The Maasai villager:
Clad in his archetypical warrior armor – a Detroit Pistons winter jacket. I think a Golden State Warriors’ jacket would have been more fitting but irony can’t always be perfect.
Thinking the jacket a bit out of place in East Africa, I asked the fellow wearing it if he knew what “pistons” meant and he shrugged. I said “timu ya basketball [meaning: basketball team]” and he was lost. I then said in Swahili, “ya know, like Michael Jordan” and he smiled in clear recognition.
I wonder if the Maasai admire MJ for his “Airness” or if they think he’s an inferior jumper?
On a related note, I was jumping rope in my driveway one evening and the Maasai security guard outside my house witnessed this, approached me, and the following conversation took place, in Swahili:
Guard: Jump!
Me: I am jumping.
Guard: No, c’mon, jump high.
Me: I’m trying.
Guard: Ha. Jump 40 times.
Me: You’re kidding.
Guard: Jump 40 times!
Me: Fine …
Guard: …1, 2, 3, … 40.
Me: Ok, now you jump 40 times.
Guard (with a big smile): Ok!
At this point I was too humbled to say anything and I walked off in embarrassed shame. But then I realized how my traditional dance compares to his traditional dance.
Looks like a winter Pistons jacket, what kind of weather are we looking at here?