I wanted to show you some of the Masai people that we met over our three day safari adventure. I never did get the hang of this guy’s name, mostly because he gave us his Masai name which started with a "K" and consisted of three or for syllables with lots of "o's" and "u's" in them. All of the rest of the guards or servers at the camp gave us an English name to call them like George, James, Jonas... So we'll just call this guy "K". I’ll tell you the rest of the story of K and how we came to spend our first evening together in the next blog entry...
K is wearing one of the typical Masai "blankets" although most of them have a lot of red and orange in them. He is also carrying the spear and around his waist is about a 30 inch machete. His ears have holes that have been stretched and you will see some Masai wearing ear jewelry while some just leave the lobes flopping in the wind... All of the Masai we saw were wearing simple leather sandals usually made out of cow hide.
In the middle of our second day at camp we visited a Masai village which was close by. We were greeted outside the village circle by the young men of the village. Before we could enter the village they danced for us and told us about some of their traditions. One young man was introduced to us as "the chief" (lower case intended). He wasn't really the leader of the village but when the young men become of age a group of them go out to hunt a male lion. The first one to put a spear into the lion gets to keep the mane and they make a hat out of it for him and from then on he is known as "the chief". They also explained that he may not be the one to put the final kill strike on the lion as the group of them all attack once the first spear is thrown. They tell us that the lions know and fear the Masai men. They wear the red and orange blankets while tending their herds of cattle or sheep so that the lions know to stay away. They were very serious in this. During the day sometimes the younger boys or even women or young girls tend the herds, especially when they are close to the villages. When you see the herds out in the middle of the Mara you will always see a Masai with his trademark blanket on. They also told us the hyena are scared of the Masai but one of them said he knew 4 men who had been attacked by hyenas so he wouldn't stand by that but he definitely said that the lions feared them.
Anyway, back to our dancers. The dance these guys did included a lot of singing and rythmic chanting (think Masai rap) and one or two of them at a time would go out in front of the line and start jumping. They started small at first and then they would jump higher. The man with the highest jump got the best girlfriend. They may have been Masai but there was definitely a lot of good-natured ribbing and commenting on each others jumping prowess....acted a lot like teenage boys in the US at that point...of course they weren't wearing Nikes...most of them removed their sandals before they started jumping, its not official unless you do it barefoot!
After the dancing they told us a bit about the Masai village itself. The village is surrounded by a circular fence made out of sticks and twigs. Inside this enclosure are about a dozen homes. The homes are all built by the women...several times we were told that once the men marry, they sit around and tell stories while the young men and children tend the animals and the women do just about everything else...they obviously haven't been "westernized"...and no, Larry, we are not moving to Africa!
This woman was working on the construction of the new village about 50 yards from the existing one. Gotta tell you, I remember being grossed out when I got cow manure on my gloves or my jeans....can't imagine mixing this stuff up with my hands, plastering it on the inside and the outside of the walls, and then living inside of it....
Once the home is constructed it is split up into three different areas. The first "room" as you walk into it is for the baby calves....yes, that's right. At night they bring the cattle into the village and they stay in the middle of the grounds while the homes make a circle around it and then the fence surrounds the homes. Needless to say, smell of "cow" is quite potent...did I mention we were there at about noon....whew! We stepped into one of the homes and sure enough, there were two baby calves just lying in the shade of their little abode. The next "room" is a store room where they keep supplies and food and finally the last room is the largest. On each side of the room is a small window and a bed made of sticks and cow hides. The area in between the bedroom areas is the kitchen with a smoldering fire smack dab in the middle of it....just imagine what my olfactory senses were experiencing about then....I only stayed inside for about 30 seconds. A couple of our folks stayed in there for about 5 minutes while the guide was explaining everything to them...bless their polite little hearts!
Once we were inside the village the "mamas" of the village came to greet us and do their own song and dance routine. By the way, I don't think I've mentioned it yet but in Kenya I was referred to as "mama" just about everywhere I went. The guys got quite a kick out of that but it really is a term of "respect"....really, it is...!
In this photo, the oldest mama is on the right and the youngest is on the left. I forgot to mention it above but after they did their singing for us, the guests were invited (dragged) into the dancing with both the young men and then the women. I have some interesting photos of both, but you will not see them posted on this blog....sorry Mom.
We also learned that most of the Masai have become Christian - praise God! We left our camp on Sunday morning about 9 am and drove by a couple of villages where we actually saw them having their church services, it was awesome. I snapped this one as we were jostling past in the van and even though its farther away than I had hoped it came out pretty clear given the circumstances. If you look carefully, you can see them gathered under the shade of the tree and a man standing up in front of them leading them in worship.
Mornings on the Mara are a special time. Its nice and cool and everyone and everything seems to enjoy this time of day. This was taken from our moving van as we headed out on our one and only morning game drive. If you ever get a chance to go to the Mara, you definitely want to do at least one morning drive. Hopefully in this photo, you can see the two Masai as they herd their cattle with the sun coming up behind them.
After a few hours, as the sun was getting higher and the animals were starting to settle into the shadiest spots they could find, we decided it was time for us to partake of our Bush Breakfast (for those of you who enjoy fishing in Canada, consider this the African equivalent of a Shore Lunch). Our cooks had packed a picnic breakfast for us complete with sandwiches, sausages, fruit, and even hot tea and coffee...all of this just a few feet away from where we had spotted the impala and some warthogs. Jonathan made sure we didn't stray far from the van, but he didn't really need to worry we were enjoying sitting in the cool shade and just basking in some down time!
As I mentioned earlier, we left camp on Sunday morning headed back to Nairobi. We had to drive about 3 hours on the rocky, dirt roads. Jonathan kept the Bullet cruising along at the bone jarring pace we had become used to on the ride down. However, it did take us about a half hour longer to get back to the paved roads...it seems they have Sunday drivers even on the Mara and they really don't care if they're holding you up....
Very interesting that you got a first-hand view of a working village. I'm wondering if they speak english or did the guide translate everything? And how about, with the many camps around the village, do they want/have the need/ or even care of modern life ... running water to say the least. The cattle looks pretty healthy. Did you see any small children? Oh I so many more questions.
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