baptism day with the maasai(1)

7/22/2019 Baptism Day With the Maasai(1)

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Baptism Day with the Maasai

By Joel Hindson

(The Daily Telegraph, 04.10.2013)

• Read the text carefully, paying attention to the underlined words. Can

you figure out their meaning just by looking at their context?

• Have a look at the explanations below. Look at each word’s

pronunciation and meaning.

• Try to make a sentence with each new word. Why not, write a short

composition using these words (you can re-tell the story or invent a new

story).

It was baptism day in Kimuka village, Kenya. The confining, corrugated walls of the

church were replaced by Maasailand’s flat expanse. The parched earth was brick red,and scattered with stones and boulders. Young acacia trees jutted out of the ground at

every angle, their green canopies littering the ground with barbed thorns tough

enough to pierce the sole of any shoe. The sky was a tranquil blue, the Kenyan sun

oppressive, beating down on our party as we silently trod the dusty trail to the nearby

watering hole.



The village pianist and two young Maasai girls, armed with microphones, set up camp

beside the water’s edge. A breeze taunted the villagers, all sprawled in any available

shade.

Minutes later, the heat of the afternoon was long forgotten and the baptisms were

under way. The congregation was alive and on its feet. The tinny, alien tones of the

keyboard were cranked right up, three simple chords bouncing around in a repetitive

sequence that filled the clearing with energy. The two girls gave life to the music,

hollering simple refrains in Kimaasai and competing in volume with the overzealouspianist.

Resplendent in patterned reds and blues, the Maasai men and women gathered around

the pond, hands in the air, swaying and clapping to the pulse of the music. Friends and

strangers danced, their shuffling feet possessed. The men whooped and whistled,

laughing boyishly, and the women sang as one, in response to the two girls.

The clearing was buzzing with energy and music as one villager, then another, then

another was led into the center of the pond. Then came my turn. Thoughts of leeches

and typhoid fever floated at the back of my mind as I waded into the opaque, muddy-brown water. Murmuring my assent to the vicar, I crossed my arms across my chest



and gazed up into the clear blue sky. Suddenly, my entire body was dunked

backwards and swallowed completely by the murky water. Everything slowed, and

the music became a dull, throbbing echo.

As quickly as it had been extinguished, the world, the music, and 100 whooping

Maasai rushed back to greet me. Dripping wet, seated on a sun-baked rock, I wasgiven a piece of paper on which is my new middle name, Leshan, Maasai for “rain”.

Vocabulary

To confine [k n-fain] = a restriction, a limita, a reduce

v. 1. To keep within bounds; restrict: Please confine your remarks to the issues at

hand.

2. To shut or keep in, especially to imprison.

3. To restrict in movement: The sick child was confined to bed.

To corrugate = a ondula, a gofra

v. [ˈk ɒrʊˌgeit]

to fold or be folded into alternate furrows and ridges

the house had a corrugated iron roof.

Expanse [iks’pense] = intindere (de pamint, de cer, de mare…)

n. wide and open extent, as of surface, land, or sky

…. The wide expanse of snowy fields…

To parch = a pirjoli, a arde

v. to make extremely dry, to become very dryThe midsummer sun parched the earth.

Parched = a. pirjolit, ars de soare: … the parched plains of India

To jut out [dʒʌt] (juts, jutting, jutted) = a iesi in afara

v. to stick out or overhang beyond the surface or main part; protrude or project

He had a sharp crooked nose jutting out of a lean dancer's face (Graham Greene).

A line of rocks jutted into the sea.

Canopy [ken -pi] = 1. acoperamint, baldachin; 2. umbra, bolta

n. 1. a covering, usually of cloth;

2. the uppermost layer in a forest, formed by the crowns of the trees

The leaves created a dense canopy that cut out much of the light.

To litter = v. a murdari, a impinzi

1. to make untidy by discarding rubbish carelessly

Selfish picnickers litter the beach with food wrappers.

2. to scatter about: littered towels all over the locker room.

n. serie de pui nascuti din aceeasi mama in acelasi timp: It was the finest puppy in a

litter of six.

To tread – trod – trodden



v. = to walk on, over, or along.

To form by walking or trampling: tread a path.

To taunt [tont] = a-si bate joc, a lua peste picior

v. to reproach in a mocking, insulting, or contemptuous manner

The bullies have been taunting the little boy.

To sprawl [sprol] = a se intinde, a se labarta

v. to sit or lie with the body and limbs spread out awkwardly

Exhausted, he sprawled out on the couch.

Congregation = adunare religioasa

(Christianity) a group of persons gathered for worship, prayer, esp in a church

To crank up = a porni (cu manivela); a spori, a intensifica

to cause to intensify, as in volume or force: cranks up the sound on the stereo.

To holler [hol ] = to yell or shout

Resplendent [ri-splen’d nt] = a. splendid or dazzling in appearance, brilliant.

Leech = lipitoare n. Any of various chiefly aquatic bloodsucking or carnivorous

annelid worms of the class Hirudinea, of which one species (Hirudo medicinalis) was

formerly used by physicians to bleed patients and is now sometimes used as a

temporary aid to circulation during surgical reattachment of a body part.

To dunk [d ʌ k] = a (in)muiaŋ

v. to plunge into liquid, immerse

I dunked my biscuit in the cocoa.

To throb = a pulsa, a palpita, a zvicni

v. to beat rapidly or violently, as the heart; pound: My head was throbbing…

to vibrate, pulsate, or sound with a steady pronounced rhythm: boat engines

throbbing.

Whoop n. [wup] = strigat de bucurie; a striga de bucurien. a loud cry of exultation or excitement; v. to cry with joy

He whooped with delight when he found out the results.

Whoopee! = Ura!

Grammar:

• Look at the verbs in the above text; the narrator uses Past Tense Simple to

express actions that happened in the past.

• Now try to fill in the spaces with the correct form of the verb in past tense (donot forget the changes of the verbs: look – looked; play – played; fly – flied;



cry – cried, watch – watched, stop – stopped, sob – sobbed).

• There are also irregular verbs (say-said-said, put-put-put, cost-cost-cost, swim-

swam-swum, etc). See the list of irregular verbs here:

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/irregular-verbs

When Abby (be) _______(1) seven years old, she (do, not, like) _______ _______

_______(2) piano lessons. She (do, not, like) _______ _______ ________(3) to

practice, and sometimes she even (cry) _______(4) when it (be) _______(5) time to

practice. Finally, she (stop) _______(6) taking lessons.

Some of Abby's friends (do, not, quit) _______ _______ _______(7) their lessons.

They (continue) _______(8) to play. After much practice, they (learn) _______(9) to

play very well.

About ten years (pass) _______(10) before Abby (become) _______(11) interested in

music or the piano again. After she (graduate) _______ (12) from high school, Abby(decide) _______(13) that she (want) _______(14) to study music in college. She

(call) _______(15) the lady who (teach) _______(16) her when she (be) _______(17)

a little girl. The lady (say) _______(18) she would teach Abby again.

The lady (need) _______(19) someone to help her daughter with homework. Abby

(say) _______(20) she would help with homework in exchange for lessons. Because

of this, the piano lessons (cost) _______(21) her nothing!

She (work) _______(22) very hard to catch up. Now she is making good progress.

Soon she will go to college, majoring in music.

Answer Key:

1) was 2) did not like 3) did not like 4) cried 5) was 6) stopped 7) did not quit 8)

continued 9) learned 10) passed 11) became 12) graduated 13) decided 14) wanted

15) called 16) taught 17) was 18) said 19) needed 20) said 21) cost 22) worked

baptism day with the maasai(1)

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