22 November – the Masai, religion and the President

on the way from Msemo

We had loads to write about yesterday so we’ve saved some of it up for today. I didn’t tell you about Mass, the swaying and shimmying of the little girls for Christ the King. They shassied their way to the altar and did a sort of hula hula dance next to the priest. It had all been beautifully choreographed by the nuns. And then there’s the fact that Adrian meets people and doesn’t ever remember a face, so people come up to him, ask him how he is and he says, “Hullo. My name is Adrian.” and they say. “Yes. I know. I am the Deputy Headteacher at the school where you’ve been teaching, “ or “Yes. We met yesterday.” It happens all the time and is quite embarrassing.

I also wanted to write about the Masai. We watch them every evening, playing football on the beach at 5.00pm. They start at 5.00pm and finish at 6.00pm, almost to the minute. They can’t play football, but shout at each other, their language is guttural and not all like Swahili. They are employed as guards for the hotel. We asked why and were told that, as they are notorious for killing lions, they could easily see off a thief.

Last week, a group of boys had approached us and were being a bit cheeky, a bit rude, asking for things and touching our bags. One of the Masai saw them from the distance, walked over slowly, muttered about four words and the boys ran for their lives. They didn’t even look round. We don’t know what he said, but we think it was something about little boys’ bits for his dinner.

We have baisikeli now. I just hope we don’t get a pancha. It will make getting around town a lot easier and our visits to the beach even shorter.

Back to Mass and the fact that everyone we meet seems to be Catholic and go to Shangani Church. I asked Francis the other day why religion featured so prominently in Tanzanian life. He said, “There are three reasons.”

There is nothing equivocal about Francis.

 “Ignorance, poverty and fatalism.”

“Fatalism?”, I asked. “What do you mean?”

“Let me give you an example. When our President, President Kikwete visited America, he stood in the White House with President Bush and looked out one evening on the Washington skyline, a bright sea of lights, except for one dark patch on the horizon, where there were no lights. President Kikwete turned to President Bush and said,

“So, Mr Bush, even in America, this land of plenty, you too have power cuts.”

Mr Bush looked at President Kikwete with surprise and then smiled,

“No, Mr President. We have no power cuts. That’s the Tanzanian Embassy.”

Francis snorted and chorkled at his own joke, like a drain.