WHEN I FIRST WENT TO AMERICA

back when i was in elementary school, i knew that some day i would go to america. Esther Anderson one of the missionaries who ran the school, was from California. She would tell me "Joseph, one day you will go to school in America." You will go to California, she told me many times. I'd go home and tell my mother and she would say "what's America??" She knew nothing about America and neither did I. But later when i was in High School i just remembered about that I was going to America. When the time came, I applied to American universities to take my degree. I took the SATs and English language examination. All the collages I applied to accepted me, but none offered me a scholarship or any other financial aid. I did not have any money, there were not enough cows in Kenya to send me to school at America. So i just thought why not i just change my plans. I'll goto the Local university. I took the National Examinations while I was waiting i went to see President Moi. One day later after i was working at a back i meet a man from America. He asked me if i was going to school in America and i told him that all the schools i picked did not have the scholarships that i needed. So the man said ok, give me some time. And a few months later i got this letter saying i was accepted. I was going to St. Lawrence University, in Canton, New York, with a full scholarship. I have been told short stories about America, and i knew nothing about it. Like " don't eat with the fork wrong", "always watch your things", American woman do not mess with them!! They all have little guns in the bags so don't mess with them. they just shot you. Now i am at the Nairobi Airport alone with no one. I said good bye to my family before i left to the airport. When i was at the airport i had on a "three piece wool suit with a collar and tie" I had no idea how hot it was going to be at New York in August.

HOW IM AN ADULT

The most important event of my whole life was my "circumcision." In many pats of the world and in many traditions, boys have the foreskin cut back or removed from the glans of the penis. Some cultures feel that circumcision penis is healthy. but some think its not healthy. in my culture, the circumcision ceremony is the ceremony that makes a "boy to a man." In my world a man who is not circumcision is considered a small boy, the age is not important. He can not make the decisions, and anyone can tell him what to do. He can be a professor. He can be a hunter, a journalist, a cook he can can be anything. But people will not take him seriously if he's not circumcised. I was circumcised when i was about 13. My older brothers had done there's about five to eight years later than i did. Thats because the circumcisions don' take place every year. There are held every three to six years apart. The first step for any group of young men is to ask for circumcision from the elders in the community. the way you ask is to sing songs. The village gathers and the young men sing songs they made up themselves songs praising the elders or their families or the cattle. "Blessed Be the Mother and Beautiful Daughter." "May God Give You LOng And Beautiful Life." Then you say "We need time for circumcision." This thing can take months and many songs.

The next two step is called ilbaa and naingure. Every one who is going to be initiated has to cut out arrows. After the circumcision, when their wounds are still fresh, the warriors are required to practice their life skills. Using these arrows. but the arrow is not supposed to kill the big animals. We don't believe in shedding blood at that time. If some one is not done or not ready, will have to wait for another 10 to 15 years for another try. Finally the day came. Early at six in the morning the circumcision started. My family always first because its big and many of my forefathers were leaders. "The hardest part about it is that you can not move your body an inch. You can not twitch your finger or move your mouth. even your eyelashes have to stay in place." My other mother was there with a club. But she stood there ready to clobber me if i moved That was her job, to make sure i was not a coward. My mom was there too, but she she is not as tough as my other mother. And my family was there around me and make sure we were a strong family and we did not want to embarrass them. My family poured water mixed with milk considered a blessing in my face. and some bubbles dropped, it would show that i was twitch my eye. "NO BLINKING!" For seven, eight, or ten minutes, or how ever long it takes, but you must stay still as a rock. When it was done i was a man now, it changed my world.

FIRST TIME SCOOL

The government of Kenya had issued a law that every family must send one child to school, whether you like it or not. My father did not like it. He wanted us at home not at school. To help rase the cattle. A child at school was one fewer child at work. My father wanted us to grow up our own culture, among our own people. But this was a law. " You must send one boy to school. Choose!" No girls at school, only boys. My father did not know what to say. He did not want my older brother to go because he was the most important person in the family. And my father could not send me; i was too young to go. Because the village moved around sometimes it was close to the school and sometimes far away. At that time, it was close I'd say about a mile away. The school was run by American missionaries. They taught reading and writing and arithmetic, they also Christianity and other western ways of thinking. lmatarion, who was 11 years old was placed in the first grade. Right from the beginning he could not stand it. went to school for one day. And the next day he ran away from school with a group of boys, they all went different directions. He hid in a hyena's hole. he later said " I'd rather be eaten by hyena's than going to school." But the hyena's had moved out. He stayed in the hole for three days. Later the villagers and police found him and brought him home. But my father still not want to send one of us to school, "but the police said you still have to obey the law, You still have to send one". I was there the full time and, "i said Im here!" They said "how old are u?" They asked. I said i am "eight", but i was really six years old. So the police said "touch" so i gave it all i had and I pushed as hard as i could and i made it. It solved the problem for them and for my father and brothers. So the next day i went to school which it was about one mile from the village. When i got there the teacher send me to first grade. The school was vary simple. There were no chairs, no desks. The had a blackboard, and we sat, and write on the ground. The school day long, starting at seven in the morning and running until four or five in the afternoon. We learned the same things that all the children were learning all over the world. School was so different from life at the village and the cattle camp. The first thing we were told to take off our traditional clothes our nanga and beads. The missionaries supplied us with uniforms instead; shorts, a shirt, shoes, sometimes a jacket. And thats when i started my real name was Joseph. But when i am at home I change back in to my traditional dress, and put my beads and panted my body. School was hard the teachers expected a lot from you. They expected you to pay attention and work hard, and to sit still and not cause trouble. But i still loved school.

