Also, on Saturday, I met Brian.  In June of 2006, Brian's mom asked the owner of a tailor shop in Navaisha if she could use his washroom and if he would hold her baby while she did.  After some time he went to check on the woman and she was gone.  Brian has been with the house of hope since January 2008.  He is high energy, full of life, and thriving under the care of The House of Hope.  And he has a great name.

Week 2, Day 1 Sunday

Father's Day.  I don't mind telling you I really missed my family that day.  But God had an incredible experience for us.  We worshipped in a Masai church.  This church was way out in the bush.  I mean we went to the end of the beaten path, turned left and kept going.  Have I mentioned that the vehicles around here are amazing.  American cars just wouldn't make it.  Anyway, the Masai people were so warm and welcoming.  Many of them wore the colorful wraps and many beads.  Many also had pierced their ears, stretched them out, and put beads on them in the traditional Masai way.

You may notice that some of them mix dress between modern and traditional.

When we arrived we caught the end of their Sunday School and the kids singing and dancing to praise Jesus.  Here is a video of their singing.  They are singing "I love you Jesus.  You are my Savior."

The service was amazing and lasted almost 4 hours.  They presented us with a gift they had made and asked that we remember them and pray for them.  The adult choir sang and danced.  I introduced the Jesus Film and we watched it together in Masai.  They included me in everything that day just like a visiting pastor.  I prayed with them over a lady (I don't even know what about) and over the parents and children in a child dedication service.

After church, they fed us traditional food (but no cow's blood, whew!) and we had tea together.

Like I've said before, everyone drinks tea here.  Well, we all had tea except for Jim and Karen who were given goat's milk.  Not just any goat's milk, butter goat's milk.  I tried it.  It was horrible.  If someone approaches you with a gourd like this, run.

I purchased a Masai walking stick from one of the church elders.  It is the real thing.  Even has dirt on the bottom.  Maybe even cow manure.  Who knows.  It is real.  It was a great day.

Couple of funny things.  Most people in Kenya speak several languages.  During the service they translated English into Masai.  Several times the preacher would switch from English to Masai so the translator would switch from Masai to English.  They did this seamlessly.  Also, Kenya has amazing cell phone coverage.  Right in the middle of The Jesus Film someone's cell phone rang.  I happens everywhere you go.

Brian

Now 35, Moses Ole Kinayia says it took him seven years longer than usual to get his master's degree. He said those years were spent herding cattle in southern Kenya, where he grew up.

"My father did not want me to go to school," said Kinayia, a member of the Masai tribal community. "Every year my father pulled me out of school during the dry spell just to follow animals."The fourth of 36 children, Kinayia was the first in his family to attend elementary school. Sunday, Kinayia received a master's degree in public administration from Seattle University in a ceremony at Qwest Field.

His father was in the hospital and unable to make the commencement but his mother, cousin and neighbor flew in.

"Though he continued to insist I should leave school, he continues to be my best friend," Kinayia said of his father. The patriarch has since permitted several younger brothers and sisters to go to school.

That's why Kinayia started a Seattle-based nonprofit organization called ELAND when he moved to Seattle in 2005 to start graduate school. Short for Education for Leadership and Network Development, the nonprofit funds scholarships for other Masai students. An eland is an African antelope with spiral, twisted horns.

"When you are educating one child, you are not just educating one person, you are educating a whole family and you empower a whole community," he said.

Melissa Denmark, who lived with Kinayia's family when she studied abroad in college, said if you could only see where he came from, you would understand why his graduation is such a worthy achievement.

Like most Masai people, Kinayia's parents are nomadic cattle herders, moving from place to place in search of water and grass. His father had five wives. Kinayia grew up in a hut made of cow dung. English is his third language.

"Education isn't looked upon as a priority" in Masai culture, said Denmark, who now serves on ELAND's board. "A few people go through, but it's not the traditional path."

Denmark was so impressed by Kinayia in college that she and her husband ended up helping him pay college tuition in Nairobi, and then at Seattle University.

While earning his degree, Kinayia worked part time at the school's reprographics department and started building ELAND. So far, the organization has raised $30,000, which funds tuition for five college students in Kenya, several of them girls. He also built a community-resource center to house a library and museum.

Kinayia hopes to help the Masai community diversify its economy beyond herding with knowledge and practical job skills.

"They have very little land for grass," Kinayia said. "Now they are much more vulnerable to drought, famine, unpredictable weather conditions because of global warming."

The Masai ceded most of their land to the British in a 1904 treaty. In recent years, herdsmen have protested for the Kenyan government to return the land.

Kinayia also wants to start a child-rescue program to prevent female genital mutilation and child marriages.

"I want to bridge the gap between here and there," he said. "We no longer live in a world where a community can live in isolation. The global village affects everyone."

With his degree focusing on nonprofit management, Kinayia says he understands how to work with donors in the U.S. and how to tailor programs that will make a difference in the Masai community.

He plans to stay in the U.S. for the immediate future. Right now he's looking for a job with a nonprofit or trying to get ELAND fully funded.

"Eventually I will need to go back and walk among my people."

Source: Seattle Times

After reading the findings comparing the Masai, and the rural and urban Bantu in Tanzania, Dr. Eric Westman penned a reply to the British Journal of Sports Medicine:

Yet another possible explanation
Eric C Westman, researcher Duke University

Thank you for this contemporary assessment of dietary intake among the Masai pastoralists. Through the paradigm-shifting lens of a recent comprehensive summary of the lack of science to implicate saturated fat as a cause for heart disease [1], and new studies which suggest carbohydrate to be more worrisome than saturated fat for atherogenesis [2-4], there is a simple explanation for why the Masai do not develop atherosclerosis despite consuming a high-fat diet that the authors did not consider: high-fat diets (not containing man-made fats) are not atherogenic.

1. Taubes G. Good Calories, Bad Calories. Knopf Publishing, 2007.
2. Krauss RM et al. Separate effects of reduced carbohydrate intake and weight loss on atherogenic dyslipidemia. Am J Clin Nutr 2006;83:1025-31.
3. Mozaffarian D et al. Dietary fats, carbohydrate, and progression of coronary atherosclerosis in postmenopausal women. Am J Clin Nutr 2004;60:1102-3.
4.Volek JS et al. Dietary carbohydrate restriction induces a unique metabolic state positively affecting atherogenic dyslipidemia, fatty acid partitioning, and metabolic syndrome. Prog Lipid Res 2008;Mar 15 (Epub ahead of print]

I love the bottle caps here. On our way out of Karatu, we stopped at this little store, and out back they had a man carving ebony leaned up next to this shack, I still just cant get over how beautiful things are, even when they aren't what we Americans would call perfect

Karatu was up on a plateau, I believe, and to leave, we had to go through the town of Lake Manyara, which is in a large basin that I totally forgot the name of. But, the days before there had been torrential rain and horrible storms, resulting in yet another flooding of the Lake Manyara area. Near Lake Manyara, and all over the rest of Tanzania, there is a LARGE and influential population of Masai, a native tribal group. The Masai all wear either purple or red fabric ALL of the time to distinguish themselves from their enemies. The building above is covered in Masai fabric, that is wet from the storm.

The Masai are herders and nomads. They measure their wealth in cows, and goats, and wives. Driving along the "highway" we passed countless young boys herding their fathers cows to water or better grazing.

Source: Regina Wilshire, Weight of the Evidence.

One of the oft repeated concerns about a carbohydrate restricted, high-fat diet is long-term effects. With globalization and a wide-variety of foods available in even remote locations today, it's increasingly difficult to find traditional populations whom may be ideally suited to assess the long-term effect of such a diet.

One such population does exist - the Masai of Africa - for whom meat, milk and blood are their daily dietary staples, a naturally low-carbohydrate diet that has been traditionally consumed for generations. They offer us a unique opportunity to assess how such a diet impacts the 'health risk markers' held dear in modern science and medicine.

Does their diet, high in fat, make them fat?

Does their diet, high in fat, make them hypertensive?

Does their diet, high in fat, lead to high cholesterol levels?

For decades many have assumed that a diet rich with dietary fat leads to obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which then is assumed to lead to heart disease and other chronic health problems.

In the June 3, 2008 issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine a study investigating the Masai and their dietary habits and comparing them with rural and urban Bantu consuming different dietary practices is quite enlightening and tells us a story about how consuming dietary fat per se is not the underlying cause of obesity, high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

In the study published, Daily Energy Expenditure and Cardiovascular Risk in Masai, Rural and Urban Bantu Tanzanians, we learn that researchers investigated the dietary habits of three distinct populations within the same country - Tanzania - thus limiting confounding variables due to vastly different cultural conditions.

