Maasai Land . . .

well we're working on our time with the Maasai and i just wanted to drop a quick update to keep you posted :) Its been a really incredible experience so far. Our team is camping in three tents alongside the Maasai Boma (village) with Mt. Meru and Kilimanjaro as backdrops (not to mention waking up to giraffe herds every morning - such awkward animals)!! im so blessed. The Maasai are beyond intriguing as peoples go and totally different than myself, as much as id like to pretend to be as rad :) Any words i use fall so short of doing them justice so you may enjoy looking them up online. They wear incredible pieces of cloth and jewelry that are their "trademarks." Ive been blessed to receive pieces from them as gifts. Its been a crazy experience just getting used to seeing tall thin nomads walking around in their BRIGHT blue, purple, orange and red "shukas" or blanket robes throughout the day and into the night. Some are herding cattle or goats, others are just walking to a location probably only they are sure of. The landscape looks exactly the same to me, but of course they know it very very well. They have been very friendly and welcoming to us, im sure a lot of it is curiosity. There are about 5 Bomas within 10k or so from the one we're staying with and so many of them make daily visits to our camp. We are visiting them each day to pray, help build huts and visit as well as working at the school YWAM has started in the area. There are about 50 little ones who walk miles each day to learn English, Swahili and the Bible. From about 8-9 AM you begin seeing little ones along the horizon singing and playing games as they finish up their journey to class (usually a few miles). Its honestly been quite frustrating trying to communicate with the adult Maasai. We've been working so hard at learning some Swahiil to get us by here in Tanzania, however most of the them only speak the maasai language. We have one translator named Johannah who has been doing his best as a go between and doing a famous job of it. We cook all of our meals over open flame and have to make due with the VERY limited water we have access to. A person learns that eating off a "clean" plate just means its not full of dirt :). Needless to say, the maasai here dont use really any water at all, mostly because they dont have access to it. They have voiced a need for rain mostly for their cattle and to make some mud so they can build more huts needed very badly. We obviously havent showered in quite a while and have to ration out the 3 liters/each of water we packed in. It has been such an eye-opener for me to see how a group of people can adapt to living under such conditions. As for prayer, the biggest one is that I see the God I know and love as relevant to them. I know He is . . . its just so hard to see when their way of life is so different than mine. Most (even the christians) practice polygamy, sharing of wives, female circumcision and many other things that I cant really wrap my mind around. The biggest foothold that I have found is going with the "heavenly warrior" and royalty mindset with them, which are things they understand very well. Tackling their fear of witchcraft and ancestor worship has been a large and ongoing challenge. I will be much more diligent in my prayers for those investing their entire lives in these people.

Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers as we begin our last week of ministry here in Tanzania ~ i cant believe its almost over ~ before beginning the LONG journey back to Melbourne (10 hour busride to Dar es Salaam, 2 day busride back to Lusaka, 3 hour flight to Johannesburg, 10 hour flight to Malaysia, three day layover and finally finishing up with an 8 hour flight into Melbourne) I'll be on again before we begin all of this, it would just be nice for prayer to begin now :) Traveling for such a long time can be very taxing on anyone, but I feel especially on 10 very different and exhausted backpackers ( 8 being female) who have been alongside eachother for 5 straight months and all a bit homesick :)

I hope this update found your homes well and blessed
. . .all my love,
nattie