THE PINCHING MAN

In almost every village there is a disciplinarian called the "pinching man. "He punishes disobedient kids by pinching them. He pinches them really hard on the legs, and let me tell you, once you are pinched you will remember it! Parents who want their children to obey will tell them. "If you don't behave, i will the pinching man." That usually does the trick. Kids are so scared by the pinching man. The pinching man in every village is a scary parson. Sometimes he has long, pointy fingers, or hair on his face. He chews tobacco and he looks mean. Our pinching man is the worst of all. You never want to be on his bad side, because then he would watch for you, and he will tell the other pinching man in the other village's to watch you too. And parents rarely protect their kids from the pitching man because that is how discipline is enforced in the community. A rule i often broke was the one against going to other villages by myself. But i always liked to play with friends in the different villages. One day when i was little, about six or seven years old. The village i wanted to visit that day was two or three miles away. A narrow, winding path through the woods led there. i took off running, but had not gotten vary far when i turned a corner in the path and came face to face with the pinching man. As soon he saw me, he went down and put out his hands toward me. His fingernails were long and dirty and sharp. He was waving his hands, ready to pinch. When the pinching man gets you like that you cannot run away because he will remember you. The next time he sees you he will grab you when you are not looking and pinch you even harder.

HOW COW'S HELP US..

Cows are our life. They give us milk and blood and some times meat and hide to hear. Their our wealth we do not have money; we have cows! The more cows somebody has the wealthier he is. The more cows a man has the more respect he has.We have three criteria for judging a cow. Number one is the color. is white with a lot of black spots, Number two is the horn. We like a male cow to have big, even horns. And number three is the personality of a cow. a good cow is always in front of the herd. If a cow is always behind all the other cows. He is considered a good cow. We do not care about heavy a cow is. Never, just the beauty of the color, the size of its horns, and how active it is. We name all our cows like a person. Our cows do not die at old age we either sell it or we butcher it. The only exception is a blessed cow. It happened twice when my brother took his cows out in the morning that bull got in front of the rest of the cows and refused to move. He refused to move until my brother took his cows in a different direction from thr rest of the village herd. The first time it happened, my brother didn't understand what the cow was up to, but he is smart, he knows that sometimes cows can have a sense of danger, an instinct. So he went the direction the bull wanted to go. And both of those days riders-men with guns-attacked the rest of the village herd. But my brothers cows where safe. That kind of bull is a great blessing. You never can sell one like that. When it gets too old, perhaps 20 or so years old, you can slaughter it in a special ritual your rope, the corral that surrounds that cows at night. Only your family is allowed to eat the meat from that blessed cow. No one else. No one else but a member of your family is alloewed to sleep on its hide too.

My Life

Hi my name is Lemasolai Lekuton but people call me joseph. I live in a Tribe called "The Massai” I was born in Kenya, Africa I live with my family my Mom Dad and my two older brothers Ngoliong and Lmatarion who were eight and five years old. Ngoliong and Lmatarion used to help my mother a lot. Most familys have girls and girls will go get water or firewood. But there were no girls in my family, so my brothers would do that, and people would laugh, and say “look at them they’re doing the work of a woman.” But my whole family just loved our mother so much, so my brothers sacrificed their pride and brought water and wood and did other chores. But they both wanted a girl to be born next time. But not my father, he wanted a boy because boys take care of the cattle he’d have another herder. But my brothers and mother wanted a girl. When my mother was pregnant, from the beginning until just before she had me. she would go out and do chores. The evening i was born, she was part of the group of women who went to get firewood. some of the women who helped deliver the baby, told her not to , but she likes to work so she went anyway. my earliest memory was when I was four or three and a half. It was a sunny day, Around me the women were bust taking the camp down. I was playing with rocks, I was just starting to learn the names of our cows. I was pretending to herd the rocks, at the same way how my dad and brothers did it. There was a knife on the ground so I went and picked it up to play with, and all the sudden-- "Blood." It didn't bother me "there was no pain, just lots of blood".