THERE'S ONE IN EVERY CROWD.

When we went to the village outside of Haydom, one of the women who came along was a very abrasive lady whose husband was with the Norwegian Embassy. She was asking rather rude questions to everyone, but you know how it is, you take these things with a grain of salt. When the young Totoga man came and posed for pictures with us, I asked the woman if she thought this fellow was Masai since he was wearing one of the red plaid shukas. She said:"Yes, yes, he is Masai" and the man who came with us said:"No, he is not." This lady insisted that he was and said:"Look at his robe and his stick, of course he is, just ask him."
The man said: "I did ask him--I asked him in Masai, he doesn't speak it, he speaks Swahili and he is Totoga."

I said, rather incredulously: "You speak masai?" (he had already told me he spoke English and French, and I knew he spoke Swahili since he was translating things for our translator.)

"Yes." he said "I am masai."

The lady then said: "What? You are masai? How come you don't have those big earlobes? Your body is awful large to be a skinny masai, can you jump like them? Let me see you jump."

He patiently said:"I was born in Arusha of 2 masai parents, there are cultural changes although my parents are still quite traditional. And yes, I can jump."

And he did.