In total, the researchers investigated the health and health risk markers of 985 Tanzanian men and women - 130 Masai, 371 rural Bantu and 484 urban Bantu - with each group reporting very different dietary habits.

The Masai reported a high-fat, low-carbohydrate dietary pattern.

The rural Bantu reported a low-fat, high-carbohydrate dietary pattern.

The urban Bantu reported a high-fat, high-carbohydate dietary pattern, similar to a Western diet.

Which group to do think fared best?

BMI (average)

Masai = 20.7
Rural Bantu = 23.2
Urban Bantu = 27.4 (as a whole, the group was, on average, overweight)

Incidence of Obesity (BMI at or higher than 30)

Masai = 3%
Rural Bantu = 12%
Urban Bantu = 34%

Waist-Hip Ratio (lower is better)

Masai = 0.87
Rural Bantu = 0.89
Urban Bantu = 0.93

Blood Pressure

Masai = 118/71
Rural Bantu = 134/80
Urban Bantu = 134/82

Prevalence of Hypertention

Masai = 4%
Rural Bantu = 16%
Urban Bantu = 21%

Total Cholesterol

Masai = 3.89mmol/L (152mg/dl)
Rural Bantu = 3.60mmol/L (140mg/dl)
Urban Bantu = 4.50mmol/L (176mg/dl)

HDL (higher is better)

Masai = 1.08mmol/L (42mg/dl)
Rural Bantu = 0.91mmol/L (36mg/dl)
Urban Bantu = 1.08mmol/L (42mg/dl)

LDL

Masai = 2.09mmol/L (82mg/dl)
Rural Bantu = 2.13mmol/L (83mg/dl)
Urban Bantu = 2.69mmol/L (105mg/dl)

Triglycerides

Masai = 1.36mmol/L (121mg/dl)
Rural Bantu = 1.45mmol/L (129mg/dl)
Urban Bantu = 1.61mmol/L (143mg/dl)

Total Cholesterol/HDL Ratio (less than 4 is 'ideal')

Masai = 3.72
Rural Bantu = 4.38
Urban Bantu = 4.53

LDL/HDL Ratio (the lower the better)

Masai = 2.21
Rural Bantu = 2.46
Urban Bantu = 2.69

ApoB/ApoA-1 Ratio (measure of LDL particle ratios, lower is better)

Masai = 0.74
Rural Bantu = 0.83
Urban Bantu = 0.81

So, there you have the major findings. What did the researchers conclude?

No! It couldn't possibly be their dietary habits, it must be that the "potentially atherogenic diet among the Masai was not reflected in serum lipids and was offset probably by very high energy expenditure levels and low body weight."

Now their level of physical activity certainly may be contributing to their overall health, but it's certainly not independent of their dietary habits. In fact, I would contend that while it's ideal to be active, that is not the driving force in 'health' or lack thereof - it's dietary habits that dominate our health outcomes, our level of activity may be important too, but activity in and of itself is no solution to a piss-poor diet.

We need, before activity, a proper diet to enable us to perform phyisical activity, not the other way around! So while the researchers here could not bring themselves to even consider that the habitual diet of the Masai - high-fat and low-carbohydrate - was the driving force in their good health and enabled high levels of activity, I'll say it!

Here we have evidence that a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, consumed habitually does not lead to obesity, high blood pressure and dyslipidemia, and it may, in fact, lead to beneficial long-term health and increased levels of activity in those habitually eating such a diet.

We are living in the end-times, there is no doubt about that.   There is only 1 question that remains;  which 'Christ' are you following? 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

FOLLOWING CHRIST ON EASTERN ROADS

LOVING OUR GLOBAL NEIGHBORS STARTS WHEN WE
RECOGNIZE GOD’S IMAGE — AND PRESENCE — IN THEM,
BE THEY BUDDHIST, HINDU, OR MUSLIM.

BY PAUL - GORDON CHANDLER

(We appreciate the way the following reflections invite
Christians to seek to understand and enter into relationship with
the adherents of other faiths, looking for commonalities, acknowledging
their strengths, and learning from them. Since Christ is the
Truth, all other truth is indeed compatible with him.

At the same time, we believe that Christians must continue to
understand and proclaim clearly the ways that Christ points to a
significantly different reality than those proclaimed by other religions:
that Jesus is true God and true man, the only way to salvation,
and that God is Trinitarian. After we have listened humbly
and learned carefully about what is good and true in other faiths,
we must continue with gentle boldness to invite everyone to taste of
Christ, “the way, the truth, and the life” for one and all.)

Wow!  This is deception at it's finest.  And many, many, many 'Christians' will fall for this.   'Christ' will be the centre of the one world religion.  'Christ' is the essence of ALL faiths.   We will have Christians saying, 'Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life, and no man can come to the Father but by Him'.  And we will have a Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu answering, 'Absolutely! I believe in Jesus Christ, I've been baptised, Amen!'.  And they will hug eachother and call each other 'bothers in Christ'.  The new 'apostles' and 'prophets' of the 'Christian' faith will one day soon be hugging their enemies and incorporating them into 'the Body of Christ' for we ALL worship the same 'Christ'.   NO!  WE DO NOT!

The lotus and the cross

Albert Einstein once wrote, “Buddhism has the characteristics
of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future:
It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it
covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on
a religious sense arising from the experience of all things...
as a meaningful unity.”

So much for Albert Einstein...

Over the last few decades, many in the West have become
deeply interested in Buddhism, and many Christians have been
drawn to various aspects of it. Perhaps this interest is best
explained in the words of St. Ambrose, a fourth-century
Christian bishop of Milan: “...all that is true, by whomever
it has been said, is from God’s Spirit.” I recall Frederick
Buechner, the bestselling novelist and Presbyterian pastor, once
saying, while reflecting on the Four Noble Truths and the
Eightfold Path of Buddhism, “If I wasn’t a Christian, I think
I would be a Buddhist.”

If Frederick Buechner could say this then he was never truly born again.

Huston Smith, a renowned scholar of world religions and
a child of missionaries to China, shares in one of his books
about his first meeting with the Dalai Lama. “No one I know
who has been in his presence has failed to be impressed,”
Smith affectionately writes. “...But the way he impressed me
was almost the reverse of my expectations...For it was not as
if he wore a halo...Almost the opposite; from the moment he
clasped my hand with a firmness...it was his directness, his
utter unpretentiousness, his total objectivity, that astonished.
I do not believe that before or since I have been in the presence
of someone who was as completely himself.”

The late Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk whose life and
writings have deeply impacted Christians across the globe,
developed a genuine interest in Buddhism in the later part of
his life. Among other things, he was attracted to Buddhism’s
long and persevering traditions of compassion and nonviolence
and its indictment of ego-centered thought, reminding
him of the goal of Christ’s humility. Merton initiated some of
the first Christian-Buddhist dialogues. In turn, as a result of the
witness of his life, the Dalai Lama said of Merton, “This was
the first time I have been struck by such a feeling of spirituality
by anyone who professed Christianity. As a result of meeting
with him, my attitude toward Christianity was much changed.”

Buddhism?  Non-violent?  I beg to differ.  In India thousands have been persecuted and killed for converting to Christianity even right now as I type this.  (Note:  for anyone that is an unbeliever reading this:  Roman Catholicism is not Christian (never was and never will be) so don't tell me that 'Christians' have killed more people throughout history than any other religion - just because they use the name of Jesus does not make the RCC, Christian - instead they have blasphemed His name throughout history).

How can the lotus—Buddhism’s symbol of spiritual life
—encounter the cross? First, it is important to remember
that in exploring other faiths, we can grow deeper roots in
our own faith; moving out to meet others in the midst of
their spiritual experiences allows us to return “home” to our
own faith’s depth and heritage in a transformed way. A true
understanding of Christian faith entails receiving as well
as sharing.

Did this Rev. Paul-Gordon Chandler actually read the bible or is it gathering dust on his esoteric bookshelf?  He has no clue what he is talking about. I think he should do us all a favour and remove the Rev. title from his name.

