Interviewer(s): I004
Interviewee(s): P456

I004: How are you Mother? How are your children?

P456: I am fine; we are all fine, thank you.

I004: When were you born?

P456: We are not educated so I am not sure what year.

I004: Do you know how old you are?

P456: About thirty years old.

I004: Where were you born and brought up?

P456: In Mela.

I004: I would like to understand the family structure while you were growing up living with your parents, or with other siblings. What was the family structure like? Parents and children, or parents children and uncles and cousins or did you all stay in one home?

P456: We stayed altogether, uncles and other relatives but the family has since separated with my parents and my younger sibling and my children.

I004: What led to that separation of the family?

P456: It is just life I suppose. All just went their separate ways and life went on that way.

I004: As you were growing up, what would you say were the responsibilities of boys and girls? Let us start with the boys, what tasks would you see them do along with the men?

P456: My father would plant as would my mom and struggle to provide for the family. We did not have much, only had one cow and also planted maize in our farm. We grew up on that, I got married but now I am back to my father’s house.

I004: And what about the women? Besides planting, what other tasks did the women perform?

P456: Picking firewood, fetching water and cooking.

I004: What about you young girls when you were young?

P456: Sweeping, collecting firewood, fetching water, cooking and washing dishes.

I004: And what about the boys? What did they do?

P456: They herded the animals.

I004: As you were growing up, did any of the children go to school?

P456: No. No one did. We are only just realizing the importance of that nowadays so we have started taking our children to school.

I004: Regarding foods, what foods would you say were eaten regularly in your family as you were growing up?

P456: Ugali, pounded maize and boiled fresh corn on the cob.

I004: And what foods were rarely eaten?

P456: Nothing else only if ugali was not available then we would eat the pounded maize.

I004: What about rice?

P456: Yes we would eat rice but not daily maybe once or twice.

I004: What foods were prepared specifically for certain family members like mothers or children and nobody else would eat it?

P456: Porridge, tea and milk for children.

I004: While you were growing up, what were your sources of food supply?

P456: My father as I mentioned earlier would plant maize which we would use for food. Although we are better off now as we have cows which we can sell to buy more food and we are planting in addition.

I004: Besides what you got from planting, did you buy food as well?

P456: No my father would not buy food. He would just struggle and plant maize.

I004: What about traditional vegetables or fruits did you used to eat those?

P456: Yes we did some vegetables and greens you would not even know.

I004: Which ones?

P456: Jute mallow, matanga (a weed that grows near the cowshed) so we used to pound the ‘matanga’ weed and mix with jute mallow and cook. Others were beans and also cowpeas. But beans we would buy as we did not plant beans.

I004: What other vegetables would you buy besides beans then while you were growing up?

P456: Tomatoes. We were buying tomatoes from a place called Kololo, or from farmers, tomatoes were many those days.

I004: Those days when you were young, who would make the decision in your home over what foods to buy and what foods to sell?

P456: My father and my mother would decide that?

I004: And what about the money obtained from sales, who would decide on how that money would be utilized?

P456: My mother.

I004: While you were growing up, what would be used to determine that one has grown up? Say a boy growing up and can now be referred to as a young adult?

P456: The changes in the body and the age.

I004: And what about with the girls, what changes would you observe that you would say a girl has transitioned to become a young woman?

P456: The observation of menstruation period.

I004: And at what age would they be celebrated with song and dance to mark the beginning of adolescence?

P456: At age of fifteen or fourteen.

I004: And what would trigger these ceremonies? Start with the male child.

P456: Age between say fourteen and seventeen.

I004: And as for you, what marked your entry into adulthood?

P456: When I gave birth.

I004: We are moving now to the next section regarding family make up. You were born and brought up in Mela, who do you live with here?

P456: With my parents, my children and my younger sibling.

I004: Where is your husband?

P456: My husband passed away sometimes back, I struggle on my own for a while but eventually I had to come here to live with my parents.

I004: What would you say is your main economic activity?

P456: My father provides for me and for my children as well. He has no other children besides my sibling and me. He works hard to provide for all of us. He goes out to try to get some money, we also farm. We also sell one or two cows and buy flour.

I004: What is your main income generating activity?

P456: We have just started selling milk this year. Interviewer	How is the lifestyle you lead now different from when you were growing up?

I would say it was better when we were growing up. Because we were children, we were not aware of what was going on around. But now I see my children suffering.

I004: Tell me more about the change in lifestyles now and when you were younger

P456: Yes there has been a change because we are educating our children. My eldest went to school and completed the studies. We are also planting from which we get food, we can also sell one of our cows to source additional food supplies and we are also selling milk.

I004: Tell us about the responsibilities of men in your community?

P456: Well I cannot really say as I do not have a man to care for my children.

I004: What about the responsibilities for women?

P456: Here in the home we fetch water, collect firewood and planting.

I004: How do you handle the role of a man for your children?

P456: I plant, I sell milk and I take my children to school.

I004: You mentioned you have six children. How many girls and how many boys?

P456: Four girls and two boys.

I004: What are the responsibilities of the boys in your house?

P456: My boys are the two youngest children, they just stay at home. The elder ones are my daughters.

I004: What responsibilities do your girls have in the home?

P456: They go to school, fetch water, and collect firewood and also clean dishes.

I004: Have the roles for children changed nowadays from the roles you had growing up?

