10/11/10 Choice:Uchaguzi

Still Feeling a bit under the weather, I nonetheless joined a few volunteers on Monday morning for a guided hike through baboon country and a visit to a Maasai village. On the sunrise drive out to the preserve, I caught sight of my first giraffe, ibex, and elephant since arriving. Amazing! Baboons were pretty fun to visit with; our guides are part of a conservations research team, and because the baboons are accustomed to their presence they tolerated ours as well. Sweet.

There are baboons behind me, promise.

Had a great conversation this evening with three students from Dol Dol, the village nearest the baboon sanctuary. The first girls in their family to attend secondary school, they shared their career aspirations with me and what it's like to be a leader in education for their tribe. 

"Many Maasai don't like girls education; they think it makes them more likely to disappear from their family. What they don't know is that we are going to make so much money that we will lift our families too! In some years time, our family will be enriched and other families will not. They will see the value then." These girls are proud to be leaders, and to inspire their younger sisters to attend secondary school as well. They explained that if they weren't at Daraja right now, they would have been married to someone of their family's choosing. "When girls go to college, they end up picking their own husband!" To avoid jumping to conclusions, I verified whether that was a good thing or not-- which  received a resounding YES! from the girls. Point taken.


Again and again through our conversation, they repeated "when you educate a girl, you educate the world." Wow, ladies. Hats off to you.