Read Blood & Milk for Free Online Page A

stop. In fact, he laughed at me when I shook my hair like a dog. I didn’t need to speak Maa to understand a few universal things: smiles and laughter were good; glaring, yelling and pointing a spear at my head was bad.
    I was aiming for a day when Kijani didn’t want to kill me.
    I waded out of the water, pulled on my shorts and shirt, then sat down to once again struggle with putting dry socks on wet feet.
    I pointed to Damu’s tyre sandals. “Your shoes are much better than mine.” I held up my $180 sneakers. Back home, these were the newest and best sneakers on the market. Here, they were more of a pain in the arse. I had to wriggle my foot and use both hands to pull the stupid shoe on.
    Damu laughed again. “I think no.”
    “You prefer these?” I said, tying the laces. “Yours are much easier.” I jumped to my feet. “Come, we don’t want to be late.”
    Damu smiled as we walked back to the manyatta. His long, graceful strides weren’t easy to keep up with, even with him carrying a bucket of water, but I was determined to walk at his pace. I certainly didn’t want him in any trouble on my account.
    “It’s very beautiful here,” I said to him as we walked in the warm Tanzanian morning. I’d seen the Lion King as a kid and didn’t really think much of the landscape, until now. The animators got the details right, the vastness and the colours.
    “ Enkai is good,” Damu said.
    “What is Enkai ?” I asked, wondering if it were another word for the weather.
    He held the bucket in one hand and with his free hand, he drew an arc across the hills and sky. “The word…” He seemed to struggle with his English. “God,” he added quickly, as though he’d just remembered it. “Maasai God.”
    Oh. I gave him a smile and said, “Enkai is very good.”
    “Good for land, good for people,” he said. “Many rains, good for cattle.”
    It was clear he was very proud of his life here. “It will be cold soon?”
    Damu nodded. “In one moon, days be small.”
    Ah. In one moon, so one full lunar cycle meaning one month, the days will be shorter. “Same for my country.”
    “You be many places,” Damu said.
    “Some, yes. I worked for a travel agent, I helped people organise holidays and tours, and it was expected that I travel a lot.”
    “How many country?”
    “Nine or ten,” I answered. “A few countries in Europe, America, Canada, Japan, and now Tanzania.”
    He seemed a little reflective after that, as though he felt bad because I was more worldly than he was. Which was true. I had travelled more―a lot more, considering he’d never left his village―but he was Maasai. He had more history and culture in his little finger than I could possibly imagine. “But Damu,” I added with a smile. “There’s nothing in all the world like what you have here. It’s very special.”
    He seemed to like that, but his smile faded into a frown. “Council law don’t agree.”
    Council law? “The Government?”
    “Yes,” he said, as though that was the word he was looking for. “Try move us. Want our land for money.”
    I had seen similar comments and articles that said Maasai were being driven off their land. Their nomadic nature, to live where the land takes them, made them easy targets for money-hungry governments. The Maasai would move their village when the seasons demanded it, only to come back to find it “owned” by someone else. They had no legal recourse, no money, and didn’t live by government laws.
    It saddened me to hear Damu confirm this.
    When we arrived back at the manyatta, we drank our breakfast of uji, and afterwards, Damu went about his chores and I went back to the ever-changing circle of women doing their crafts, beadwork, and sewing of tartans and leathers.
    Some of the women from yesterday were now working on their homes, replastering the outside walls with a mix of dung and mud, singing and laughing as they did.
    The ladies I sat with also sang and this time, made no fuss