P456: No, it is the same.

I004: People in Mela have been talking about the change in diet. Nowadays Maasai eat eggs, fish, chicken and chips with eggs; do you all eat these foods?

P456: No, not all people. Some eat eggs; some eat a lot of chicken but not all of us.

I004: The cooking methods have also changed, talk about those changes, for example nowadays people prefer food which is fried so you do not just boil foods.

P456: Yes, nowadays we fry our foods, for celebrations or even at home, nowadays I fry the foods I prepare.

I004: What are some examples of foods you now cook differently?

P456: We add onions and tomatoes when cooking rice; we add vegetables and potatoes too.

I004: What made you change your method of preparation?

P456: When we go to celebrations we experience good food, some made by The Swahili people and we adopt the style of cooking and ingredients.

I004: What other reasons?

P456: None. In the past we did not know, but now that we do we cook in that way.

I004: What about now that your children are educated, is that part of the reason for the change?

P456: Yes. Like cleanliness and also as you cook they observe and learn how to cook just like you.

I004: How about a change in the system of life, before you were just herders and now you plant food crops as well, do you think this is a contributing factor to the changes in diet?

P456: No. I do not think so.

I004: Why do you say that?

P456: Because we used to farm in the past, it is not like we the Masaai have started farming nowadays

I004: What about the availability of food, could that be a factor?

P456: We lost many of our animals in the recent drought, which made us to sell some animals and buy other foods which were not available.

I004: How have these changes impacted your lives? Respondent	We were eating better foods and the children eat well.

Let us discuss about milk and its availability. Is milk of importance to you?

P456: Yes, very much.

I004: Why?

P456: It is important to the Maasai and especially the children. If we do not give the children milk every day their body will be weal and thin. I milk the cow, add a little water and give my youngest child who is about ten months now.

I004: What happens if you do not add water to the milk?

P456: The child will have a protruding stomach.

I004: What is the benefit of milk to the family?

P456: It is important because we have it with ugali and we add it to our vegetables too.

I004: How about when you sell it, do you gain income?

P456: Yes it does because nowadays I sell milk and get money.

I004: Why do you add milk to your vegetables?

P456: Sometimes if we do not have oil, we add milk and it is all the same, we use it to add stew to our foods just the way Swahili people add water to stew us we add milk.

I004: We have heard that in Mela in February there was a milk shortage and the price of milk went up, what do you think caused the shortage?

P456: The drought, it caused the pastures to dry up.

I004: What about other factors that contributed to the shortage of milk?

P456: It is only too much sun which causes the place to dry up so the cows did not have enough pasture that is the only thing that causes the shortage of milk.

I004: Let us discuss the purchasing of food items for the home. Who buys the food in the home?

P456: My father and I. We buy maize, rice, some days my children have maandazi and tea as well as cassava.

I004: Who decides what food items to buy?

P456: My father.

I004: How is the information conveyed on what to buy?

P456: We normally discuss it with my younger brother and my mother. We discuss and agree to sell a cow, my brother will sell it and when we get the money we all discuss with our father on how to utilize it.

I004: What foods used to be readily available in the past but are not anymore nowadays and vice versa?

P456: The same foods are still available today.

I004: How do you determine what you will cook for your family on a daily basis?

P456: I just wake up and decide what to prepare for them.

I004: Do your children ask you to prepare certain foods sometimes?

P456: Yes and I do.

I004: Did you ever experience drought and hunger when you were young?

P456: Yes a very long time ago, in the year 2000.

I004: What did they say caused the drought?

P456: It was said to be very hot sun.

I004: During that time, what did your parents do to feed their families?

P456: They would sell charcoal or firewood and buy things like potatoes.

I004: What about selling cows, was that an option?

P456: We did not have cows to sell by then.

I004: What about now, what causes the food shortage that forces you to sell some of your animals to buy food, what causes that drought?

P456: We do not really know the cause.

I004: Before you combated the hunger by selling charcoal and firewood and nowadays you combat it by selling cows, why do you think is the difference?

P456: It is better situation now to have to sell the cows than to struggle with charcoal and firewood.

I004: Who would you say is most affected by the need to look for alternative food supplies is it the children or your mother or your father?

P456: I would say my father and my mother because we were young children we did not know what they were going through to provide food for us. But nowadays I am also affected as I need to ensure my children have enough food to eat.

I004: Now to my last questions. How do you convey information in the village to others say regarding nutrition, health or foods.

P456: I do not know I have not been to any.

I004: You have never attended a seminar in the village or received advice on how to feed your children even at the clinic?

P456: Yes I have received such information at the clinic.

I004: What did they teach or advice you?

P456: They advise us not to feed too much oil to the children when we cook and to feed green vegetables to the children.

I004: How has this advice benefitted you?

P456: The advice on feeding the children more vegetables is good for building blood in the body as it is good advice.

I004: How would people of Mela get this useful information on nutrition and health and thereby improve the health of men, women & children in the community?

P456: They come from time to time and do house to house visits and give us such information and we are happy.

I004: How would we get more information out to more members of this community so that many more households can benefit? Would it be best conveyed through churches, hospitals or schools or by what other means?

P456: I think through the schools would be the best.

I004: And who would be the person to contact to organize that?

P456: The chairman or the village leader or church pastors or even the doctors in the hospital.

I004: Okay. I have completed my interview, thank you

P456: Thank you.