“I have never seen a seed”
It’s not often that La Chica stands back and observes, usually she’s too busy doing. But in a recent meeting in Engarenaibor, a Ward in Masai land where La Chica is planning to bring Testigo’s training to more villages, she did just that. Over 45 Masai women and men were crowded into a room in the Mairowa village office to watch Testigo’s film set in Loiborsoit ‘A’, one of the villages Testigo trained in 2015. In the film (which is on Testigo’s homepage www.testigoafrica.org) there is a part when a young boy loudly crunches on a carrot. Audiences in Australia laugh, and this Masai group also laughed!
After the film one of the five older men in the room spoke eloquently about the opportunity that Testigo was presenting to them. He said that he had never seen a seed in his life, but he wanted to learn to grow, and he wanted to be sure that La Chica was aware that he was old and couldn’t walk long distances anymore, so the training needed to be not too far from his home. La Chica was very touched by this man, and his yearning to learn something beyond pastoralism and his traditional way of life. It never occurred to him that he’d be too old to learn something new, like growing his own vegetables. La Chica breathed deeply, and for a moment metaphorically stood back and wondered yet again how on earth she’d ended up in Masai land running her NGO Testigo. This man is pictured below, fourth from the left.
La Chica was very pleased when everyone in the meeting decided they wanted to be part of the project, and wanted to ask their friends to join as well.
To set up this meeting, La Chica had recently met with the Mairowa chairman Ringoine, and the Women’s SOCCOS chairwoman Namnyak, who was leading her women’s group in a micro finance initiative.
After returning to Arusha from Engarenaibor, La Chica met with two other Chairmen – Luka, from the neighbouring village Ngozwak (on La Chica’s left) and Peter, the newly elected head of youth for CCM, Tanzania’s ruling party (on La Chica’s right).
She gave them each a small gift from Australia, which she placed on their lapels!
La Chica feels so lucky that she’s doing work that makes her soul soar and her heart sing. She feels such love and compassion for these hard working Masai who always make her feel so welcome in their villages. She’s looking forward to this year, and to getting to know the Masai from this new Ward.
