The White Masai Read Online Free PDF Page A

into that man’s handsome face. He gives me his beaming smile and says, ‘Hello!’ I’m glad I’ve got my sunglasses on. He spends ages looking at me as if he’s studying my face. After a while he asks after Eric and Jelly and rather awkwardly tells me we’re invited to tea with Priscilla this afternoon. Lying on my back I look up into two soft, hopeful-looking eyes. When I don’t immediately reply, his expression changes, his eyes get darker and a proud glimmer shines in them. I struggle with myself and then ask what time we should come.
    Eric and Jelly agree, so at the arranged time we’re waiting at the hotel entrance. After about ten minutes an over-filled matatu stops and two long legs emerge, followed by Lketinga’s long body. He’s brought Edy with him. I know the way to Priscilla’s from my first visit; my brother casts somewhat sceptical glances at the apes playing and eating along the route.
    Seeing Priscilla again is great. She gets her little spirit cooker out and makes tea. While we’re waiting the three of them talk together, leaving us looking on, not understanding anything. Every now and then someone laughs, and I get the impression that I’m being talked about. We leave after about two hours, and Priscilla tells me I’m welcome to come with Lketinga any time.
    Although I’ve paid for two more weeks at the hotel I decide to move out and lodge with Priscilla. I’ve had enough of eating without him and going to the disco. The hotel management warns me that I’ll end up without any money or clothes. Even my brother is more than sceptical, but he still helps me to carry all my stuff into the bush. Lketinga carries my big travelling bag and seems happy.
    Priscilla has cleared out her hut and moved in with a friend. When it gets dark and we can no longer hold off the moment of physical contact, I sit down on the narrow little cot and wait with pounding heart for the minute I have longed for. Lketinga sits down beside me and all I can see is the mother-of-pearl button on his forehead, the ivory rings in his ears, and whites of his eyes. All of a sudden everything happens at once. Lketinga presses me down onto the cot, and already I can feel his erection. Before I can even make up my mind whether or not my body is ready for this, I feel a pain, hear strange noises and it’s all over. I feel like bursting into tears of disappointment. This was not at all what I had expected. It’s only now that I realize that this is someone from a completely alien culture. But my thoughts don’t get any further than that when suddenly the whole thing happens again. It happens again several times during the night; and after the third or fourth time we ‘do it’, I give up trying to uses kisses or caresses to prolong the experience. Lketinga doesn’t seem to like that.
    At long last day breaks, and I wait for Priscilla to knock on the door. In the event it’s around seven before I hear noises outside. I peek out and find a basin full of water in front of the door. I bring it in and wash myself thoroughly; I’m covered in red marks from Lketinga’s body paint.
    He’s still asleep when I go to see Priscilla. She’s made tea and offers me some. When she asks me how my first night in a real African home was, it all comes tumbling out. Obviously embarrassed, she listens quietly and then says: ‘Corinne, we’re not the same as white people. Go back to Marco. Come to Kenya for holidays, not to find a partner for life.’ She has learned that white men treat their women well, even at night. Masai men are different; what I have just experienced is normal. Masai don’t kiss. The mouth is for eating, and kissing – she makes a face – is contemptible. A man never touches a woman below the stomach and a woman is not supposed to touch a man’s penis. A man’s hair and face are also taboo.
    I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I desire this wonderful man, but I’m not allowed to touch him. All of a sudden I