Maasai Tribal Village Weekend – I am in Awe

Editors note: Jennifer R. is a current participant in the HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention Program in Tanzania. She will be working with us for the next six months. We look forward to receiving more posts from her throughout her time in Tanziania! Thanks for the post Jennifer!

 

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of traveling to a place that was utterly other-worldly. It was like I walked onto the Discovery Channel or into a National Geographic special. I am going to use this word a lot in this entry, but I am in utter awe of all that I witnessed, just utter awe. There are few times in life when you experience true awe, I spent an entire two days like that. It was magical, mysterious, mystifying, miraculous, shocking in a fabulous way, or in a Sidipi (said see-dee-PEE) way, which is the Maasai word for fabulous. My descriptions here will never do it justice. I just cannot describe the stirring in my heart that happened while we were out in uncharted territory. It was as if I was standing in the spot where the birth of the human species took place, watching it as it would have taken place at that moment in history. It was truly an experience of a lifetime.

A group of seven from GSC were invited to be guests of Isaya and his Maasai family at his tribal home, a Boma (family village) deep in the heart of the Maasai Tribal lands about an two hours outside of the Arusha city limits. I have written about Isaya before, he was a translator at my school during the weeks of HIV/AIDS Day Camp. He is a warrior and a tribe chief for the Maasai Tribe of Tanzania. He is also one of five Maasai warriors that ran the London Marathon last year to raise money and awareness for their clean water project. You can find more information at www.massaimarathon.org

Here is some general information on the Maasai. They have been living this tribal lifestyle on these lands of Tanzania and Kenya for hundreds and hundreds of years and have actively discouraged modernizing or changing their nomadic way of life. It was like I stepped back in time to watch people live before the dawn of modern civilization. The traditional Massai Lifestyle centers around their cattle which constitutes their primary source of food, but they do also grow maize quite a bit now. The measure of a A Maasai myth relates that God gave them all the cattle on earth, to be put into their keeping. They are a large but very close community that works together to raise the cattle and the children and cultivate the lands that they live on. The society is patriarchal and polygamist, the family we stayed with had 1 baba (dad), 2 mamas/wives, 20 watoto (children), 10 from each wife. They all live together on the compound of land called a Boma, along with all of the cows and goats. Maasai men’s wealth is in terms of his cattle and children. A herd of 50 cattle is respectable and the more children the better.  A man who has plenty of one but not the other is still considered poor by Maasai standards. 

The patriarch of the Boma is Isaya’s father. He has his own hut and each wife has her own hut.  The culture dictates that after a woman has given birth to more than 5 children, she gets to have her own hut to live in with the children.  They build each hut in 3 days.  The hut framework is formed of timber poles fixed directly into the ground and interwoven with a web of smaller branches, which is then plastered with a mix of mud, sticks, grass, cow dung and urine, and ash. Within this space the family cooks, eats, sleeps, socializes and stores food, fuel and other household possessions.  Each hut also has a place for baby goats and baby cows to sleep so they are safe during the night. Isaya explained that the hut lasts about 10 years and then they start over and build a new one. This is where I slept, 4 of us in a bed made for 1 ½ to 2 people, with a 1 day old baby goat crying under us all night. I slept in my clothes and shoes, we did not shower for 2 days while tracking through the cow dung and goat dung and whatever else is out there. The flies are unbelievable, there is no way to describe how many flies are all around you.

At night all cows, goats and sheep are placed in an enclosure in the center, safe from wild animals.  The complex is enclosed in a circular fence (enkang) built by the men, usually of thorned acacia.

Isaya’s father is a tribal chief, a Maasai head honcho.  As the first born son, Isaya became a chief as well, but each “generation” is also given a task to continue the Maasai way of life. Boys are grouped together by birth years, 7-10 years of boys born together are deemed a generation.  They are also all circumcised together on the same ritual day during their teen years, done outdoors in full view for the whole tribe with the same blunt knife instrument. The boys must endure the operation in silence, expressions of pain bring dishonor. Isaya’s generation was chosen to become the warrior generation.  So his Maasai destiny is to protect the tribe, both physically protect and protect the culture itself from outsiders.  He has killed three lions during his days as a warrior and he is only 23 or 24 years old.   

When we first arrived, we were greeted by Isaya’s family and welcomed in to the Boma.  They were very excited to meet us, they obviously don’t get many outsiders, much less mzungus wandering through. We climbed into the hut and had chai- hot tea with milk and sugar. To obtain the milk, the mama went right outside the hut, milked the cow standing closest, into a self made animal-hide container, boiled it and served it to us. I have to tell you, it was the best milk I have ever had!  We were then treated to an entire ceremony created around the Maasai tradition of dancing, chanting, and the art of jumping.  Normally this is only done at night, but for special guests to take photos, they performed it for us during the day. We were allowed to take pictures by special permission. The Maasai believe that a camera and photos captures and steals your soul from you, so you have to obtain permission from them to take pictures at all. But the children and mamas were thrilled when you turned the digital camera around and showed them what they looked like, my guess is they have never seen themselves, ever, this was the first glimpse they have ever had of what they look like. I also took several videos and showed it to one of the children and before I knew it, the kids and mamas were crowding around asking me to show them as well.  The dancing/chanting/jumping is amazing, I cannot even describe in words what it is like.  Again, it was like being transported into another world and time.  The Maasai have this extraordinary talent to jump to at least waist high from a still standing position.

