Matt's Neighborhood

Matt’s neighborhood consists of jungle behind his home, several families on one side, and the moon house on the other side. The moon house is the place where menstruating women sleep. Njuka communities sometimes require menstruating women to follow a system of rules about where they can go. Sleeping in a separate house is one of those rules. Basically, Matt is lucky enough to have a rotating group of women on their periods move in next door to him each week!

These are the neighbors’ houses.

This is the view when you step outside his front door

After touring his neighborhood, we went to the river to wash dishes, and fill buckets with river water. (He bathes in the river during the day, and bathes in the shower at night using buckets of river water.)

Matt showed me the spot on the river where he was stung by a sting ray.

“Now,” he instructed, “Wade into the river chest deep and fill up the buckets with water.”

“What about the sting rays?”

“I’m sure they’re gone. Stop standing in the shallow end. The deeper water is cleaner and better for filling buckets. There are lots of other people here.”

“Yes, but all the other people are in the shallow end. There is no one else in the deep end.”

As I waded deeper into the water, one of the women washing dishes noticed my hesitancy.

“San pasa?” (What’s wrong)

“Mi fede den chopula!” (I’m afraid of sting rays!)

“Ay! Yu mus waka so.” (You must walk like this) (Njuka is an English -based language, so if it looks like a word in English, it probably represents that word)  She showed me how to kick sand in front of me and drag my toes in the dirt. Apparently, sting rays run away when kicked from the side, and attack only when stepped on from above.

I dutifully collected the water in the deep part while dragging my toes carefully.

Matt, thanks for trying to kill me.