Mama is delighted that everything has gone well. Now it’s time to plan the traditional Samburu wedding. Apart from anything else we have to build our own manyatta because after the wedding we wouldn’t be allowed to live in her house. Now that I’m free from red tape I stop thinking about having a proper house and ask Lketinga to find the best women to build us a nice, big manyatta. I can fetch branches with the Land Rover, but I don’t know how to build a hut. We can pay them with a goat. Quickly four women, including his sister, volunteer to build our manyatta. It’s to be twice the size of Mama’s and taller, so that I can almost stand up inside.
The women spend ten days on it, and I can hardly wait to move in. The hut will be approximately sixteen feet by eleven. First they mark the outline with thick posts around which willow branches are woven. The interior will be divided into three: the fireplace right in front of the entrance with a support to hang pots and cups. Then five feet in there’ll be a woven partition wall. Half of the space behind that is for my darling and me, with a cowhide on the ground and then a straw mat and on top of that my striped Swiss woollen blanket. We’ll hang the mosquito net over our sleeping area. Opposite will be a second sleeping area intended for two or three visitors, and right at the back, where their heads would be, a rack for me to hang my clothes.
The bare bones of our super hut go up fast. The only thing missing now is the plasterwork – cow dung, which still has to be delivered. As there are no cows in Barsaloi we drive over to Lketinga’s half-brother in Sitedi and load up the Land Rover with cowpats. We have to make three trips before we have enough.
Two thirds of the hut is plastered inside with the dung, which soon dries in the heat. One third and the roof are plastered on the outside so that the smoke can seep out through the porous roof. It’s riveting watching the construction work. The women smear the dung on just using their hands and laugh at my turned-up nose. When it’s finished we have to wait a week before moving in so that the dung can harden and lose its smell.