Friday, June 17, 2016

Sunday Walk


After shooting was over, we had a lazy morning on Sunday. Brian went along with the sisters to the Sunday church service, which lasted 2 ½ hours. He said the music – many of the Maasai are in the choir – was fabulous, but he couldn’t understand most of the rest.  The sisters asked him to stand up and tell the congregation what we were doing here, and those who understood his English were supportive.  The rest of us kicked back and had a well-deserved rest. 

After lunch, Engelbert and the sisters advised us on how to walk toward the Kenyan border, 7 km. away, by just following the path and climbing a small mountain from which we could see Kenya.  We started out, and enjoyed the walk, seeing goats and cattle, watched over by Maasai boys, along the way.  We saw a number of bomas, built in the traditional style with cow dung, but we also saw quite a few other kinds of structures that were clearly houses. It was alternately sunny and overcast; we were armed with sunscreen and hats.  I kept taking off and putting on a long-sleeved shirt to protect my neck and arms from the sun. We walked quite a ways, but finally decided to turn back when the direction of the trail became less clear. Several of us were concerned about not being able to find our way back in the dark, and Ivan, who had been a Boy Scout in Hong Kong, was worried that we were out there without a compass. In the afternoon, the sun was clearly our compass, but after dark, we would have lost that tool.

So . . . our walk was aborted, but we safely made it back to the hostel – and jumped into the ice-cold showers.

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