Visiting Up on the Mountain

During this long likizo (vacation) due to Corona, I've tried to keep in touch with what students I can.  I had previously had a no-facebook-friends-with-students rule, but I relaxed that so that I could keep up with more of them (Facebook is free here, so Facebook messenger is often the only way some students can communicate if they don't have money for an internet bundle).  One student that I've kept up with is Paulo.  He didn't have a phone during most of the likizo, but he was staying with a family (one of the school board members) here in Monduli for most of the break instead of spending all his time up on the mountain with his family so that he could get books and keep studying.  He knows where I live and would come by to ring my doorbell and chat now and then.  If he came with Mathayo, another student, they could come inside, but if it was just him I'd come outside to the gate and chat outside.  (I have a rule, which they know, that they will only be invited in the house if there are at least two of them.  I don't want any accusation of being improper by having only one student in my house with me).  

The week before school started back, he invited me to go up to Monduli Juu to visit his family.  We drove up around noon on Thursday.  I'd never been to that part of the Monduli Juu area, but it's beautiful.  We came over a ridge into a wide, nearly treeless valley, surrounded by higher ridges.  This valley (probably an ancient crater) is somewhere over 6000 feet in elevation.  His family's home is up just under the ridge on the far side.  There's a field of corn planted right on the ridge, and I wish I'd had the chance to go up and look over to see what's beyond the ridge.  

Paulo's uncle, me, his mother, and his two little cousins

When we arrived, we were greeted by several small children, who were a bit shy to see an mzungu (foreigner), and Paulo's mother.  Paulo comes from a traditional Maasai family; his father has more than one wife, so he isn't around their boma very often.  Paulo is one of the middle children of six, and I also met his younger sister, Maria, who is three years behind him in school and was also preparing to go back to school on Sunday.  The young children turned out to mostly be his cousins, the two little girls of his uncle, his mother's brother, who lives right next door.  The very littlest one, only about a year old, is his niece, his eldest brother's first child and his mother's first grandchild.  I never did figure out who to rest of the kids were; neighbours, I suppose.  

Inside, I was offered the nice plastic chair as I was the guest, and his mother brought out milky tea (which was very good); first, she served an elderly lady who came in (his grandmother, I assume, although we were never directly introduced), then me as a guest, and then she brought mugs for herself and Paulo.  We chatted a bit as we could using Swahili as a lingua franca; they speak Maasai at home and his mother only knows some Swahili and certainly not English.  I only know the equivalent of "How are you? I'm fine" in Maasai. Paulo translated a bit between English and Maasai for us.  After a bit, his uncle came in, and he speaks fluent Swahili (though not much English).  I was happy that my Swahili has improved enough that we were mostly able to chat in Swahili for nearly an hour.  I did have Paulo translate a few difficult words here and there, or check with him to make sure I had understood something correctly. 

I really enjoyed getting to meet his family and see the beautiful area where they live.  It's nice to get a better idea of where my students are coming from and what their life at home is like.  I wouldn't have taken photos as it's kind of weird to go to someone's house and take photos of it, but Paulo wanted to take photos so I did get some.  My phone has a better camera than the one he has somehow acquired this week, so he took photos with mine and then later I transferred them to his.     

So, here's a glimpse into life up on Monduli Mountain.  It was a beautiful day to visit a beautiful area!  Once we got back down the mountain, I saw several more students as Thursday is market day and they were all out shopping for whatever they need before heading back to school on Sunday afternoon.  I ended up running into another student, Dismas, and giving him a lift home and meeting his family at their little store, where I narrowly avoided being gifted a live chicken.  It was good to see some of the kids today, and I look forward to seeing everyone back at school next week! 

The kids and a few family members walked us out to the car as we were leaving.