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The Masai People

During our travel in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania, we have become familiar with the Masai People. The Masai are an Ethnic group numbering about 840,000 people. Most of the men wear what they call a shuka, (a colorful cloth that goes around their body and over one shoulder). They also carry a stick about four feet long, and a small sword in a scabbard attached to their belt. We don't know what they use the stick or the sword for. My theory is that they are part of tradition which has carried over from the past.
 
The women wear colorful long dresses, and what looks like a shuka over them. They usually live in small villages in small huts made of mud, sticks grass and cow dung. We visited one of their villages in the Masai Mara Game Reserve and got a feel of what their living conditions are like. The huts are small with no windows, and are very dark and hot inside with a charcoal fire that is used for cooking. The hut that we visited was, to me, very claustrophobic, and I did not stay inside  very long.
 
Their primary occupation is raising cattle and other animals such as goats and sheep. The village that we visited was in a fenced in compound. They bring all of their animals into the compound at night to protect them from the lions, leopard, and cheetah, etc. Their wealth is determined by the number of cattle, goats and sheep that the family owns. When a young man prepares to marry, he must give so many cows to the brides father to 'buy' his bride, The number of cows or other animals the future husband pays is based on how many cows the father of the bride thinks his daughter is worth. I asked a Masai man that does lectures in the camp where we stayed, how many cows he had.He told me that he owned 29 cows, and that he was definitely not wealthy with such a small number. Their cows are considered to be very valuable and they don't take very kindly to anyone who would steal or  kill any of their animals.
 
When we were driving along a highway in Southern Kenya, we came upon a group of Masai and some other travelers along with a car that looked to be totaled out with the front of the car all bashed in. As we approached the scene, we saw at least 10 dead cows (there were probably more) along the road. The car had apparently been traveling at a high rate of speed when it crashed into a herd of cattle.  It was a scene of carnage and very sad to see what had happened as a result of a driver that for some reason did not see the cows. It is very common to see herds of cows, sheep and goats,etc crossing the highways in Kenya. We could only wonder how the Masai owners of the cows felt at the loss of so many cows, or how they felt about the driver that hit the cows with his car.       
 
The Masai have a traditional dance that they demonstrated for us, The men form a group and while making some grunting and other strange sounds, alternately, one by one, jump about a foot off the ground. The women form a line and dance , but don't jump like the men do.
 
We have found them to be very friendly and proud of their ethnicity. When we went to a meeting house to train the leaders in a branch in a small town in Tanzania, we noticed that one of the counselors in the branch presidency was a Masai. My first reaction when I saw him in his traditional dress was to blurt out, "Oh you are a Masai". He just smiled and proudly said that "yes, I am a Masai".
 
We were grateful for the opportunity to learn about the Masai and about their culture and traditions.
 

 
 

 

On The Road in Africa

 
We have been traveling in Africa since June 30th. We are getting a little tired of living out of suitcases and staying in hotels.However, we are having an adventure visiting many branches and wards and providing financial, auditing and membership record training and auditing some of the units that do not have auditors in their areas.
 
We are privileged to meet and get acquainted with branch presidencies, stake presidents, bishoprics and clerks. Some of the units are in large cities such as Nairobi,Kenya, and others are in towns and villages we have never heard of, such as Arusha and Mwanza, in Tanzania. These leaders are anxious to learn more about their stewardships and are concerned about carrying out their callings better. Mostly, they are humble, responsible, leaders. We have done the training in missions, stakes and districts in Kampala and Jinja, Uganda,  Nairobi, Kenya,  Bujumbura, Burundi,Kigali, Rwanda, and Arushi and Mwanza in Tanzania. We have trained ward and/or branch leaders in about 30 units, with leaders from one, two or three units in each session. 
 
We have been traveling with Jadmaire Ndivo, who is the manager of the Nairobi, Kenya Service Center, a satellite office of the Africa Southeast Area office in Johannesburg. The service center manages Member and Statistical Records, Public Affairs, Finance, Travel, Church Educational System, and other church administration issues in Kenya and other surrounding countries. Jadmaire is also stake president of the Nairobi Kenya Stake. In local areas, He drives us in a church owned car, and when we need to travel to places such as Tanzania or Rwanda, we fly, because of the long distance. He schedules our training sessions and has been installing MLS (Member and Leader Systems) on the computers in some of the more remote branches that do not yet have it, as he travels with us.
 
