The Cattle Market



Everyone at the Cattle Market

Today we traveled about an hour to the youth prison and cattle market. This prison was way different from any we have in the US. It was an open layout--no walls or gates, just seclusion from the rest of society. The youth that are there (ages 16-21) are sentenced for a variety of reasons and lengths of time. While in prison, however, they are attending primary school and get training for civil jobs such as carpentry, vehicle repair, etc. They seem to be very proud of this system and really enjoyed giving us a tour of the grounds. We donated two soccer balls to the prison and they were ecstatic about that as well. After the prison, we went to the Masaai cattle market. It was a huge gathering of people, mostly Masaai but some others, cows, and goats. As we walked in we were greeted by the slaughtering block for the goats we would later have a taste of; such a warm welcome :) The actual market for the cattle takes place very quietly and we didn't really notice it occurring while we were in that area. They also had small stalls for the people to sell their goods. The popular items seemed to be clubs and knives, which the Masaai thought was strange for us to be leaving with. At lunch, we got to try goat leg. It was definitely a cultural experience and some people enjoyed it more than others. When all the meat was gone, Pastor Hafermann and Michael Jorgensen sucked some of the marrow from parts of the leg bone. According to Michael, it doesn't really have a taste but no one else was brave enough to try it. Throughout our time there, several of us noticed how it wasn't just our group staring at them but they also stared at us due to the cultural difference. We weren't unwelcome by any means but some of the Masaai were not overly eager to interact with us. It was also interesting how many of the Masaai had access to cell phones, something no one had been expecting.

The rest of the afternoon back at the seminary was free for us to explore or just relax which was a nice break from the busy morning. We had our final singing practice after supper tonight and make our debut tomorrow at a village church service, hopefully they appreciate  our singing style!