Christ himself walks the Buddhist road, and surely we will
find him there when we ourselves venture out. Karl Reichelt,
a Norwegian who operated a unique ministry serving
Buddhist monks in China and Hong Kong in the 1920s,
believed that Buddhism found its fulfillment and ultimate
revelation in Jesus. In order to present a Christ that walked
within Buddhism, Reichelt modeled his Tao Fong Shan
Christian Center on Buddhist monasteries, adapted Buddhist
symbols to Christianity, and developed a liturgy based on
Buddhist worship structure. He also adopted the style of a
Buddhist monk, and his Christian witness focused on building
on every area of affinity with Buddhism that he could.
Consequently, his approach was far-reaching—to temples,
monasteries, and lay Buddhist societies. However, his deepest
influence was on the individual Buddhist monks who passed
through his center. This is powerfully illustrated in the story
of the Buddhist abbot who became a follower of Christ,
a man Reichelt wrote about in The Transformed Abbot
(Lutterworth Press, 1954). As a Christian, Reichelt was well
ahead of his time in his perspective on other faiths.

Christ himself walks the Buddhist road?  That will be the day.  If 'Christ' followed in a demon's footsteps then who is 'Christs' father?  Oh I keep forgetting we are talking about two different 'Christs' here...so yes, then I suppose he is correct.

On a trip in Southeast Asia some years ago, I met two
Buddhist monks. They were studying sacred scriptures in a
Buddhist monastery at the time, and among their texts was
the New Testament. On their own, without any “Christian”
influence, they came to a belief that this Christ they were
reading about was truth embodied and decided to become his
followers. Reading on into the Book of Acts, they realized that
new followers of Christ were “put into water” (baptized).
Believing that to be an important initiation rite for Christ
followers, they went into the nearest town and stopped at the
first place they saw the word “Christ”—which happened to
be a church. They knocked on the door and told the priest
they had come to be baptized. The priest was, of course, taken
aback to see two Buddhist monks asking to be baptized.

Nevertheless, after hearing their story, he baptized them.
Today those two men continue to live as Buddhist monks,
albeit monks who follow Christ, wearing their incandescent
saffron robes and shaven heads and going from monastery to
monastery telling other Buddhist monks about Jesus.

So now we have two Buddhist Christians - can you believe it?  Many will, because they 'presume' that if someone read the New Testament, and got baptised that they must be Christian - that's all the evidence they need.  All these two Buddhists are doing is worshipping a 'man' by the name of Jesus Christ as another god.  Sounds a lot like Sadhu Sundar Singh.  http://discerningtheworld.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/sadhu-sundar-singh-hindu-mystic-in-sheeps-clothing/

In thinking about the cross and the lotus, Christians need
to remember that genuine spirituality, such as that exhibited
by these two Buddhist monks, is often the most important
point of contact with those from other faiths. Whenever this
exists in someone, it affirms their being on the path toward
spiritual progress and development and therefore potentially
toward an openness to examining the way of Christ. And
from my own observation, God more often than not seems to
work through irregular channels to bring this about. Just as the
beauty of the lotus flower emerges from dark and muddy
roots, God communicates in paradoxical ways to individuals
in what may seem like the most unlikely places.

The Buddhist scriptures proclaim, “It is a Buddha-making
universe”—meaning that the nature of reality itself is to
enlighten and set free the whole creation, down to the last
grain of sand. And for followers of Christ, we see the ultimate
purpose of God as enabling all people to fully reflect the
“image of God” in which they were created.

Christ flowing in Hindu channels

India is a fascinating place—steeped in religion and all things
spiritual. It is a wonderful place to talk about the person and
teachings of Christ. In the last decade the Western world has
seen a resurgence of interest in the spirituality of India—from
the many Indian gurus that have come to the West and attracted
substantial followings, to the Dalit mass conversions in
India from Hinduism to Buddhism and, in smaller numbers,
to Christian faith.

It is within this context that many Indian followers of
Christ are living reminders that following the way of Christ
among those of other faiths requires genuinely respecting them.
St. Paul’s experience in Athens is a helpful starting point. He did
not criticize the Athenians for their enthusiastic polytheism.
Instead, he began by praising them for their religious and spiritual
zeal; consequently, they responded with an openness to
listen to, and consider, his beliefs.

It seems Paul-Gordon Chandler  (I have remove his Rev. title for him) likes to take things completely out of context - but then again it's nothing new;  whether it be an unbeliever trying to justify their conscience or a 'prophet' from the New Apolostic Reformation trying to persuade the congregation to follow an angel - there is no difference.

Anyhow, the fact of the matter is that Paul spoke to the Athenians the way he did because the Athenians  were 'thinkers', they liked 'new ideas' and Paul knew that he had to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them in that manner. 

So he pointed out an altar with the inscription 'to an unknown god' and basically said to them,   'I know who that 'unknown god' is, it's the one and only living God whose son is Jesus Christ, who died on a cross and was raised from the dead that you may be saved, and you need to REPENT of your sins for worshipping other gods(idols).'

Paul didn't say, "WOW! By golly, I know who that unknown god is -  it's 'Christ'!  Do you guys mind chiseling a new inscription to say, 'Christ'?  Nah I didn't think you would mind.  Gosh your guys should be soooo happy that I solved that mystery, it must have been driving you nuts praying to a god who refused to tell you who he was.  No, no you don't have to destroy the other alters, keep them -  remember - all gods lead to the same god;  'Christ' is just another 'road' in the same direction."

In his excellent book, Christianity Rediscovered (25th anniversary
edition, Orbis, 2003), Vincent Donovan, a Catholic
priest who worked with the Masai in Kenya, says to the Masai,
“Everyone knows how devout you Masai are, the faith you
have, your beautiful worship of God. You have known God
and he has loved you....” His approach to the Masai reminds
us all that God has created this world and is already present
and working within God’s creation. And as Christians, it is
critical to never assume we are taking God with us, but rather
to discover “the God who is already present” and share how
we have come to understand that God more fully through
the person of Jesus Christ—just as St. Paul explained to the
Athenians that this “unknown god” whom they worshipped,
whose shrine had been built hundreds of years earlier, is
actually knowable and is the God of creation.

Donovan, like St. Paul, uses the imagery of the national
god of the Masai as really being the high God of all creation.
God always goes ahead of us, and is both already there and
being experienced. The role of followers of Christ is never
to bring in an opposing God, bigger and better, but rather
to share that the existing God may be beautifully experienced
through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

In regard to Hinduism, Sadhu Sundar Singh, the mystic
and Sikh follower of Christ in the early 1900s, had an interesting
personal perspective. “Hinduism has been digging
channels,” he wrote. “Christ is the water to flow through these
channels...there are many beautiful things in Hinduism; but
the fullest light is from Jesus Christ.”
As Christians living among those of other faiths, our goal
should be to respect the other and to learn about that faith,
studying its holy books, and, when appropriate and/or asked,
to share about how we have understood and experienced God
ourselves in the person and teachings of Christ.

Oh looky, there's Sundar Singh's comment.  Imagine that.  And Todd 'the deceiver' Bentley says he saw a vision from God in which he saw Sundar Singh 'meditating'.   So much for the New Apostolic Reformation being Christian. 

Bringing the Salaam of Christ to Islam

Salaam is the Arabic word for peace, and I profoundly believe
that a peaceful approach to the Islamic world is Christ’s way
forward. I grew up and have spent most of my life in the
Muslim world, so I am encouraged by the many Christians in
the West who are openly and genuinely interested in learning
about Islam and seeking to understand Muslims.

Well your profound belief is profoundly incorrectly for Jesus said in Matthew 10:3;  "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." 

At the same time I am disturbed to see a wave of Western
Christians who demonize Islam, with supposed experts popping
up to lend their views but only creating a fear that results
in many viewing Islam as an enemy and vice versa. There is
a quickly growing discord between Christians and Muslims,
with many Christians portraying Islam as “the last great
enemy to be conquered.” The images are often militant, from
capturing Islamic strongholds to reclaiming the land. While
this kind of discourse is usually meant to denote the spiritual
realm, the images they project of Islam, particularly of its
relations with Christianity, are often unbalanced, one-sided,
and can even be mythical, presenting Muslims as dangerous
people. The oft-held idea of conversions taking place by the
sword from the Middle Ages on is, for example, an inaccurate
depiction much propagated in anti-Islamic literature.

Satan is truly cunning, here Chandler speaks about Christians capturing strongholds and reclaiming the land as a bad thing.   But what he fails to realise is that the New Wave of Christianity is actually on his side for they are capturing strongholds and reclaiming land under the same 'Christ'.   So what's your problem Paul-Gordon Chandler?  I thought 'Christ' is the be all and end all of all faiths?  Now you say it's not?  Are you saying there are indeed two different Christs?  The one 'Christ' is for all faiths intermingled and the other is not.  Hmmmm...busted!

