If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you might
remember my post “I love you through and through” which was a reflection on the
beauty of this land after a long motorcycle ride far out of town with my
favorite driver, Victor. I still use him regularly and he still spoils me. A
couple weeks ago, I had him take me out of town to meet Elizabeth for
something. While we were waiting, he took me for another mini cruise. We just
so happened to be in the village he went to school in from age 6-15, roughly.
He took me around, showed me his former schools, where he lived with his Uncle
while school was in session, and explained to me some Maasai vocabulary,
traditions, and his experiences as a kid. His English is perfect so learning
from him is easy. That day, I fell in love with Tanzania again. Today, I fell
in love once more.
The rainy season has begun and in almost no time, things
have gone from brown and dry to green and full, and I just got back from
another long ride out of town with Victor. He took me to my project the same
way as usual, right through town. Once we got out of town, we were going
through fields of wet soil being plowed. It sounds pretty regular and less than
thrilling when I write about it, but let me see if I can paint a better
picture. We turned off the tarmac onto the dirt road, dodging puddles left and
right. To my right are mud huts, bomas with cattle, locals sitting on the
ground passing a sachet of the local alcohol between one another. To my left,
vast fields as far as we can see. The dark soil has been plowed by the tractor
in the distance, and in line with the tractor are men and women in their
colorful garments, small buckets in one hand, dropping seeds with the other.
Bordering these fields are trees and green as can be, and against the near
black soil, it makes for a beautiful sight. In the backdrop, Mount Meru, playing
shy today and hiding behind the clouds. The visual is incredible but what
really seals the deal is the culture. The simplicity of the lives these people
lead constantly leaves me in awe. Every few seconds a group of kids, some with
no shoes, in tattered clothes holding sticks runs out to the street to say hi
to the passing white person. This is my sight the whole way to the project,
with some shrub fences protecting a little “neighborhood” of Maasai [k1] mud
huts, or the occasional brick house. I love those ten minutes to the project
from the main road and every time I go out there, I’m reminded why I love being
here and why I chose that piece of land. I can take all the pictures I want,
but it will never do this beauty justice.
I told Victor how much I love being out of town, so he took
me on another “off the map” route back home. I don’t know how to describe the
trip home, but it was beautiful. There were a couple times I wasn’t so sure we
would get out of that spot, but we always did…even if I had to get off the bike
and meet him where the rocks stopped or top of the hill. We weren’t on roads,
just navigating through bush and forest, then through a shallow creek and up a
dusty hill where we found a road and eventually made it back to the tarmac and
eventually into town. You know, exactly the situation you would be cautioned
about…a girl with a dead phone on the back of a motorcycle with some guy, quite
literally in the middle of nowhere. Sorry parents! (not that sorry though)
Days like this motivate me to keep pushing through this
foggy time. I love the people, the land and the culture and I can’t believe I
almost let one “snake in the grass” take this all away from me. It brings me
back to a song by one of my favorites, Ben Sollee…
When love comes,
will you release the rain?
Will you
change the world to the song you sang?
Or when the
smoke clears, will your hope remain,
To make some
peace on this land you claim?
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