During my trip to Tanzania, I got to go to a Maasai village called Mairowa, which was about 6 hours away. It was incredibly beautiful and I was able to be fully submerged in a very different way of life that really stretched and challenged me. |
After our long drive from Arusha into the Maasai village, we put our things into a tiny little hotel called the Outpost. They told me, “The girls are waiting for you.” We jumped back into the Land Rover and drove to this tiny little one-room Maasai church where the girls of the village were all waiting. We moved our chairs into a circle around the room (I believe it to be more conducive to sharing) and I began to tell my testimony and why I do what I do. “Now you know about me. But I don’t know anything about you. Can you tell me what it is like for you to be a girl growing up in a Masaai village?”
A girl in the far corner stood up and began to speak. She asked me if I could help them to create a presentation to give to the community that would help them to stop Female Genital Mutilation (or FGM). I was speechless. What do you even say back to that? I mean obviously, the answer is YES. A THOUSAND TIMES, YES. But it is such a delicate and complex issue.
What we would love to do is to go to war against this atrocity- to slay it like the dragon that it is- but we have to do it with tact. Like so much of what we battle against worldwide for the sake of women- we have to do it with grace. We don’t want to create division in the village, and then leave the girls to fend for themselves. Instead, we need to pray, we need to educate, and instead of fighting against the community, we need to get the community on our side. This will be a process, but it will not only be changing for these girls but for the generations to come. The GWP is committed to walking this out with them together- doing whatever is necessary and whatever it takes.
Pastor Deo and Neema put on their annual camp in Marangu for children from all over Tanzania (including the kids from Mairowa). It was incredible to get to see the Maasai girls again! There were all kinds of programs and activities, including three hot meals a day for all of the kids! In our free time, I would paint their nails and they would do my hair 🙂
One of the daily programs for the girls was the GWP self-defense which Neema and I led together. We were able to do a majority of the moves, but since most of the girls did not have pants, they would have to just watch me do certain moves- such as the defense from a rape position. Even though they couldn’t physically do it, I told them to watch closely because I knew that if they just saw that there was an option for them, it would be extremely liberating. Some of them come from cultures of child marriages, FGM, or just extreme oppression. Even to just see that there is a way out of one of the scariest situations that you can find yourself in, can bring such a sense of hope and confidence and freedom.