My experience of living among Muslims is that the majority
do not see themselves in any holy war against the West;
they are peace-loving and incredibly hospitable, gentle, and
faithful friends. With global politics what they are, there has
never been a greater need for us to recognize what we have in
common with Muslims and build on those commonalities.
St. John of Damascus, one of the greatest theologians of
the seventh century, can serve as an initial guide. Born
just after the death of Mohammad, he grew up a Syrian
Christian in the Islamic Arab court of Damascus, where his
Christian father was chancellor. As an adult he was an intimate
friend of the Caliph, for whom he worked as finance minister.
 
This relationship made him one of the very first Arab
Christians capable of acting as a bridge between Christianity
and Islam. In old age, he became a monk and wrote the first ever
Christian treatise on Islam. While he did not agree with
all of Islam’s theological tenets, he nevertheless applauded the
way Islam moved the Arabs away from idolatry and polytheism
and wrote with admiration of its single-minded emphasis on
worshipping the “one true God.”

Sorry I am laughing so much that I forgot what I wanted to say

Students of history know that a kinship between Muslims
and Christians has existed over the centuries. Indeed, during
Islam’s expansion in the Middle East following Mohammad’s
death, many Eastern Christians welcomed the Arab Muslim
armies as liberators, as they were oppressed by the Byzantine
Christian West.

When spending time among Christians in the Middle East,
we become aware of how much of the early Eastern Orthodox
Christian tradition formed the foundation for the basic practices
of Islam. The Muslim form of prayer, with prostrations
and bowing, comes from the ancient Syrian Orthodox
Christian tradition and is still practiced today. The month-long
fast of Ramadan is an Islamization of Christian Lent, and some
Eastern Orthodox churches still practice an all-day fast. The
architecture of the earliest minarets—square instead of round
—came from the church towers in Byzantine Syria. The same
could be said about their pilgrimage, creed, and prayer five times
a day facing their holy city—all having Christian origins.

Correction, they were oppressed by the Roman Catholic Byzantine west.  Roman Catholicism is NOT Christian.  And because Roman Catholicism is not Christian it's very easy to compare certain traditions in the Catholic faith to those practiced in the Muslim faith.  In fact the Virgin Mary is mentioned in the Koran no less than 34 times, Muslims have a prayer rosary as well and many Muslims flock to the shrine of Fatima in Portugal and Lebanon.

The Virgin Mary in the Koran

"Among the persons of Sacred History mentioned in the Koran, the Virgin Mary occupies an important position on the historical and dogmatic plane. In addition to being the object of as many as thirty-four direct or indirect references, Mary also gives Sura XIX its name and is its central figure as the mother of Jesus. The characteristic note of references to the Virgin in the Koran and, to an even greater extent, in Islamic tradition, can be seen both in the information about her genealogy and her childhood"  http://www.ewtn.com/library/mary/marykran.htm

Beads of Praise

"The word "rosary" is derived from the Latin rosarium which denotes a religious exercise in which prayers are recited and counted on a string of beads or a knotted cord. And while in our minds rosaries are perceived as a facet of the Muslim faith, the practise itself is widespread: Jews, Christians and Muslims all use rosaries, as do other members of other philosophies and faiths such as Hinduism and Buddhism."  http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/627/fe2.htm

Lady of Fatima 'unvelieved' in Lebanon

"In September of 2003, an enthronement of an image of Our Lady of Fatima took place in the Shrine of Harissa, Lebanon. «Voz da Fátima» wrote down the observation of a witness, according to whom "it was truly impressing to see so many pilgrims, even Muslims, praying at the feet of Our Lady".  http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/migrants/pom2005_97-suppl/rc_pc_migrants_pom97_gomes.html

If Christians from sixth-century Byzantium were to return
today, they would find much more that was familiar in the
practices of Muslims than in a contemporary American
evangelical church. Most Western Christians have lost the
understanding that our faith is Middle Eastern in origin, and
thereby lose out on their rich historical heritage.
What we so critically need today is to build upon any
kinship and proximity between Christians and Muslims.
What Muslims need from Western Christians is love. We must
be involved today in an effort not to conquer them, but to
show them the love of Christ through goodwill, appreciation,
and friendship. As my friend Christine Mallouhi says, now is
the time to “wage peace” on Muslims. For they, like us, are
made in God’s image.

They don't have to return, there are millions of Catholics today who can one day relay the message to them in Hell sorry I meant Purgatory.

Rev. Paul-Gordon Chandler is the rector of the Church of St. John
the Baptist/Maadi in Cairo, Egypt. Raised in Senegal and a graduate
of Wheaton College, Chandler was president of the Christian relief
agency Partners International and US CEO of the International
Bible Society. He is the author of God’s Global Mosaic (IVP, 2000)
and Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road (Cowley Publications
/Rowman & Littlefield, 2007). A version of the Islam section of this
article appeared in the Anglican Digest (2004).

I find it very funny that Paul-Gordon Chandler was the US CEO of the International Bible Society, yet never actually understood the Bible.  He is a great example of how someone can 'study' the Bible and yet have no clue for he never accepted Jesus Christ as his saviour, he never repented and he definitely does not have the Holy Spirit in him.  For it he did, he would have understood the Bible and he would NEVER entertain the notion of 'all religions lead to one God'.   Neo-Apostles & Prophets do you hear that?  A truly Born Again Christian will NEVER entertain the notion of ecumenism. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The moral of the story is, make sure you are following Jesus Christ and not the cosmic, universal 'Christ'.  Your salvation depends on weighing and testing ALL scripture spewed out by these Wolves in Sheep's clothing - your Pastor could very well be one of them.  Don't take his word for it, take Jesus' words instead.

Fashion show in Kenya - pretty awesome. Creations of John Kaveke, pictures by dad :P

First we had the spectacle last year of the San Diego Zoo flying in a group of Masai men (dubbed 'warriors') to live at the zoo as part of a 'culture share' program.

The same thing also happened at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo.

Then there was last month's New York Times 'Style' section light piece chronicling the spectacle of a Masai man being brought to New York City to promote a coffee table book.

Now comes the news that a group of Masai 'warriors' will take part in the London Marathon '... to raise awareness and money for their village of Elaui, where two out of three babies die of water borne diseases.'

Buried in the story of course that a UK-travel agency who wants to increase its own market share of the tourism market in East Africa, is behind the trip.

What has also not been a surprise has been how the men have been paraded around in London in 'traditional clothes' and resulting in all sorts of interesting 'facts' being reported in the British media about them:

They survive on fresh blood drained from the neck of a living cow, they often run for days and nights on end to find water and their shoes are made from car tyres cut up and strapped to their feet.

.

This latest version of Sara Baartman 2.0 here and here.

In September last year academics Char Miller (a visiting professor of environmental analysis and history at Pomona College, California) and Anene Ejikeme (she teaches African history at Trinity University, San Antonio) in a critique of the events at the Woodland Park Zoo, explained why 'Masai warriors' are in vogue now. They also reminded their readers of the historical bases of this phenomenon, in an article criticizing a 'Masai Warrior' exhibit at the Seattle Zoo:

... they were initially dubbed Masai warriors because no group more fully embodies the quintessential Western fantasy about darkest Africa. Their putative violent virility is code for the Other; their alleged primitivism stands in stark contrast to civilization as we know it. Can you imagine these indigenous stock figures, set within a faux savanna, quaffing a grande, no-foam, sugar-free latte from Starbucks?

Of course not, which is why the zoo's representation of Africa is of a piece with late 19th-century European imperialism. Back then, Britain, Germany, and France appropriated Africa's resources and people, sent avaricious "explorers" and zealous missionaries to conquer and convert, and looted ancient sites, and ensnared rare animals for their museums and zoos.

As I said before. I am tired.

l o l

Kelmarin me tidak jalan jauh kemana. Kampung nelayan kong kong saja.

Me tengok lebuhraya senai - pasir gudang - desaru hampir siap. Menara jambatan yg melimpasi pulau duyong juga sudah kelihatan. Dari kampung sungai latoh ke teluk sengat. Melimpasi sungai johor. Kalau sudah siap nanti tidak perlu terhegeh-hegeh melimpasi kota yg tinggi yg selalu ditenggelami air itu.

