But Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are tender and that I must care for the ewes and cows that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard just one day, all the animals will die."
Sleep is wonderful. Jenny gave me a wake-up call around 7AM. I ate breakfast on the first floor with Chrissy, April, Wacey, Jenny and Lance. The tea helped me come to my senses.
We started off the day by going to an elephant orphanage. Suddenly, there were more white people among us. It was obvious when we were at a tourist location and when we were at a volunteer project. Although, one of the students from the Journey said that she knew these things were here but she never thought about going to them. I'm sure there's things we pass everyday that thrill tourists; the wonders of our own backyard lose their fervor.
According to the sign at the front gate: "Our Desnaring teams have removed over 79,000 snares and arrested over 537 poachers. 1000 snares at a 5% daily rate of success will catch 18,250 animals in a year." There were photographs of elephants who had been attacked and left on the sides of the roads. Along with the donation box, to further this program, were various souvenirs-- mostly clothes.
I've never been that close to an elephant. I don't think I've seen a baby elephant either. All that kept us from the elephants was a rope. If an elephant tried to come over the rope one of the workers would immediately bring him back to the rest of the elephants. For the tourists, it was exciting to have an elephant so close. One of the elephants nearly rammed Nicole; she said something along the lines of, "Hi buddy!" To keep warm some of the younger elephants wore blankets. All of these elephants had been rescued from the wild.
We were told that elephants often undergo depression. It's confusing for them to be around humans, especially since the reason why some of these beautiful animals are without a family is because of the extensive poaching. Some elephants don't like humans at all. So it takes great workers who are willing to help tame these elephants so that they can live in peace and without fear that humans will kill them.
Elephants are uncannily smart. Some of these elephants were picking up shovels and playing soccer.
Have you ever felt elephant skin? It's surprisingly rough and hairy. It feels nothing like what I would have imagined. Also, in case anyone ever asks you for trivia sake: Hannibal's army rode elephants in the Punic Wars around 220BC.
We then left for the giraffe center-- where most of the fun was in feeding the tallest animals on the planet. You could even give a giraffe a kiss which is where you stick one of the food pellets in your mouth and have the giraffe take it from you. I of course was not that bold, and that's disgusting. After hanging out with the giraffes we had a whole lesson about the three different giraffes and the rescue center itself.
Did I mention that most of us still had no luggage? When we were heading back to our lodge Brent made fun of Sevo for his call to the airport:
"Where are my bags, you didn't even greet him."
"Yesterday I did."
"No formalities, no how are you."
They went on like this for awhile and it was fairly entertaining.
Then they debated whether we should go back to the Java House or try a new restaurant for lunch. We ended up going to a shopping center where a few people came to us to sell strange goods-- like strawberries, watches, and world maps. We went through the Nakumat which was a Wal-Mart influenced store. There was a giant elephant statue that tricked a few of us. We ended up eating American and Mexican food, which was kind of humorous;I mean, to travel to the other side of the planet to eat the same food you can find everywhere at home.
After changing, we went to the Masai Market. The following link will show you what the market looked like.
Masai Market
(embedding was disabled)
Each of us from Chi Alpha were split into groups of about 2-3 and then given a partner from the Journey. The Journey was there to help us with the bargaining process. Since we were foreigners, the sellers were overpricing everything by a great margin and it was hard for us to understand what was happening since we were using shillings. I was with G.T., April, and Lance. The market was overwhelming. If you were caught looking at anything the seller would immediately begin selling it to you, and it was extremely hard to leave-- especially since the place is so congested with people and stores. Some of the most popular items were beads, paintings, animal figurines, and dishes. I felt more like I was going through an obstacle course than a market. I didn't know what to buy or if I actually wanted to buy anything, but both April and I ended up buying jewelry from one seller who wasn't as intense. I bought a bracelet that was like a slinky with rainbow colored beads. I did need a watch; I had somehow left mine in America. The absence on my wrist was beginning to annoy me so it comes as no surprise that my first purchase was a bracelet. The next thing I bought was a bowl that was made from the same type of beads as the bracelet. After that, several people were coming towards us to sell anything and everything. We soon learned that many people in the Masai Market worked for commission-- these people would follow you like a hawk and at every moment they would point out something you must have-- would you like a limestone elephant for a 100$?
If I was exceedingly rich I may have honestly bought as much as I could. Not because I wanted anything but because this was how so many of them made their living, and it was an easy way to help out. Unfortunately, I'm a college student who has to be exceedingly creative to find any means of money, so I didn't have much on me and I was conservative with how I spent it. There was this one guy-- I think his name was Charles-- who followed our party the entire time. When we came back two weeks later he still recognized me. At one point, G.T. had to leave so our group had to merge with Alex's because G.T. was our Journey partner. One of the commissioners kept following April with a giraffe statue, and she kept saying she wouldn't buy it unless he gave her four for 100 shillings.
April was a lot kinder than me. I figured if you even made eye contact you would never be able to get through all the people. Lance and I were on the same page. April was abundantly kind and smiled to most of the people. This brought attention to her so many of the vendors would attempt to sell her random goods. April was just as conservative, if somehow more, than me. It actually made her feel bad that she couldn't help.
But the hardest part was the mothers with their babies. They would touch your arm gently and whisper in your ear, or speak fairly loud depending on what other commotion was occurring. They would beg you for money while holding their baby. They would tell you they need the money, or that they have HIV. Which, as a kindred spirit you want to give money but you can't with that many people around you or else you may end up going home naked.
So, basically every seller was about the same. They would say things like, "I sell you for a good price," or "I sell you for a cheap price," or how about "looking is free." It was somewhat entertaining to see some of them attempt to sell it for an outrageous price like 6,800 shillings, and then to just simply say 200 shillings-- or to just give them 5 Euros since there really was no need to keep that.
After the Masai Market we headed back to the Ufungamano house. That night we had a meeting with the Journey to discuss the events that took place during the December election.
Luke 7:32
They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: " 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.'
No comments:
Post a Comment