Kimokouwa

 Yesterday we traveled to the Maasai village, Kimokouwa. It is approximately 50 miles due north of Arusha and we were only about 2 miles from the Kenyan border. It took us about  1 1/4 hours to get there and most of the drive was through semi-arid land. The short wet season goes from the end of October until mid-December and the rains are late in coming. My weather app says there is a 40% chance of thunderstorms on Friday, but other than that there is no rain in the forecast for the next week. 

The church we met in was constructed in 1984 and it is the only Maasai church in the area. Some of the people, mostly women, had to walk 1 1/2 hours to get there. George and Sayuni arranged for all those who had gathered--approxiamtely 100--to eat before we met. According to them the people don't have a lot of food and they thought that some might only have one meal a day: ugali (a type of stiff corn flour porridge) and milk.   

When we arrived this is the road that led to the village:

As we pulled up to the church, the children had gathered to sing and dance. We then entered the church, introductions were made, and I was invited to speak. In Maasai culture women are 3rd class citizens coming behind men and cattle (cattle are wealth). Girls are given as wives when they are 12 and 13 y.o. and a man can have as many wives as he can afford. I spent a lot of time from scripture making the case that God created men and women as equals and both men and women are beloved children of God. My hope was to instill in the wives (there were only a few men there) that they are deeply loved and of infinite worth no matter what demeaning messages they may hear from others.

Below is a picture of the church and those gathered in:

The last picture is of my translator, Lukas, who is Maasai and works part time for George and Sayuni and me. He is a great young man who is married and has an 18 month old daughter. Lukas translated my English into the Maasai language. The official language of Tanzania is Swahili.