Gambar diatas me tergelak sebab suruh aBo (7) tangkap gambar guna kamera eos yg berat itu. Me ingatkan aBo tak larat memegang. Tapi semakin me suruh aBo berhenti, semakin aBo memetik butang kamera itu. Itu yg me tergelak sakan. Sekian.

Alahai.

happy on the dot [+ bigger uncropped image ]

2. The Masai own every cow in the world.  Yep, even the 25 head half a kilometer from my school. The ones who run around their feedlot whenever I walk past with the malamute.

3. Kanaka Maoli own roughly 12% of the University of Hawaii at Manoa -- or at least the land under said institution of higher learning. They also own the genetic code of kalo, since kalo is their brother and owning your family is a very indigenous thing to do. 

In 1906 the Bronx Zoo brought a Congolese Pygmy named Ota Benga over from Africa to exhibit at the zoo and housed him in the Zoo’s ‘Monkey House.’ Two years ago, the New York Times in a long report recalled the event and criticized the paper's own coverage then. As the New York Times reported in 2006: 'One hundred years later, the Ota Benga rage.episode remains a perfect illustration of the racism that pervaded New York at the time.' So you'd think they'd learn. This Sunday in the City section, a headline on page 3 screams 'Out of Africa, the Wisdom of a Warrior,' by one Josh Weill. Weill is an assistant to a photographer Elizabeth Gilbert who had brought over 'the warrior,' Andiri Lekelani, to help promote her new book "Tribes of the Great Rift Valley." As for the launch it appears from the article that was held at, stop, wait: The American Museum of Natural History. Yeh. The rest of the article consists of Weill's impressions 'chaperoning' Mr Lekelani around New York City. What follows is one of the stupidest things I read in a while, filled with outdated stereotypes. Samples:

I wondered if the Masai saw the beauty of the stuffed animal the way I did, or if the sight just made him homesick. Was he awed by the beasts plucked from his land and hoarded half a world away?

and the prize quote:

By the time he and I were sipping our Cokes, he was guiding me through his world. Watching him tear off a quarter of his paper napkin and reserve the rest for later, or sip on a straw to avoid touching the glass’s rim, I felt as if I were in Africa, with its scarcities and health dangers.

The full piece here. I am tired.

The art group will now meet on Thursdays and today was the first day in a long long time that it was held in my home.   We all had a go at drawing a beautiful wooden sculpture of a Masai Lady.   The unknown sculptor has done a fabulous job.  Unfortunately I have not been able to capture how beautiful she is.  You can see my earlier attempt here.

Summary

- Serengeti game drive

- Visit to a Masai camp

- Ngorongoro crater game drive

- Lioness vs wildebeest

- Cheetah vs warthogs

On Thursday we left camp at 7am for another game drive in the Serengeti, and it was sunny for a change… plenty of light for taking snaps. The morning started out slow, but we got lucky later on. We missed our chance to see a leopard, which was in a tree… by the time we got there it had gone. However, we saw another 4 cheetahs and 2 more lionesses, one of whom was perched on top of a rock no more than 20 metres from the roadside. By this stage we were usually skipping giraffes and the like as we’d seen so many of them. That afternoon we visited a Masai camp where the Masai’s danced and sang for us and then had us join in. We saw the inside of their very tiny mud huts and even in there for such a shot amount of time, it was bloody hot! We then looked at the Masai school which was a small stick hut where the children were going through the English numbers and alphabet. Our guide at the Masai camp claimed to have killed 6 lions with his spear and knife. He seemed more interested in selling us his wares than acting as a guide or providing us with information. This was the point when I decided the Masai are not as independent and self-providing as I’d be lead to think. If they were, then they’d have no need for our money (US$20 for the trip there and US$20 for any of their wares). We then left the Masai camp to go to our campsite on the Ngorongoro Crater rim. After setting up our tents, I went and had a cold shower before we had dinner and retired ready for an early morning.

After breakfast at 6am on Friday, we went to the Ngorongoro Crater via 4WDs. This is the highlight of our trip thus far, without a doubt. As soon as we entered the crater an elephant was walking alongside the vehicle, 1 or 2 metres from the track. After following him along for a while, we shot off and things were quiet for a while. We saw some wildebeest, more elephants, zebras, etc. At one point another safari vehicle that was turned around on the track (was at 90 degrees to us at the time, went to go straight in front of us, cutting us off… the driver must be blind to have not seen us… ok, well he was probably just stupid. Anyway,  the driver had to slam his brakes, sending everyone forward in a domino effect since most of us were standing up looking out the open roof of the 4WD. Meanwhile my camera with long lens attached has been sent flying off the seat and bouncing along the floor… thankfully the build quality on these things are like that of a tank (hence why they’re so heavy) so no real harm was done, just some minor scratches. Later we came across an abundance of safari vehicles parked alongside the track. We spotted a lioness crouched in the grass about 5 metres from a grazing wildebeest. We watched and waited as the lioness would creep forward a few inches at a time. After about 15 minutes the lioness was within 3 or 4 metres of the wildebeest, when it jumped up and went for the wildebeest. The wildebeest bolted and the chase was on but only lasted a few seconds before the lioness gave up. Disappointing that there wasn’t a kill, but it was still fantastic to watch. From here the game drive just got better. We drove up to a buffalo carcass, which must have been recently killed be lions, where hyenas were ripping at the carcass. One of the hyenas managed to get a buffalo leg and ran off with it. On the other side of the road 3 male lions were off in the distance. These were the first male lions we’d seen but they were a very long way from us and we couldn’t get any closer to them.

We then drove alongside the lake, which was filled with flamingoes and the occasional bathing hippo. We came across a cheetah in the grass and as I was sitting watching it and snapping shots, I saw two heads pop-up. They were cheetah cubs, there turned out to be 3 of them. A pack of warthogs were headed in the cheetah’s direction, so she was crouched ready to go at them and obviously told her cubs to go in the other direction (she was making sounds and the cubs backed away). She ran at the warthogs and it all happened quite fast but resulted with the warthogs running after her. She acted as a decoy to get the hogs away from her cubs. Once the hogs were trotting away, the cheetah called to her cubs who came bounding through the grass back to her. The cheetah passed right alongside us, within a metre of our truck. In the process of getting ready for her chase I must have bumped my camera lens; being a push-pull zoom lens when I bumped it, it shortened its length (zoomed out), so all the shots could have been zoomed in quite a bit more than the ones I took.. nevermind. There was always plenty of action here, whether it be a couple of zebras chasing one another or flamingoes flying through the air or wildebeest calves feeding from their mother, you didn’t know which direction to look at. We headed for the forest region to try our luck spotting a leopard, although the guide had said he hadn’t seen one there for 3 months. No luck spotting leopards, but when we stopped off for lunch there were a bunch of monkeys in the trees. As I was photographing one of them, it came over and sat right beside me, less than a metre away. Meanwhile, an eagle had spotted everyone with lunches and proceeded to swoop down trying to snatch people’s lunches from their hands. Unfortunately it was then time to leave the crater, but I wish we could have stayed for another couple of hours (we were there 4 hours, but each vehicle is limited to a maximum of 6 hours in the crater). On the way back, there was a lot of thick red dust. Everything got covered in red dust.

We met up with our overland truck again and drove back to the Snake Park campsite in Arusha, instead of Masai campsite where the original itinerary had us going. There was a bunch of caged reptiles and snakes to look at here and a Masai Cultural Museum. The exit to the museum comes out at the back where hoards of African women await to try to sell you their wares. After being told there would be hot showers, I headed up to the men’s rooms. My shower was the coldest I’ve had yet, the type that makes you lose your breath as it’s so cold. Apparently I got in the only shower whose heating did not work, which I didn’t find out until after everyone else mentioned their hot showers… Skye was saying her shower was too hot!

By this stage, Skye and I being the only couple on the tour, we’d copped it a bit from other people. Joel would frequently mimick Skye yelling ‘Scooooottt’ at me and her remark from a few days earlier of ‘Scooooooooooottttt, you got mud on my toilet paper!’, at which point everyone had pissed themselves laughing and commented that perhaps it wasn’t mud after all. That night we headed down to the pub for a beer to farewell our fellow travelers before we went our separate ways the following morning. 

Serengeti Campsite

Serengeti Kingfisher

Baby White Vervet

Jackal in the Grass

Lioness on a Rock

Cheerful Cheetah

Knocked Up

Wildebeest Panorama

Who Flung Dung?

