Endulen Diary
Vol. 25, #4
December 2010
Half way through medical training,
Naishorua OlDumu is with us for the Christmas holidays. She has now finished a year and a half of her Physician?s Assistant medical training at Machame Hospital on Mount Kilimanjaro. She returns in January for the last year and a half of her training. Naishorua hopes to go on to medical school for her MD following a year or two of work in a local hospital or clinic here in Maasai country.
Lion attack,
Two broken legs, one broken arm and numerous deep lacerations were the result of a recent lion attack on a Maasai neighbor here in the Endulen area. Three young warriors followed the tracks of three lost cows and came upon a lion eating a buffalo. They thought that they could chase away the lion and take the buffalo meat back to their village. It turned out to be a bad decision. The lion attacked and Lenana didn?t have a chance. The lion sprang, bore him to the ground biting a good size chunk out of his shoulder and doing all kinds of other damage. The warrior survived and is being treated for his numerous wounds at KCMC referral hospital in Moshi. The lost cows were eventually found unharmed and returned to the village.
We attack the bee colony in our walls,
Last night, with a bucket of DDT laced water, Fr. Joachim Karagwe attacked our resident bees and successfully killed most and chased away the colony. The bees have been a big problem for many months, stinging us and visitors on a daily basis. Fr. Joachim, who works with me here at Endulen, was stung twice by alert bee sentries as he poured the lethal mixture into the holes in our walls that serve as entrances and exits to the hive.
Poor exam results,
Some of the girls on leave from secondary school have very poor final marks from the past school year. We have arranged that one of the older boys, also one of our secondary school students, work with them on their English and Math. It is working out well. They have classes with Lankangu every day and seem to be making some headway. English is a big problem for our Maasai students. They never speak except in the class so it is a very difficult subject for them. At the same time, they will need English for any kind of work they will be looking for after graduation.
Face book Maasai style on the Serengeti,
Mepukori a secondary school student and cycle cell anemia sufferer went off to visit his folks on the Northern Serengeti for Christmas break. Two days into his trek home I received an unexpected message. Mepukore wrote that he was well and that he was expecting to reach his home village within a day. The startling thing about this message was that Mepukori was sending his message using his facebook account from a very inexpensive Nokia cell phone with a one and a half inch square screen in the middle of the Serengeti plains.
Maasai herd boy attacked by buffalo,
In light drizzle and intermittent fog Loishiye, the son of Mishilyeki, was herding his goats in heavy bush last week in the area of Endulen called Ndarpoi. In the shelter of low hanging tree branches sheltered a cape buffalo with her small calf. When Loishiye was not far she stood and waited, protecting her calf. Unaware of the buffalo, the young warrior wandered close and the buffalo charged. She hit him with her head and fortunately missing him with her sharp thorns. He was battered in the back and legs and collapsed leaving the buffalo to wander off with her calf. His shepherding warrior companion soon found him, got him up and after staggering for a few steps Loishiye collapsed again. Leaving him, his friend ran to their village called people to help. A number of men soon arrived and carried the boy back to the village. His father, Mishilyeki ran to the mission to call me. I went with our Toyota Land Cruiser to retrieve Loishiye from the village and take him to our mission hospital here at Endulen where he is slowing recovering from his ordeal.
Till next month,
Ned