Exactly how many cows am I worth?

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45 apparently. 50 if I adorn myself with jewellry. Not quite the 500 I asked for. Apparently Mike the Maasai has only 60 cows but his father has 1500 and he reckons his community would be able to pitch in and help him and would I take 450? I wasn't expecting this. What do you reckon dad? Got somewhere to keep 450 cows? I have been having quite the time with the Maasai community lately. A lot of people here really don't like them. They are often not called by name (and instead just 'hey maasai'). The reasons I have been given include 'it is in my blood'. Of course I don't have much history with the tribe myself but the Maasai that I live with are a lot of fun. I introduced them to my ipod the other night. I may be single handedly destroying their culture. I didn't realize at first but Sammy had not just placed the earphones in his ears as I expected he would do but he had looped them through his actual earlobes several times! Anyway, we seem to manage to entertain ourselves quite well considering we don't understand each other very well. I'm teaching them english and they're teaching me a combination of swahili and maa (yep - i'm going to be all messed up). I am getting quite settled here already. It's really beautiful. It's so laid back aswell (that's an understatement). The buses don't leave until they're full so getting to work can take me anything from 45 minutes to 2 hours! The dala-dalas are proving to be an experience all of their own. I am quite comfortable with them now. I am used to standing bent over 90 degrees, having babies flung onto my lap, being in a 7 seater car with 9 adults and 2 kids (today), problems with brakes (or lack of brakes) - the dala dala i was in yesterday pulled into a petrol station to fill up and just kept on cruising right past the stand and out the other end. Everyone just started laughing. No communication problems there! Been in several break downs aswell. People are getting to know me so I'm also getting less stares (apart from from the kids who are just fascinated by the colour of my skin). As far as the school goes, I have some good news. We have been looking at new buildings to hold classes in. Permanent buildings instead of using a church where the kids have no tables and nothing can be left, nothing put on the walls etc etc. I am using some of the money I raised to pay for the first 6 months rent for a 2 classroom building (you have to pay 6 months up front). They will be fine to sustain this once I've left also (I was worried about this). Right now it is getting frustrating as there is only so much you can do with 56 kids of all different ages. Some of the older ones are real whizzes at English and then there are the younger ones who can hardly speak. Some never stop wanting to chant 'a e i o u', others sit and crawl around or compare belly buttons and nipples with the boy/girl next to them, and still others sit the whole time with their finger on their lip, following the teacher's instruction, 'puta your finga on your lipa' which she said at least half an hour ago. Sophia (bit of a soft spot for her) is always all over the place. She got pushed face first from her seat on the pew onto the hard concrete floor today. That went down well. Not too much else to report for now. Looking forward to moving into the new building (I'll send pics). Hopefully we will be able to do more to help the kids.
Hope you like the pics. Gotta go for now!
Usiogope kuwa na furaha (don't worry be happy)
Yes - learning all the really useful words!
joanna x

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