Jumping Masai

Home Sweet Home

Ngorongoro Crater Rim Sunset

Ngorongoro Crater Rim Sunset Panorama

The Green Mile

Male Ostrich

Wrestling Wildebeest

Lioness vs Wildebeest

Bitten Off More Than You Can Chew

Grubs Up!

Black Rhino

Swooping Eagle

Cheetah vs Warthogs

My Little Mate (the one who sat down beside me)

Geckos 'Tanzania Trail' Tour Group

Summary

- More scammers at the airport, arrival transfer booking for wrong date.

- Arrived in Nairobi in Kenya

- Overland to Arusha in Tanzania

- Tenting at Masai Campsite

- St Jude School visit

We left Dubai this morning to fly to Nairobi. Somehow I kept setting off the metal detector, but in the end they just let me through. It must have been very sensitive or something as I was going through with the same things as previously, which had not set any of the other metal detectors off. We arrived in Kenya about 4pm and had booked an arrival transfer to our hotel. We were told to look for the bright orange Geckos sign…. Impossible to miss it I thought. It turns out there was no Geckos sign. So there we were standing looking at all the different signs trying to find one that applied to us. Meanwhile all these offers for taxis are coming at us and people are asking if we want transfers. When we said we had already booked a transfer, they asked who with. Upon replying ‘Geckos’, we had 2 different people (a man and a woman) claiming to be in charge of the Geckos transfers. One of them was pointing to follow her left and the other pointing to follow him right. At this point there was no way we were letting go of our luggage and I wasn’t going to trust either of them as neither of them had an appropriate sign or badge. They were asking our names, but we weren’t willing to give them any more info at this stage. There was a lot of calling back and forth until security came over to find out what the drama was. We told the two that we would go over to the information desk to find out for ourselves, to which they both continually insisted that they were Geckos. A man out the front of the tourist desk pointed to the lady and said she was in charge of Geckos. So she told us to wait there and said she was going to call someone. I was still skeptical so wandered around looking for the appropriate transfer desk, though none of them matched what was written on our documentation. The same guy from the info desk came over again and asked what I was looking for and then told me again that the lady was the Geckos leader. When she came back, she had a reservation book with her. We gave our names and it turns out she had us down for 31^st Jan, which is when we initially intended to arrive in Kenya. I was quite confident now that we had the right one. Meanwhile, the first guy was back claiming to be Geckos, so I told him to go away as we were already sorted out. The lady quite angrily shoed him off and stated that she was the genuine Geckos operator.

Everything was sorted and we arrived at our hotel about 5:30pm. We saw plenty of men with big guns and battons along the drive there. Hotel security was very strict which was reassuring, including a boom gate with guards that had mirrors to check under vehicles for explosive devices. We checked in and went upstairs to offload our stuff, then I called reception to ask where the Geckos meeting point was for the pre-departure meeting to be held at 6pm according to our documentation.  She called back a few minutes later after making her enquiries and told us the location of the meeting. At about 5:55pm we got a call from Chris, the Geckos tour operator saying that the meeting was actually at 5pm, so we’d missed it. He said that only 3 people were at the meeting out of 15 who were booked for the tour. He said to meet him in reception at 8am.

Meanwhile, as I stood on the balcony of our hotel, there was screeching brakes and I looked down at the road to see a car plow into the side of a van sending it into a pole. Vans are plentiful over here, there are so many vans on the road and they are all packed with people. This van that crashed had at least 10 Africans come out of it, if not more. Feeling puckish, we went down and had dinner at the restaurant of the hotel. The atmosphere was great, and the hotel staff were extremely friendly and courteous. I had a chicken dish with veg and fries and it cost me 350 Kenyan shillings… that’s around about US$5! Now that’s value for money!

The following morning we went down for breakfast before meeting the Geckos truck outside the hotel. There were 3 other people there. We waited for an hour, but nobody else came, so we were 5. There were possibly some people meeting up in Arusha as they had not wanted to fly into Nairobi. We spent the day on the road most of the time; crossing the border into Tanzania. At the border crossing, while awaiting our Tanzanian visas, we could hear Boyz II Men, then TQ  playing on the stereo in the visa office. I don’t know why I found this amusing, but I guess all I’d heard music-wise previously was Arabic rayer broadcast over loud speakers from the mosques or the African and/or Jamaican style music. We stopped off at a market and bought some souveniers; we still aren’t very good at bargaining, in hindsight we probably paid more than it was worth. Along the way the little kids are so cute, as soon as they see the tour truck going past they sprint towards us waving. We’ve seen many ladies carrying things on their heads, even one waiting at the bus stop with her suitcase on her head (no hands)!

The Tanzanian shilling exchange rate is US$1 to 1100 shillings, so we are walking around with tens of thousands of Tanzanian money… I feel rich :P I have a 10,000 shilling note!

Whenever the truck stops somewhere of tourist significance, such as the Tanzania border, old African women  come from everywhere to try to sell their bangles and beadwork to you through the window of the truck. “I’m not interested” doesn’t seem to make any difference, they just linger. At one point I had about 8 of them all trying to sell me something. Upon arriving at our camp site in Arusha, another 4 people were there waiting for us, bringing our numbers to 9. We got our tent setup before going to the bar for a beer. We then had dinner and a bit of a yarn before retiring to our tents.

We got up at about 6am the following morning and enjoyed what could be our last hot shower in a while, before packing up our tents and eating some breakfast. 2 new arrivals joined today, bringing us to 11. We spent the morning at St Jude School, although it seems that tours usually go on Friday when the children have assembly and so on a Monday there wasn’t much for us to do… I have no idea why we were there on the Monday in that case! We ate lunch in Arusha, trying to escape the very persistent hawkers that continually followed us around. After lunch, we were back on the truck to our campsite at Mto Wam Bu, which means ‘river of mosquitoes’, so I had my 80% DEET repellant ready! We upgraded from our tents to a very basic room (no TV, no hot water) for an extra cost. It is probably worth mentioning for those of you unfamiliar with Africa that the beds we sleep in have mosquito nets over them to ensure you are not bitten by mosquitoes while you sleep. It is important not to leave your tent open for longer than necessary to ensure none of the buggers get inside your tent and feast on you through the night. There is a pool at the campsite, but it’s been drizzling tonight so nobody swam. Tomorrow we safari… FINALLY! So far, all we have seen is ostriches, dogs, goats, cows, a gazelle, a variety of birds and a lot of landscape.

Most of the people on the tour are Aussies; one guy, Joel, is my age and lives in Golden Grove (SA) so no doubt he knows someone I know, probably several people. We are yet to have the discussion to figure out who we know in common. Another guy who started in the initial 5, Craig (who happens to be a travel agent), we get along very well with and try to palm off the hawkers to one another whenever we can J Most of the people on the tour seem to be quite well travelled. Of the 11 people, 7 are female and 4 are male.

Eagle Above Nairobi

Maribu Stalk in Flight

Soccer at the School of St Jude

Hungry Baboon

If you take a tribesman and drop him in the middle of Tokyo and tell him to sit behind a desk to work for money to buy things he can produce himself, would he be able to? Would be be considered dumb because he can't hold a slated, 'regular' job?

Which is more intelligent, the ability to survive as you are, or being dependent on things... things you cannot produce on your own? If one can make things to cover up nature and one becomes dependent on these things, is one advanced or simply dependent and unable to survive?

Is the one with all the inventions he becomes dependent on and cannot produce on his own smarter or is the one who knows how to survive?

In February, 2007, I went with a Wellesley Alumnae group to Africa to focus on "Modern and Traditional Women in Tanzania" with a follow-up few days of animal viewing in the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater. We visited an AIDS hospital and visited with some of the healthier women who told us their heart wrenching experiences. We helped the women of the Baracka Women's Collective prepare the midday meal (with machetes and iron pots over open fires) and helped with their chores. My hostess there showed me the brief version of how her daily life goes - from chopping banana fronds to feed her livestock, to hoeing, to grinding corn, to mucking out the cowshed and carrying water in a bucket on my head. Our travels included stops at a few Masai villages where the pastoral tribes set up their "bomas" (huts in a circular configuration around a common ground) while they grazed their cattle. One of the women, named "Happiness," served in the Parliament and successfully petitioned to improve the ventilation in their dark, smoky huts. This picture was taken in Happiness's village. The women (5 of whom - including Happiness - were polygamous wives of the tribal leader) stood around their fabulously beaded jewelry, headdresses, neck plates and belts which they made available to our group once we sorted out what specie of money they'd accept. While most eyes were on the exquisite handwork, I saw this little girl camouflaged in her mother's colorful skirts. The dozen or so of us must have seemed at least as exotic to her as her community was to us. Now, nearly a year later, I'm still dreaming of wildebeests and zebras and trying to process the bounties of that trip.

