Maps And Meeting The Maasai

The heat was rising and the walk from the jeep to the village was long for any pregnant woman soon to give birth. Sweat ran down her temples as she waddled to a small village with a bucket and ceramic bowl she took from her apartment in Nairobi, and a fine sieve she fit inside the bowl.

“What will we catch today?” she said to her stomach. “In the Philippines we used to catch a lot of fish, you know?”

She put her hand on her belly for a reply.

“Maybe we’ll get to go back home one day,” she said.

The village was a small one in Siaya County. Lena drove for hours, passing Nakuru along the way. She thought she might get as far as Lake Victoria the first time she made the drive. It was a Saturday, the only time she had to make the journey in search of the gold-rich villages of Western Kenya. None ventured to look in the Uradi Village of Siaya County. She was the only one. Lena came into possession of a small black notebook found by one of her husband James’s colleagues. James’s friend was an anthropologist specializing in what, she didn’t know. He was a daft man that paid little to no attention in anything he wasn’t interested in. Typical of men, she thought to herself. It was written in a native language and he thought it was nothing for some reason. She thought he might be the worst anthropologist in the world. The small black notebook was passed along to Lena, figuring a diplomat’s housewife may have more use for it.

She followed the map drawn in the book, which was never noticed by the foolish anthropologist. She occasionally talked to her round stomach which now had a sweat stain at the top where the stomach met her chest. She thought about how frustrating it was to be pregnant and always hungry and tired. She arrived at the pit she had been digging at, just on the outskirts of the Uradi village. It rained briefly and she set the little black on a cinder block and put the bucket on top of it. Some of the villagers would stare at her while she dug and picked at the earth. She sieved dirt and muddy water, looking for pieces of gold. Water covered her ankles and the ends of her dress dabbed themselves into the water. It began to rain again and she felt a strong kick in her stomach. Small pains became bigger pains and she felt another kick, or a punch. She couldn’t be sure. Her hands gripped her bony knees as she dropped the sieve and the bowl into the pool. She stood hunched over like tired footballer. She saw the due date in her mind, given to her and James at the early stages of the pregnancy. How could it be this early? She thought to herself. Her hands could barely leave her knees. She picked up the sieve again and kept shaking and shaking. The sun broke through the clouds, bringing heat and she could smell the clay and dirt baking under its rays. It was still raining lightly, each drop flicking way bits of dirt from the jagged stone before her. She balled her small fist beside it. The rock was just smaller than her fist, and she stood there with squinting eyes, and her bangs falling over her eyebrows. She lifted her dress up and wrapped the rock in her clothes and emerged from the small pit she spent months working on.

No one was able to see anything and thought she failed to find what she was looking for again. In one hand she held the small ceramic bowl and sieve, and in the other hand she held the dress and the rock.

“Come on, we can make it back,” she said.

She staggered as she felt more contractions.

“You can’t come out now. We came all this way and we got what we wanted.”

She felt another punch or kick. They didn’t have a name yet, but at that point she thought she would name the baby after Mike Tyson, after the boxer. She started driving back towards Nairobi but the pains increased. The faces of the villagers appeared to her and they were staring at her. The pain made her delirious and she wasn’t traveling back the way that she came, and before she knew it she was lost. She was certain the baby was coming. The pain moved every nerve in her body to grip the steering wheel tighter and make her foot heavier on the gas pedal. The engine labored. She was soaking wet with rain water and sweating, making the steering wheel slippery. She struggled to keep the jeep on the road. Time moved slower but she had driven for hours before she had to pull over. She had reached the Mau Region. The deep green forest was impossible to miss, even while she was in pain. She dug her feet into the floor mat and pushed to recline the seat. She locked the doors and prepared to push the baby out onto the floor mat. Her eyes were closed and she began pushing, taking breaths in between her pushes and gripping the door panel and the center consol. It was unbelievable how painful childbirth was, she thought.

“Are you going to come out? I’ve already stopped, so you better come out now. I’ll get you out,” she yelled.

Again she closed her eyes and pushed. When she opened them she saw four black faces looking inside of the jeep. She swore, and double-checked the locks on the door. Her mouth was open and they could see her breath against the glass. One of the people knelt down and tried to open the door. Lena could see that they were adorned with jewelry and their colorful cloths suggested they were Kenyan Maasai. She worried less, but struggled to open the door as the strength left her fingers. They helped her out of the jeep and one of the men carried her as they walked to a nearby village. They spoke in their language. Lena began saying the Lord’s Prayer and one of the men smiled, but tried to keep a straight face. She was still holding the rock in her dress. The men seemed cold and didn’t look at her legs, only keeping their eyes forward and their rungus at their sides.

They brought her to the village and set her down with an older woman inside a Inkajijik. Lena couldn’t understand anything they were saying, and it seemed to her that they were arguing and the woman pointed toward the entry to the Inkajijik. She was not welcome. Other women came inside and could see that Lena was pregnant. They talked amongst themselves, and even to Lena. She shook her head saying in English that she couldn’t understand them. The pain grew and she was ready for the baby to come out, but none of the women seemed willing to help. Lena’s eyes cringed and she roared until she was out of breath. Her eyes opened and still no one moved, instead looking at each other. She could feel herself opening up more and she leaned back, using one hand to uncover the rock she’d found. The small slivers of sunlight that crept through the Inkajijik shone on the golden rock. The woman said something in their language and Lena thought she saw greed itself in their eyes, as growing larger in their heads. She was paying for their help. She couldn’t deliver the baby on her own, and she was hours from Nairobi.

They took the rock and passed it from one pair of hands to the next until it left the Inkajijik. One of the women came forward towards Lenas legs and two others took her hands. They urged her on and she pushed until the head came out. She felt the backs of their hands against her thighs, meaning more of the baby was coming out. The baby was small, but not undersized, covered in blood and crying. Lena breathed a sigh of relief, but her mind was on the gold she had given up, and all of the times she drove for hours to that small village, sitting in the only pit she dug.

“You’re finally here,” she said to her baby as it was placed in her arms.

One of the women came forward and gently caressed the baby’s head. She looked at the baby, squirming and chirping, and she looked at Lena. She could see the stress in Lena’s face.

“You do not need the gold,” the woman said in English, looking at Lena. “You did not need it.”

The woman looked at the baby again, smiling.

They tried to make Lena comfortable. She could tell how important it was to them that a new life entered the world. They drank the blood of the recently slaughtered cattle in celebration of the birth. Although Lena wasn’t in a hospital with James for the birth of their son, she felt safe and warm. Night came upon them and the air became cold.