The Maasai of Kenya

Hello there.  Dianne here.  So, we had the opportunity to visit a tribe of Maasai who live near Amboseli, where we went on the safari.  This is how we traveled, both on the safari, and also to their village.

Our first view of the Maasai village.  The women(!) build their mud huts, and in a circle for protection.  The inside of the circle is for their cows.  The more cows a person owns, the richer he is.  As Caleb mentioned earlier, the Maasai believe that all the cows in the world belong to them.  That's a lot of cows. You can just see the roofs of the huts over the brush that they (the women) place all around the huts for protection from wild animals.  Traditionally, the Maasai are semi-nomadic.  This tribe, however, has lived here 23 years.  You can see how very dry it is, and the black rocks are from a volcanic eruption.  They had lost many cows due to the drought they are experiencing.  All that we saw in the village appeared dusty due to the sand and dust everywhere.  The rainy season begins in April.

This is why they need protection:  The picture is a bit dusty, but there happened to be two giraffes (though they COULD have been lions), if you look closely, that were hanging out near their huts at the time I took this picture.  All manner of wild animals roam the African savannah.

These guys were the official welcome committee and came out to the van to greet us.

Following our first greeting, several of the village men and women performed a welcome ceremonial dance, which they invited us to participate in.  We would have been rude guests not to oblige: 

It is Caleb's turn to jump as high as he can with his hands to his side, stick in hand, with the Maasai warrior next to him.  Note Caleb's size next to him.  They are both off the ground about the same amount.  The winner is the one who can jump the highest, and WOW, could those Maasai jump!!

Here they are teaching Daniel about their sticks and how they use them.  Only the MEN carry sticks, and they are hand-made, many of them carved, and used for any number of things, including jumping, herding cattle, drawing in the sand (we watched the children doing math in the sand with the teacher using a stick to write the problem, then a child would come up, take the stick, and draw the answer in the sand.)  Note many of the warriors are smiling.  They seemed a very content people.

Everyone got a turn.  My hair demonstrates why the women shave their heads.

I love this picture.  Especially the hands.  And their jewelry.  They gave Tori a headdress, and thought it important that she and I have some of their jewelry.  We must have appeared seriously under-jeweled.

After their kind welcome, the chief (on right) sat down with us under a tree and told about his village...their customs, beliefs, heritage, etc.  A couple of points of special interest were the fact that culturally, even though they were Christian, they could have more than one wife.  This chief has two, and each wife has a separate hut (thankfully).  Their shoes are hand-made by them, and made of old tires, so they last, well, forever, I guess.  You can see the hedge behind Daniel and Tori.  It is protecting their huts from the cows within an inner circle of the hedge.  Most of the Maasai clothing has red in it because many of the large animals that would kill their cows, do not like red. You can see the headdress the ladies gave Tori, in this picture.

As the chief was talking to us, these two preteen girls walked by...it is the girls' responsibility to find, gather, and haul wood to their homes for the open fires they have, over which they cook their food.

Speaking of wood, these guys showed us how they start a fire by rubbing two sticks together.  We were amazed, and Caleb and Daniel, being the Eagle Scouts they are, carefully noted their technique.

The chief invited us inside one of his two huts.  We were so appreciative of his wife to let us come in.  It was very dark inside, and made up of three small rooms, the first being the room in which they build the fire over which to eat.  It has a small hole in the roof to let the smoke escape.  The chief is sitting in the doorway between this room and his bedroom, and we are in the main room. You can see clothes hanging up in his bedroom, so they will not get bugs nor as much dust in them.

 

This is the master bedroom.  The chief and his wife sleep here on the soft cowskin seen on the ground.  Their kids have a small room off the other side of the main room.  

The ladies all laid out their hand-made goods for us to admire, and purchase if we'd like.  As I mentioned, they were keen on showing us jewelry for our oh! so bare necks, wrists, fingers, ankles, and toes. 😉

They gathered the kids from the tribe and they put on a recitation for us.  It was precious!  The chief (on the left--note the machete around his waist, and you get a better look at those comfy (and durable) sandals.  See the stick in his right hand?  That was what he used to draw the math facts in the sand, like 10 X 10, and then the children would raise their hand if they knew the answer, and they would come up and use his stick to draw the answer in the sand.  And they sang, and OH! did they sing--songs in swahili and songs in English.  Since this is a Christian tribe, they sang a song or two about Jesus as well.  The man on the right in the white shirt is their school teacher at the one-room schoolhouse.  This view also offers a nice look at the huts.  The mud on the outside is mixed with cow dung, which waterproofs the huts.

This little girl in the yellow dress...precious...

High fives around for a well-done performance.  We will forever remember our time with the Maasai.