More photos from Linda's trip (click on the images to see them larger and to read descriptions of the pics):

I have been associated with Exponent II since the early 1970's when I began illustrating the articles with funny little ink drawings. I've been writing the column "goodness gracious" for ExII for the past several years. I am also an occasional columnist on the Mormon page of beliefnet.com, an online interfaith magazine. I'm an artist, a writer, a poet... and therefore not a highly paid participant in our economy. I offset this by buying exotic, eclectic work by other artists, writers and poets. (Math has never been my strong suit.)

If you would like to submit a photo for X2's Photo Feature Friday, please contact Jana Remy: phddillyATyahooDAWTcom

Suppose you were forced to live on a diet of red meat and whole milk. A diet that, all told, was at least 60 percent fat — about half of it saturated. If your first thoughts are of statins and stents, you may want to consider the curious case of the Masai, a nomadic tribe in Kenya and Tanzania.

In the 1960s, a Vanderbilt University scientist named George Mann, M.D., found that Masai men consumed this very diet (supplemented with blood from the cattle they herded). Yet these nomads, who were also very lean, had some of the lowest levels of cholesterol ever measured and were virtually free of heart disease.

Scientists, confused by the finding, argued that the tribe must have certain genetic protections against developing high cholesterol. But when British researchers monitored a group of Masai men who moved to Nairobi and began consuming a more modern diet, they discovered that the men's cholesterol subsequently skyrocketed.

Weston Price studied the Masai as well:

Africa also afforded Dr. Price the opportunity to compare primitive groups composed largely of meat eaters, with those that were mostly vegetarian. The Masai of Tankanika, Chewya of Kenya, Muhima of Uganda, Watusi of Ruanda and the Neurs tribes on the western side of the Nile in the Sudan were all cattle-keeping people. Their diets consisted largely of milk, blood and meat, supplemented in some cases with fish and with small amounts of grains, fruits and vegetables.

Rich in animal fats, these diets provided large amounts of the fat-soluble vitamins Price discovered to be so necessary for proper development of the physical body and freedom from disease. The Neurs especially valued the livers of animals, considered so sacred "that it may not be touched by human hands. . . It is eaten both raw and cooked."

These tribes were noted for their fine physiques and great height—in some groups the women averaged over 6 feet tall, and many men reached almost seven feet.

Examinations of their teeth revealed very few caries, usually less than 0.5%. Nowhere in his travels had Price yet found groups that had no cavities at all, yet among the cattle-herding tribes of Africa, Dr. Price found six tribes that were completely free of dental decay. Furthermore, all members of these tribes exhibited straight, uncrowded teeth.

Largely vegetarian Bantu tribes such as the Kikuyu and Wakamba were agriculturists. Their diet consisted of sweet potatoes, corn, beans, bananas, millet and Kafir corn or sorghum. They were less robust than their meat-eating neighbors, and tended to be dominated by them. Price found that vegetarian groups had some tooth decay—usually around 5% or 6% of all teeth, still small numbers compared to Whites living off store-bought foods. Even among these largely vegetarian tribes, however, dental occlusions were rare, as were degenerative diseases.

The healthiest tribe that Price studied was the Dinkas, a Sudanese tribe on the western bank of the Nile. They were not as tall as the cattle-herding Neurs groups but they were physically better proportioned and had greater strength. Their diet consisted mainly of fish and cereal grains. This is perhaps the greatest lesson of Price's African research—that a diet of whole foods, one that avoids the extremes of the carnivorous Masai and the largely vegetarian Bantu, but incorporates both nutrient dense grains and seafood, ensures optimum physical development.

Sources: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22116724 and http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/out_of_africa.html

31/08/2007. Twende Safari!

Un día muy largo... en especial porque el día anterior no terminó. Por fin de vacaciones, vuelta a la sabana y encima con mis amigos... poco más puedo pedir.

Anoche recogí a Iñigo, Luis e Iñaki en el Jomo Kenyatta y tras pasar por la Topera nos fuimos a dar una vuelta por Nairobi La Nuit... el game drive terminó pasadas las 5 de la madrugada y el tour leader no pudo dormir. Haciendo un alarde de responsabilidad volví al aeropuerto a recoger a Juan, que venía desde Alemania. Llegó sin problemas con Virgin y volvimos a casa a levantar a los safaristas. Primeras risas del viaje... esto promete. Yo tenía que preparar la maleta. Topo mientras preparando a su vez la Diligencia para su safari. También dormiría en Losho.

Fred llegó puntual a recogernos con el Land Cruiser e increíblemente conseguimos salir no demasiado tarde, aunque perdimos bastante tiempo en el ABC Shopping comprando provisiones y carne en la expendida carnicería que hay en ese centro comercial (7 chuletones de carne de Laikipia de primera, que lamentablemente y por un error logístico, se nos estropearon).

Y nos pusimos en marcha. Salimos de un Nairobi frío y nublado y pusimos rumbo al valle del Rift. La carretera hacia Narok está cada vez peor, y como es normal, el pasaje lo flipó con tanto bache, polvo y ausencia de asfalto. Aún así el viaje no se hizo pesado al acompañarlo de buena charla y música, aunque más de uno seguía ko de la noche anterior...

Por fin llegamos a Narok y... increible! Atasco de entrada en la ciudad... en Narok!!! lo nunca visto. Había dos camiones bloqueando la carretera y unos 50 vehículos parados. La pericia de Fred que se escapó por un talud inverosimil y el llevar un 4x4 nos salvó de alguna horita allí parados en el polvo... Como ibamos tarde no dimos una vuelta por la ciudad y directamente fuimos a comer al restaurantillo de la gasolinera de Kenol, a la salida de la ciudad.

Hay rincones que sin ser espectaculares te llenan de safari, y ese para mi es uno de ellos. Es llegar allí y recordar todas las veces que hemos parado a tomar una Tusker y poner gasolina. Es un paso obligado para ir a Mara, y es gracioso ver la caravana de mini buses llenos de turistas, a los cuales les suelen parar en las curio shop, un poco más adelante. Allí conozco a mucha gente, siempre te encuentras a algún masai conocido y siempre me saludan los chavales de las tiendas, los camareros, el dueño del restaurante y un chico que siempre está allí vendiendo cds. Tras saludarles a todos comimos unas samosas y unos sandwiches. Curiosamente me encontré a Mark, del proyecto de Ilkerin, al cual hacía mucho tiempo que no veía. Al salir nos cruzamos con Topo, que pese a que salió bastante más tarde nos alcanzó con la Diligencia.

Seguimos camino y del siguiente tramo no puedo hablar, ya que me quedé completamente dormido... Cuando abrí un ojo reconocí las Siana plains y las colinas que anuncian la entrada a Masai Mara. Los masais nos saludaban al pasar. El paisaje estaba más verde de lo habitual en esa época, y vimos los primeros ñues y cebras, y alguna que otra jirafa. Y por fin llegamos a Losho Camp...

Allí estaban Anastasia, su hermana, Jackson y nos enseñaron cada rincón del campamento. El recibimiento de los masais que estaban allí, trabajando en el campamento o por ser del pueblo de al lado, fue como siempre entrañable. Quedé impresionado por como lo tenían montado y lo bien que estaba organizado todo, en un tiempo récord. El sitio del campamento es perfecto. Tiene sombra, agua (hay unos manantiales) y buena vista por los cuatro costados. A unos 600 m hay una manyatta (poblado) masai. Cuando terminamos el tour llegó Topo y directamente nos fuimos a dar un paseo con un par de masais. Subimos a una colina cercana para contemplar bien la zona del campamento y vimos el Sol ponerse sobre Mara. Grandes sensaciones, estar allí con toda esta tropa y encima con el Topo. Jose María, un primo de nuestro amigo Alberto, que acompañaba a Topo, decía que era increíble como se nos cambiaba la cara nada más llegar al campo!

Nos dimos una ducha calentita de escándalo y una cena espléndida. De sobremesa unas copas, el fuego del campamento y un pedazo de concierto impresionado a cargo de Fred y Juan. Increible las caras de los masais al oir por primera vez un saxo. Increible estar allí bajo mil estrellas, con los amigos, los masais, bajo la luna llena y cantando con ellos. Muy divertido el coro masai en una versión de "Lion Sleeps Tonight", en la que el masai "Tall Man" (mide más de dos metros, no se comen mucho el coco con los nombres allí... a mi me recordaba al gigante de "La Princesa Prometida").

