Fr. Joe Herzsten went to the states on leave in October. Joe is pastor of Ngorongoro parish and I have been filling in for him for the Maasai part of his work. One of the two places that I am going to on his behalf is Enkaiyapus on the lip of Ngorongoro Crater. I go there the first Sunday of each month.

Recently I went there with a group of Christians from Olbabal for Sunday Mass. Just as we arrived in front of the small chapel, a 4-wheel drive car came tearing around the curve just beyond where we were turning in. The overloaded and speeding car did not make the curve. It turned over and slid I don’t know how far before coming to a stop, now bent all out of shape with all the windows shattered. It turned out that one woman was killed outright on the spot and two other people and multiple bones broken. The car belonged to a team from the ruling political part on their way to give campaign speeches in preparation for the elections that will take place next year.

You would think that lack of traffic on our roads and the generally slow pace of life here would result in few accidents. Not true…buses are regularly turning over with lots of fatalities. Cars run into each other or run off the road like the one that we just witnessed. I don’t think that it is so much that people are in a hurry to get their destinations. Rather, I think that people just like to go fast, the faster the better.

Anyway, we finally did arrive at the small church. We had prepared a short “play” portraying the raising of Lazarus. We lengthened the story with the introduction of a “Laibon”, the Maasai Witch Doctor who does his best to bring Lazarus back to life but is finally unsuccessful and then Jesus comes in to save the day. It was a lot of fun preparing the skit and turned out to be very funny, in addition to getting across a an important part of the “Good News.” The people at “Maasai Park” enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.