Juma from Maasai Market

Jambo!

I have now been in Arusha for one week. Things are going wonderfully, but I find myself looking for more things to do. Every morning i wake up to toast and a mile walk to the dala dala, where i squeeze in for a 10 minute drive down the street. Today, on the way home, there wasn't even enough room in the dala dala to close the door! It was very alarming at first...the dala dala started driving like they always do before the man jumps in and slides the door shut. But we were so packed in it wouldn't close, and I clung to the ceiling as the pavement wizzed by a foot away.

At the school, I teach english to the 4th and 5th graders. I've decided their curriculum is short on creativity, so i have introduced a book-writing project. Right now i am giving them assignments which I hope will encourage their creative writing. Today i wrote the beginning sentence of a story on the board, and asked them to write the rest of it. Most of them struggle a lot with this. I would apprecaite any suggestions. You can send me a message through this website, i think at the bottem, and i will see it next time i blog.

Since i was assigned to work at a school, I am looking for an orphanage to begin working at. Today i learned there is one up the street, so i may head over there after lunch. I forgot how tiring teaching is - after a full morning i am nearly burnt out. To fill up my afternoons thus far, I was searching Arusha for somone to teach me how to carve. I got the idea when someone who introduced himself as Jackson Michael offered to teach me. Since he is a very strange character, and i highly doubt the validity of his name, i decided to do my own search for a teacher.

I decided the best place to look was at the Maasai Market. the Maasai Market is named for the numerous maasai women who have set out camp on the group, and make intricate beaded jewelry and boxes, and traditional massai designs. behind the women are a number of shacks with art from clans from all over Tanzania and Kenya, and the owners are from many clans as well. the huts are set up similar to the shook, though the sellers are more polite when trying to usher you into their shack. nevertheless, it is a constant battle against the "karibu, welcome". As i walked around i saw some of the men working on wood carvins in their hut. i asked one old man if he could teach me, and how much i should pay. "oh, i think 10,000 an hour," equivilant to 10 dollars. even when i bargained him down to 7, i still felt it was too much for me.

Then i found Juma glueing something back together in his hut, number 18. I asked him if he carved and if he would teach me. After along conversation with him, he told me that when his teacher said he would teach him, he went out to live on a farm. They lived out in a wooded area; and at night they slept in a tent, and every day they would go out and cut down some wood, and he would train there. But, Juma said, his teacher did not charge him, so he does not feel that he should charge me.

I was quite taken by this generosity and honesty and i immediately decided this was the right guy to teach me! I soon came back and gave him money for some cheap wood, and yesterday we got started. I was taken into an alley behind the market, which i am sure a mazoongo (white person) has never seen before. As i walked back there, i first came across two old men intent at a game of checkers, created by bottle caps of two different sodas. The floor was dirt and the back so the shacks were pealing and splintered wood. there were a few peices of art scattered around, and some people working on peices from their shop. this all in a space narrowered then my oustretched arms, and no longer than 3 meters.

Very soon there was a crowd around us, and people observed Juma explaining to me what we were going to do. First i had to cut the log in half with a flimsy saw, and i completely failed at that, only to watch Juma saw away with complete ease. Next we discussed what it is i wanted to create, and Juma began chipping away at the wood. Hacking would probably be a better description, but i say chippping because he did it with such ease and accuracy that hacking does not justify the exactitude of his ability. But the amount of wood which fell to the ground soon accumulate into a large pile. I kept tyring do it myself, but i could tell it was painful for them to watch me struggle with it, and soon someone said to me, "mazoongo, you must first watc h to dit it; only then can you make." So i resigned to the kene observer, trying to watch Juma's hacking hard enough to be able to recreate it myself.

I was constantly amazed at Juma's ability to see the form within the wood. He would hold up this formless carving, and see what had to be done to make something appear. he would constanlty say, "she is in here, we must cut away this part. Soon you will see that she is there." People passing in and out would engage in conversation, and squatting next to Juma they would turn over the piece and discuss it in swift swahili, pointing and argueing about goodness knows what. Most of them were jsut amused that a mazoongoo was hanging out with them, asking me about home and trying to teach me swahili slang.

Today when i returned, i already felt like i had a home in this alley behind the market. On my way back i greeted selelrs i had spoken too the day before, at least the one who remembered the crazy mazoongoo who was trying to learn a man's craft. I hope that i can finish something that htey approve of. Whatever i do, i know they will compliment it-they are very gracious and welcoming, and whenever i worry about something, they just tell me "hakuna matata, don't worry." i think you can guess what that means.

I am so fortunate to have found Juma to fill up some time, and I will continue to search. One draw back is that it is dangerous to go out at night, so i only have a limited day to do activities. but nonetheless, it is amazing.

until next time, Kwa Heri!

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