Cuando por fin he llegado a mi tienda, oía las risas de mis amigos en la tienda de al lado mezclándose con los de la noche africana. Sin duda va a ser un gran safari...

And 200,000 people were killed.

Emerging nations (India is hopefully, re-emerging), at some point, will confront militant and aggressive powers, who have used major massacres to secure their ends. Apart from well documented and known military massacres , there are equally effective massacres - the Bengal Famine of 1943 being a prime example.

Apart from two major incidents of slaughter in Indian history - the Kalinga War and the sacking of the Vijayanagar Kingdom, there is no other recorded incident of massacres initiated by Indian rulers or conquerors.

Megasthenes (the Greek ambassador in Gupta court) writes, “”Whereas among other nations it is usual, in the contests of war, to ravage the soil and thus to reduce it to an uncultivated waste, among the Indians, on the contrary, by whom husbandmen are regarded as a class that is sacred and inviolable, the tillers of the soil, even when battle is raging in their neighborhood, are undisturbed by any sense of danger, for the combatants on either side in waging the conflict make carnage of each other, but allow those engaged in husbandry to remain quite unmolested. Besides, they never ravage an enemy’s land with fire, nor cut down its trees.”

This makes the Mumbai 1993 riots, the 1984 Sikh Pogrom and the Godhra carnage in India a matter of concern and historical discontinuity.

Vercingetorix

Rome was sucked into the vacuum left behind by Alexander’s death. Roman generals consolidated in Asia Minor and expanded into Europe. One significant territory was Gaul (most of modern France). In 52 BC, the Gaels rebelled. Governor of Gallic provinces - Julius Caesar.

The rebellion was led by Gaellic chieftain, Vercingetorix (pronounced with a k; or in Gaellic possibly Fearcuincedorigh, Chief of a hundred heads, was son of Celtillus, a chieftain executed by his tribesmen, for attempting to unite the tribe). After nearly 2 years of campaigning, Vercingetorix was defeated by Julius Caesar, imprisoned for 5 years and brought in chains to Rome - and strangled to death after a public display.

Rome used massacres freely to quell this rebellion, and to instill fear amongst the tribes. An entire population of Avaricum (Bourges), varying estimates of between 40,000-120,000, was massacred. At the least, 1 million of 3 million Gallic Celtic populations was killed by the time Caesar finished with Gaul. Many Gaels were taken as slaves by soldiers to carry their baggage or sold to slave traders which accompanied these armies.

Carthage

Kart Hadasht, or Carthage as we know it today, was a city founded by Phoenicians, a sea-faring nation, (based in an area near Tunis and modern Lebanon) - and one of the first rivals that Rome had. Carthage ruled over much of the Mediterranean and North Africa. It expanded into Spain - Barcelona is named after the Barca family, of whom Hannibal is the most famous.

Alexander’s campaign had taken the best of male youth from the Greek population and made it incapable of holding at the centre. Its vast dominions and revenues were unprotected. Greek political leadership were engaged with Alexander abroad. Its armies were tied up in Asia. No ruler after Alexander’s death in 323 BC was in a position to consolidate the conquests or overcome Greek infighting. In 306, BC, Rome allied with Carthage against the Greeks. Over the next 150 years, Carthage and Rome battled Greece, conquered Sicily and attacked each other. After three Macedonian wars and the war with Antiochus the Great of Syria, Rome established itself as a prime power.

Rome then turned its attention to other challengers, most notably, Carthage. Scipio’s armies, engaged Carthage in the Second Punic war (218-203) - and Carthage thereafter, was militarily, a spent force. Over the next 50 years, Carthage declined militarily - but prospered economically.

And Rome…

In 150 BC, controlling much of Alexander’s empire, Rome decided that no one must be left to challenge its power. Cato the Elder, influenced the Roman Senate and pushed for Delenda est Carthago(”Carthage must be destroyed”). An army under consuls Manius Manilius and L.Marcius Censorinus was sent to destroy Carthage, militarily, a shell of its former self. Carthage offered to surrender and deposited all its armour and armament. Roman generals refused to accept the surrender.

Carthage re-armed to defend itself. Roman generals could not make much headway. Finally, the Roman senate sent a descendant of Scipio Africanus (of the Second Punic War), Scipio Aemilianus - and in 146BC, Carthage was defeated. Carthage city was destroyed, its fields plowed and salted, so that the city would never come up again. 50,000 residents of Carthage were enslaved. In parallel, in 146BC, Corinth suffered a similar fate. Final tally during the Punic Wars over 200 years - 10 lakhs people (1million).

Spartacus

50 BC. Alexander had passed into mythology. Romans had taken complete hold of the Alexandrian Empire. Millions (men, women and children) were enslaved. Swollen by revenues from the inherited Alexandrian territories of Asia Minor; by loot and conquests from Europe, Roman society was rolling in wealth. Nearly a million slaves toiled to keep Roman population well fed and in luxury.

On the other side of the world, Alexander’s conquests had increased trade manifold. Indo Roman trade flourished. Greco-Roman currency, laws started at Indian borders and led right to the heart of the world’s largest and most prosperous market. A ‘merchant prince’, Chandragupta Maurya and a Brahmin minister, Kautilya Chanakya, with the support of the 16 mahajanapadas (principal ruling Indian federations) had united most of Indian subcontinent. The most famous of this dynasty, Ashoka (The Great) started the spread of Buddhism.

With rapid economic growth, also came rapid change in social differences. In Rome the differences were political (slaves and master) and in India it was economic and social. In Rome this sparked the Spartacus revolution. 100,000 slaves mutinied and were led by Spartacus. After many battles between 72BC-71BC, Spartacus and his slave legions were defeated. 6,000 slaves were crucified on the main Roman highway - the Via Appia.

Ustashe Cleansing

Ustati in slav languages means “to rise”. 1939, Italy, supported and created the Croat Ustashi Army made up Croats. This army reached a size of upto 100,000.

After Hitler’s sweep across the Balkans, a Nazi puppet government of Ante (Anton) Pavelic, headed the “Catholic State of Croatia.” The Pavelic regime supported “Clerical Fascism”-a mix of Catholic religiosity, Anti-Semitism and authoritarian politics. Mussolini’s Italy and Nazi Germany’s “Ausland” department assisted Ante Pavelic and his Catholic terrorists to set up a dictatorship. Ante Pavelic was declared Poglavnik - or what we better know as Fuhrer. Archbishop A. Stepanic established a Croat Separatist Movement and seized power.

They had a simple one point agenda - One third to be converted from Orthodox Christians to Catholic Christianity; one third to be killed and one third to be expelled . Their allies - Before and during the WWW2 - Italy, Germany and The Vatican. More than 10 lakh were put in concentration camps - and most died.

After WW2, Marshal Tito curbed the Ustashi - and the USA embraced these Ustashi to “fight communuism”. After death of Marshal Tito and collapse of the Soviet Empire, these groups were sent back - and the old massacres restarted.

Final tally - More than 20 lakh people killed.

Mau Mau

Post WW2, Churchill was the British Prime Minister from 1950. Kenya became the new jewel in the depleted British crown. The crown princess (the current queen) celebrated the end of war, with a well publicised holiday (1952) at a tree top lodge in Kenya. Churchill resisted the “liquidation of Her Majesty’s empire …” and “winds of change” were yet to blow across Africa.

Kenyan de-colonialisation movement was symbolised by a Kikiyu tribesman, Kamau wa Ngengi, who later took the surname, Kenyatta (from the Kikuyu word for a type of beaded belt he wore) and the first name Jomo - Jomo Kenyatta. Meanwhile, inspired by Gandhiji’s success in India, 1950 saw, at a joint meeting of KAU and Kenya Indian Congress at Nairobi, Trade Unionist Makhan Singh’s resolution for freedom for East Africa being passed. In 1952, Jomo Kenyatta was arrested in ‘Operation Jock Scot’ with 182 other African leaders.

The Kikiyu tribe, considered relatively less aggressive (compared to the Masais) and well settled in agriculture, were provoked to revolt by loss of their lands to white settlers. They formed the Land and Freedom Army and what followed was a 11 year guerilla war, which descended very soon into brutality - and reminded some of Nazi ways of Joseph Mengele. The British and the Western press called this the Mau Mau uprising in a derogatory manner.

Final c