Super great morning! This is the morning when I met a Masai named Creato and traded my watch for one of his bracelets, and was even given permission to take half a picture of him! The Masai do not like their pictures taken! Whenever I ask, they always say "no". I suppose I don't blame them. Tourists are probably forever snapping cameras in their faces. It would probably get on my nerves, too.
I was riding along at a fairly slow pace because the road seemed a bit rough to me. Within a short time, everybody had passed me and I was back there alone, except for Jack who was behind me, riding sweep. We rode and rode and there were no villages. It was very pretty, but I like villages! After about 25 km on that road with no villages, I finally just sat down on a stone and ate an orange. Didn't sit long, though, before taking off again. Road about 15 more km and came to Creato's village! I rode into town and asked if there was anywhere I could get a cold coke. Was directed to this place where I sat down. Also sitting down were 2 Masais, one of whom, I later came to know, was Creato. I didn't talk with them at first, just smiled and nodded. I figure they get enough people gawking at them. But there were some cute kids watching me. So, I finally started to try talking with the kids. I said, "Hello, my friend, what is your name?" The kid then got shy and hid behind a pillar. This made Creato chuckle. Whenever the kid peeped his head from around the pillar, I'd say, "My friend, what is your name?" Eventually, Creato was talking to his fellow Masai buddy and saying, "My friend." I 
smiled at him and tried to translate "my friend" into Swahili, but I think I failed because he looked confused. But then he asked me, "My name is?" which I understood to mean, "What is your name?" I said, "My name is Leigh Anne. What is your name." He said, "Creato."
So, as long as he'd started the conversation, I wasn't going to let it die. I started admiring his jewelry, of which he had a LOT, and asking him questions about it. I examined the ankle bracelets shown in this photo very closely. I couldn't figure out how you get them off so I asked him (with pantomimes). He showed me that you CAN'T get them off! The only way is to take the jewelry apart. I asked, "You sleep with this?" He smiled and said, "Yes." I said, "You bath with this?" He smiled and said, "Yes." Another customer sitting at the same place was chuckling at our conversation. I was wearing my heart rate monitor, but Creato didn't know what it was. He thought it was a watch. He asked if he could have it. So, I had to show him that, in fact, it was monitoring my heart rate. I showed him by jumping up and down and he could then see the heart rate number go up. He thought that was super cool and wanted to try it, so I put the monitor on him and showed him his heart rate. By now, a small crowd of about 15-20 people were gathering. Not wanting every single person to try the heart rate monitor, I put it back on me.
Then, I showed him my real watch. He took off one of his very dangley bracelets and handed it to me. I tried it on and smiled a lot because I liked it! So, I took off my real watch and handed it to him. Despite the fact that it's a woman's watch, he put it on and seemed quite pleased. So we shook on the deal. We'd made a trade!
Then, finally, after we'd been chatting like this for about 30 minutes, I thought that we had a repore going so he might agree to let me take his picture. I took out my camera and asked. He was very very nice and smiled, but wagged his finger and said, "No." I was disappointed. I then asked if I could just take a picture of his feet, to remember that jewelry. He hesitated, but then he smiled and stuck his legs out for me to take their picture. And here is the picture of half a Masai!
I then left town, and eventually Jack caught up to me again, but he was very very sick. In fact, he seemed VERY sick. I was quite worried about him. I'm not the speediest person in the world, but I kept suggesting that he just sit or lie in the shade and let me go get the truck to come and get him. He kept refusing, but when we were just a few km from the truck, he finally said, "O.k.," and sat down. I tried to hussle as fast as I could but I was going uphill on rough road, and I was already tired. Nonetheless, I got to the truck within about 10-15 minutes and Thor was on top, tieing down bikes. I said, "Jack is sick. Can we go back and get him?" Thor said, "O.k.," but continued tieing bikes. After a few minutes, I said, "Jack is not far back, but he is really sick. Can we go get him now?" Thor said, "We'll go just now, now." But he continued tieing bikes. After another few minutes, I suggested that I would ride back down, just to let him know how close he was. He was only about 2 km back, albeit on a hill. Thor didn't like that idea because he wanted to tie my bike on the roof. So, I just sat down, feeling very edgy about Jack back there, puking and barfing and lieing on the road, waiting for the truck. I sat next to Beth (from Vancouver) and whispered, "I kind of wish we could go back right NOW, but I guess I've made that point, haven't I?" She said, "Yes, you have. I think they'll go soon." But then, Jack showed up, looking very tired but o.k. We all got in the truck and had a very, very long and bumpy ride into Dodoma. There were a lot of us sagging today - 17 bikes were put on top of that truck! Thor said that was a record!
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