Because he is a Kenyan, he is familiar with the various cultural differences and directs us through the beauracratic processes of traveling through airports and across borders from one country to another. He also keeps us out of trouble with passport issues as we travel. He knows where most of the meeting houses are located, so he gets us where we need to be. We couldn't have done what we did without his help. We have spent a lot of time with him in training meetings, in the car, on airplane flights, and eating meals with him, and he has become our good friend.
 
During our travels, we have tolerated bad roads full of pot holes, bad hotels, mosquitos in our rooms at night, bad restaurant food, heavy traffic, many security checks at airports, long hours in the car, etc. But the positives far outweigh the down side. We get to see some beautifual scenery, meet many good people, stay in some good hotels, enjoy good food in some of the restaurants, and even travel on some very good roads. We have learned much about African culture and about some of the problems that  the church leaders experience in their wards and branches. We have opportinities to help them to become better leaders, especially those newly called, inexperienced leaders.
 
Attached are photos of us, Jadmaire and some of the branch leaders that we worked with. The man in the "native attire" is a Masai (a tribe of people in Kenya and Tanzania) He is a counselor in the branch presidency.
 
We are greatly blessed to be serving in Africa, and for the opportunities he have to do this work.
 
We are in Nairobi, and  are now going to take a couple of days off and go to Masai Mara, a game park in southern Kenya that we visited once before. This time, we will see the "migration" which is thousands of  wildebeests and zebra that migrate through thre game park this time of the year.  
 
This is all for now. After Masai Mara, we will finally head back to Johannesburg.

 
 

 

Some observations of our church in Africa

 

When we arrived in Africa, we learned some interesting things about racial issues between black and white Africans. When we attend wards with mixed black and white members, we notice that, mostly, the blacks will sit on one side of the classroom or chapel, and the whites will sit on the other. This doesn't apply to the Pimville Ward that we usually attend, for obvious reasons, because it is an all black ward (except for us and 2 or 3 young white American missionaries that attend). Even though Apartheid ended in 1994, there is still a stigma of racial 'segration', in South Africa, although nothing like it was
prior to 1994.

While we were traveling in Zimbabwe, we were in the car with two black Africans, Kasnos Paradzai, a stake president, and Given Masetle, MSR supervisor in the Area Office.During our long trips, we had pportunities for interesting discussions about our different cultures and racial issues,etc.They feel that Black Africans are inferior to white Africans, generally speaking. We disagreed with them, but, nevertheless, this is how they feel.They told us about how it was during apartheid, for members of the churches or people that wanted to attend church meetings.The Black Africans were not allowed to enter
white churches, or sometimes any churches, but would, instead, sit outside near an open window and listen to what was being said. This included LDS churches, too. It was, not LDS church policy,of course, but rather Apartheid segregation policy. Eventually, they were allowed to enter the churches, but had to sit in the back of the chapel or classroom. Because of what happened in the past, many black Africans,
I think, still feel inferior to white Africans, regardless of how it really is.I asked them what they thought it was like when black people first were allowed to attend black and white churches (including LDS churches).They told us that there was much rejoicing by church members but it was somewhat bitter-sweet because of the Apartheid racial restrictions in regard to attending church meetings.I think that since Apartheid ended, and with new generations of black Africans, including more and more black leaders coming into the Church, racial predjudice is diminishing.We feel no predjudice whatsoever in the Pimville ward that we are assigned to.They are some of the finest people that we have ever met. In fact we have found that the black Africans, generally speaking, are friendlier to us than the Whites, in my opinion.

Then there is the issue of long distances to travel to temples.There are now three temples in Africa, but most Africans must travel great distances to attend a temple. Most African church members don't  even own a car, let alone have the means to travel long distances to a temple. A district president in Uganda said in a talk that it took him 6 years to prepare and save enough money to travel to the Johannesburg temple to be married there. Many members only make it to a temple once in their lifetime, because of their financial means and the long distances to a temple. It made us realize even to a greater extent, how fortunate we are to have a temple nearby. We can actually walk to the Johannesburg temple from the area office, where we work.

Another interesting observation that we have made is that just about all of the black members of the Church here,are first generation members. Most of the branch, ward and stake leaders are young returned missionaries who have gained much of their leadership experience on their missions. They are the pioneers here in Africa and they are doing a great work here as they gain more experience. During
our training to church leaders, we have been greatly impressed by their leadership and committment to their callings.The church is thriving in most African countries.

These are few of our observations of the LDS church and the members in the African countries that we have visited.