James our Maasai friend spent four hours with us at his village yesterday. We were welcomed to the village with the customary dance.  We then learned the logic of the Maasai village design.  A circular outer wall of six foot high thorns. An inner circle of huts. Another inner circle of thorns to enclose the livestock.  Inside the livestock circle are pens for milking. Next we learned about the medicines which I mentioned yesterday.  It was a 15 minute, well organized presentation which you can see on video upon return.  I failed to tell you that all Maasai have a circle on each cheek burned by a hot wire at the age of 4-5. This has two purposes. First is to prevent an eye disease, I believe trachoma. Simon thought the logic might be that it distracts the bacteria to the cheek from the eye.  The second reason is so they can be recognized by others when traveling Next, James demonstrated how to make a fire from cow dung, leaves, twigs, a piece of five inch flat wood, a piece of wood with 4 different sized hole in it, and a long stick twirled by two palms and good elbow grease. It took a total of two minutes including dung collection. Next we met his mother, Esther, and she gave us a welcoming bracelet and took us in her hut for tea with goat milk.  Huts are made of cow dung, sticks, paper, rope.  They have a tiny room after a right turn and a left turn from the four foot entry.  Then another turn into a room with a shelf and two beds. Jame’s mother has two mattresses since she has some stature in the community, as does James.  Otherwise, no bed. Esther is about 70 and is the local midwife, and for many decades she performed the ritual clitoridectomy on the girls prior to child bearing age.  Debbie Rooney,  Esther, Patrick, and James were the group who first developed and executed the campaign to have only the ceremony without the clitoridectomy a few years ago.   Her daughter was one of the first to avoid “the cut,” and it is now quite accepted.  Esther gave us a long speech over tea, expressing gratefulness for the visit and requesting that we not forget her, James, and her people when we return. Jambo