbit and come down on you with their weapons. Anyway I was told that I should come back on Monday when all fifteen of these guys would love to show off their dancing for me. I’m bringing my video camera!