Sawyer's birthday party in Masaailand
Nixon, Sawyer's Masaai friend, turned 2 a month before him so we decided to have a joint birthday party to celebrate. With Sawyer and Nixon being the only two children in our camp, we invited all the staff children from the village. We sent an invite out and having no idea how many children or parents would come, I set out to buy tons of sweets (thought this would go down well as this is the first thing shouted to you as you drive down the road, little hands flailing as they abandon their herding duties in the hope of a sweet being tossed out the window by a misguided tourist), popcorn, party hats, balloons and of course a goat. This is essential when holding any get together here and a finger licking treat for everyone. You firstly have to find a seller (usually a staff member with a good reputation of giving his fattest goat), then bring it to the camp to be slaughtered fresh by one of the askari's (security / warrior depending on age).
I set out on the morning and brought back our goat on the back seat of the car. She was a beautiful goat, fat and healthy and gassy (releasing with every bump in the road). Sawyer was so excited to pet her and pointed out each body part and told the askari's which each one was. He got quite attached and after she was gone, Sawyer told me he missed the goat! arrrg one day he will understand!
After organising the goat, the chefs started on the stew and all the ladies helped decorate the party area. 12 children had already arrived 4 hours before the party started! We headed down to the village boma's to fetch a few of the staffs children. It was definitely one of those defining moments when you realise how spoiled the average western child is. The Masaai don't throw parties for birthdays and quite often don't even know their own birthday dates. Needless to say that almost none of the children who came to the party had ever been to a birthday party before. There were so many children, and we wanted to take all of them with us! Unfortunately we only had room for the staff's children who were so beautifully dressed in there best dresses and shirts. A stark contrast to the little ones left behind in their tattered t-shirts and dust covered faces.
I thought we were picking up 5 or six, but we managed to squeeze in a good dozen I think! Yes, no child seats, no parents and no bags full of supplies and wow, how well behaved they were on the way up to the camp (on the way back the sugar sillies changed that!). When we arrived everyone quietly walked up to the party area and sat down. SAT DOWN even with bowls of sweets and chips in front of them! I only realized at the end of the party that none of children would ever take sweets without being told they could! I kept wondering why all the junk food was being ignored! Betty, Sawyers Nanny, landed up distributing everything right at the end. You would never see that kind of discipline at a western kids birthday!
Nixon and Sawyer loved having all the children to play, dance and sing with. They chewed on their goat bones until they were white, stuffed their faces with cake and uncountable numbers of suckers, danced and rolled on the floor and giggled with anyone who would giggle with them. It was so much fun and a great experience for both the masaai and mzungu boy!
