Thursday Hiking and Datoga

Thursday July 14 didn't start off as a great day but it ended as one.  My day started of with me fighting with the shower to get some sort of warm water but could only get extremely cold which resulted in a very short shower (I will figure out this damn shower before I go back to Arusha!) and a very small breakfast.  Seriously, for a church guesthouse why do they only serve bananas, bread and tea/coffee for breakfast.  Where are the eggs?  There are roosters and chickens here, anyway I will make the best I can do with what I have.

But after a not so great start it got better and better.  It started with a hike up a small mountain that took 45 minutes to an hour to hike up and the view form up top was amazing!!! Windy but amazing!!
It was a great way to start the day.

View before:

View from top:

What goes up must come down:

After the hike and morning tea we headed out to the Datoga village to meet the traditional dancers. They were very welcoming and thankful for the input that James and myself provided them.  The training session went a bit slower than the Iraqw only because it had to be translated twice.  I said it in english, Neema my translator doesn't speak the vernacular language of the Datoga so she translated it to Swahili and then a member of the dance troop translated to their language. If anyone had any questions or feedback (which there were lots from this group, which was very helpful) then it was translated back through those channels.  Some of the dancers spoke swahili but not all did.  

Photos: Women are wearing traditional skin outfits while a few of the men are wearing the traditional red shukra (plaid fabric looks like blankets). 

the group during our training session:

Photos taken by 4CCP of me during the session (proof that I am working...): 

After the training session, we were invited to tour an actual Datoga home.  We were greeted by the dancers outside the home and were welcomed by the owners of the home.  They even invited us back another day to drink the local beer when it is ready.  The entire experience was welcoming and wonderful. The Datoga people are truly a welcoming and very kind group of people.  

We then proceed to the Ednagew (the w is silent) Secondary School where 11 teachers, one cook and one principal educate 409 students.  After finding out on Wednesday that not all children go to school I was worried that this school would have a very small class but alas after seeing this school and the students my perception changed.  The students in this school are all from the Datoga and Iraqw villages and the class ranges from standard one up to standard seven. They also have a pre-primary level class.  This is the school that won the best school prize at last year's 4 Corners Cultural Festival. They prepared a dance and a song for us and it was a delight to watch them dance and sing.  I was invited to say a few words to the students so I just told them thank you for having me at their school, that I enjoyed their performances, and it was evident that they had worked very hard.  

I tried posting the videos of these two performances but there seem to be an issue getting it to load.  Since today is Monday and I am a bit behind my posts (still have to post about Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the food and Safari) I will try the videos later.   

Oh and a side note....some spelling in Swahili is very similar to the english spelling just add or subtract a few letters.  For example I have seen Datooga spelt with two o's and with one o.   The town I am currently in can be spelt Haydom, Hydom and according to google maps Hiydom.  That's not confusing at all!

Another note- yes, I did figure out the shower and was able to have a warm shower.  

Stay tuned for more posts........