Our young Maasai friend writes some more in his journal while at school. He is sad today...
Sopai!
This is your friend, Joseph Tepelit Ole Jukawe writing. I hope this finds you and the cattle well.
I'm afraid I'm not at my best emotional state. My favorite cow, my Mgele, has passed: she got some sort of parasitic disease. When I found her this morning, she was dead. It's all I can do to keep from crying: I've had Mgele since she was a calf.
My family is very sad for me. I have already started composing songs for her, to keep her memory alive.
I have to go to school today, don't want to. I am too aggrieved over Mgele's death. Why can't I just fake a stomach ache, stay home, wallow in my misery??
I don't know why I go to school. School is a waste of time; school is most difficult for me. I was never a studious student: daydream too much, I guess: daydream about playing soccer, representing Kenya in the World Cup, dream of my cattle, running free in the shadow of Mount Kiliminjaro.
That's the life for me, not this school business!
Mother, my provider of life, is always fussing at me that I need my education. She gets tired of me complaining all the time. I don't blame her, actually: it's just that I find school incredibly boring!!
Father gets annoyed too when I complain about having to go to school. He says I need to learn, to get ahead in the world. Maybe so, but that doesn't make me like school any better!
The only time I like school is when we have recess, so I can play soccer!! LOL
One reason I don't like school is because the other kids make fun of me. I'm very short for my age; they also make fun of my Maasai ways.
That's when I wish I were Kikuyu or of another people, not Maasai.
Father tells me to ignore them, but it's hard when they are like lions: unrelenting!
Or typing on the computer, like I am now. :P
Back to what I was originally writing about: I miss my Mgele. She never kicked me when I milked her. Ever. She would always moo me a soft greeting whenever I saw her. She knew who I was, trusted me.
I trusted her too.
Now I will never hear her sweet voice, and it's enough to break my heart!
Well, English class is about over, so I'd best get off here before teacher yells at me. Says I spend too much time on computer instead of practicing my English. Until later, this is Joseph saying good-bye for now.
Joseph, you are a Masai, the most aristocratic and noble people of Africa, never wish to be anything but.
There will be another cow, another goat, another girl, but never will be "another" Masai.
Take care and be proud.
Sweet breath making clouds
in a winter morning's icy air
and low lowings
sustaining the sense of day...
Clotted tail,
and large round eyes
winking greetings,
swishing hello's
and then we give to each other--
you, your milk in swooshing spurts between my palms--
me, release from swollen flesh,
and oats and silage sandwiched between leaves of hay
And warmth engulfs us--
from your breath, from the fresh-squeezed milk,
and from release of other things--
and steam drifts upwards from beneath the both of us.
I pull the pail away--
the stool--
open the gate, and you plod away,
your great round eyes and tail winking "Laters..."
Another great one. The picture of the boy reminds of my foster child in South America. He doesn't like school either and says it's a waste of time, but his aunt pushes him. Take care.
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