Going... Going... Ngong

"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong hills..."

This is the first line from Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen)'s book Out of Africa.  That farm is just a couple of miles from the Apostles of Jesus' headquarters, but the Ngong hills seem to follow me wherever I go in Kenya. 

This picture was actually taken from the porch of Karen Blixen's home here in Karen (no relation).  You can see the hills rising in the distance just above the tree line.  "Ngong" is the Maasai word for "knuckles", and that is truly what the resemble.  As I ride by, I will often hold up my fist, fingers facing away, and watch the green hills align with my hand.  Though the are visible from Karen, they rise much closer to Kiserian, where the Apostles of Jesus AIDS Ministry is headquartered.  I have marveled at them for many years now, but today I finally walked on their slopes. 

One of my friends here, Fr. Felix, made the suggestion that we go for a hike, and agreed that first thing Saturday morning would be best.  This being Africa, "first thing Saturday morning" was pretty close to 10, but that's part of life here.  We drove to the base of the Hills and parked in the dirt lot.  (This was after we spent an hour driving all over the base of the hills looking for the lot.  We found it, and it was a beautiful drive!)  I paid our admission to the park (800ksh), and we started walking up hill.

The first hour of our hike was actually on a hard dirt road, surrounded by, of all things, wind turbines.  We saw them in all phases: actively capturing the wind for energy, standing stoically on the hillside, and laying in pieces on the ground, waiting to be assembled.  This is a relatively new wind farm, though the first wind mills on the Ngong Hills were actually built in 1993 in partnership with the Belgian government.  They are no longer in operation, but have been replaced with new and improved turbines..  There are plans to expand this wind farm from 5.1MW to 25.5MW.  I don't actually know what that means, it's just what Google told me.  But it's gotta be a good thing.  Hurray for clean energy!

This being Kenya, there were no fences or restricted zones.  We walked among the windmills as an ant might walk among trees.  I have always found wind turbines strangely beautiful, a beauty augmented by the goats and cattle gently grazing at their feet and the gently sloping green hills. 

All this time were walking up and up and ever up.  We would point to the highest spot we could see and challenge each other just to make it that far.  Upon reaching it, we would suddenly a slightly higher point just a little distance away, and continue upward.  Finally, we reached the end of the dirt road, and came to an unmistakable cow path which led to the highest point we had seen yet.  We gamely soldiered on, only to be stopped by park security.  We were informed that if we wanted to trek onward, we were HIGHLY encouraged to hire a security escort to accompany us.  For 500ksh, I figured better safe than sorry.  We started up again (always up), with our new companion, a young man in army fatigues and a rifle.  He informed us that there are leopards and cheetahs in the trees on the Ngong Hills, and while they usually don't attack people, it has been known to happen.  Also, there are occasionally robbers.  (Best 500ksh I ever spent, as far as I'm concerned.)  The peak we were facing was getting more and more daunting as we got closer.  At this point, our escort, ever the font of information, told us that this is only the first Ngong Hill and that there are, in fact, seven.  This put many thoughts into my head, notably "What the hell were those hills we've been walking up for the past hour?" and "How many knuckles does a Maasai have, anyway?"  But we pressed onward and upward, agreeing that we were committed to climbing at least one hill. 

This picture does not do the hill justice.  That little bit right at the tippy top?  Basically vertical.

We conquered the summit of the first Ngong Hill, and were only very briefly tempted to attempt the second.  According to our guide, the hills get progressively higher as you go.  This boggled my mind, since you also cannot see the next hill until you have conquered the one before it.  The truth was, I didn't bring anywhere near enough water to even think about hiking the second hill, let alone all seven.  But the view was tremendous, the Great Rift Valley disappearing to the horizon on my right, the distant skyline of Nairobi to my left.  We soaked it in, then made our way back down the cow path, back through the Wind Farm Forrest, and back to our waiting vehicle. 

Maasai-land

There are many tribes that have traditionally lived in East Africa. Mazzoldi House in Kenya is in Kikewyu land, and the place where we stayed in Tanzania is traditionally Merian Land (I think- I'll have to verify). But the tribe who has had the most expansive territory and who has clung most successfully to their traditional way of life is the Maasais.

It's hard to explain what the Maasai people represent to Africans; they are almost hailed as the mascots of East Africa. While most of the tribes still exist in regards to family structure and geographical location, they have largely embraced modern life. The best analogy I can think of is the Amish in Central Pennsylvania/Ohio. Even the people who see them everyday still marvel when they see a horse-drawn buggy. Fr. Kamanzi comments every time we see a traditionally-clad Maasai boy driving a herd of cattle across a dusty plain.

The Maasai live in Bomas, that is, enclosed clusters of huts made from wood, mud, and cow dung. They practice polygamy (we passed one Boma of a man who has 50 wives!) and observe ancient circumcision rituals, for both boys and girls. This is a major point of contention with the modern world, as female circumsision, or "Female Genital Mutilation" as it is officially called, has been illegalized in both Kenya and Tanzania.

It is beautiful, seeing the Maasai people in villages, swathed in their red-plaid cloths, their long earlobes heavy with beaded jewelry. Every souvenir shop seems to have an exhaustive supply of Maasai necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, spears, shields, shoes, blankets, figurines... They are a graceful and proud people, and the deservedly the pride of East Africa.