Then came time to prepare the dinner feast. As I stated earlier, the Maasai live a very primal lifestyle and animals are food, not pets. So for dinner, we witnessed the Maasai ritual of slaughtering a goat.  First, we had to name the goat in order to preserve its soul, we chose Baraka which means blessing in Swahili.  Then Isaya suffocated the goat with his bare hands. It is done this way because the Maasai believe that blood is sacred and it cannot be wasted, not a drop can be spilled, so they smother the goat instead of using a knife.  When the goat is dead, they lay it on a bed of leaves and proceed to skin it completely without dropping one bit of blood.  After the skinning is completed, they gather around the goat and cut it open to extract the meat, organs and blood. The Maasai eat the kidneys raw, straight out of the goat. When my extreme adventure spirit kicked in, I had to try a piece of kidney.  It almost made me vomit, not from the blood but from the texture, so I skipped the liver tasting that happened after that.

The Maasai hold a strong belief that blood is sacred, so to honor this belief, they get down to the ground by the opened goat and drink every ounce of blood in the entire goat body.  You can also partake in this process, but I declined personally. Some of the volunteers gave it a try, but I just couldn’t do it, especially when you can actually see the blood clotting right there in the animal while the body is still warm. Another strong belief the Maasai hold is that you waste nothing, not one inch, so they cut the entire goat up to use as food or cloth.  It was remarkable to watch them work on this, again I am in awe.  They each seem to specialize in one area, one Maasai man sat and pushed all of the fecal matter out of the small intestines before they cooked it, this takes a long time. The whole process of carving up the goat takes a long time, but we stand in awe and watch them work in perfect harmony.  They made a small stew out of the organs and intestines and then roasted the meat on sticks in front of a fire. One Maasai was even gnashing away at the meat near the hoof. 

In the morning, we are each made a bracelet and ring from the goat hide. It is not treated, they just chop a piece off the hide with a knife and fashion it right on to your hand (see picture).  At first it is still wet and sticky, considering it is the outside fur and inside skin of an animal we ate the night before, maybe 8 or 10 hours before. We are informed you are supposed to wear the bracelets for life as a sign of respect to the goat.

Isaya explained that they only slaughter and roast a goat about every two weeks.  So this is a specialty item that they prepared for us. We have a few vegetarians in our group who skipped this part, but I was fascinated to find out what the meat tastes like. When it is all done roasting on a small fire, they create a huge bonfire in the middle of the Boma that we all sit around and eat the goat. It comes out served on two large sticks that Isaya shoves into the ground, pulls out the HUGE knife he carries on his person at all times and carves away. The goat meat is actually good, especially the more well done pieces that have acquired this smoky taste. But this is where I have a big cultural difficulty, the Maasai (and most Tanzanians) think the best part of meat are the huge pieces of fat attached. Isaya keeps giving me pieces with large squishy pieces of fat still attached. I tried hard, but I just couldn’t eat them, so when no one was looking I made sure the dogs on the Boma had a nice dinner. Another custom that Maasai warriors have is that they must eat in the presence of other Maasai warriors, so we had a huge crowd of men standing around us for dinner.  I have goat juices all over me by this point, you eat with your hands over the ground, it’s about as dirty as you can be. There is no bathroom, no running water, in fact I don’t see water the entire time we are guests there.

Once dinner was finished, all of the Maasai men start to jump and chant and dance again. We all join in at some point and have a ball trying to keep rhythm with them.  At one point they separate us into lines of men and women and teach us the dance women do to attract men. Both the chanting and dancing that occurred involved flirting. The unmarried men form a line and chant rhythmically, “Oooooh-yah”, with a growl and stacatto cough along with the thrust and withdrawal of their lower bodies. Girls stand in front of the men and make the same pelvis lunges while singing a high dying fall of “Oiiiyo..yo” in counterpoint to the men. Although bodies come in close proximity, they never touch.  I may be married now somehow, not sure…but this becomes the running joke for the rest of the trip. But in the morning light, the marriage magic seems to be over rather unceremoniously.  The silly Mzungus, us, teach them to sing “In the Jungle” from The Lion King and the children love it. We are all wrapped up in traditional Maasai fabric blankets called Shúkàs to keep warm, but our laughter and excitement keeps us all pretty warm.

Shúkà is the Maasai word for fabric sheets traditionally worn wrapped around the body, one over each shoulder, then a third over the top of them. These are typically red and purple, sometimes plaid in these colors, sometimes yellow.  If you can’t tell by the pictures, these people wear no pants, shirts, or unmentionables of any kind. But the tire shoes/flip flops are the greatest.

I have to take a second here and interject. The sunset over the Boma is dazzling, but the best is yet to come. We sat out all night under a supernatural blanket of stars. The stars were like nothing I had ever seen in my life, I had an inspiring spiritual moment staring up at that sky. A shooting star rode across the night sky every few minutes and you could clearly see star dust floating across almost as thick as clouds.  I swear I was watching God’s handy work as it was originally meant to be seen!! With not a light or village or city anywhere near us, nothing was within 100 miles of us to obstruct our view of the stars, so they were literally ALL out that night. You could see Venus clear as day, you could see Mars as red as it has ever been seen.  I get goose bumps just writing to you about these moments.  Staring up at that sky filled with stars will be one of the images I keep perfectly clear in my mind until the day I die.

Now the funny part. We are of course staying overnight in the Boma which presents us with the most uncomfortable, dirtiest night of sleep we have ever had in our lives.  I slept in my clothes and shoes, I am not taking a thing off nor am I exposing any other parts of my body to the flies and mosquitoes.  Four of us ladies sleep in one “bed” (term used loosely) and we are so tight in there if one of us needs to turn during the night we all must turn in that direction. The goats and cows make noise all night and we all seem to have acquired a cough from all the smoke.  I have never prayed for morning’s first light like I did that night and I was not alone.  But we wake close to after dawn and the light is amazing. Tiffany and Mariel are covered in flea bites when we wake, Tiffany must have around 50 or 60, not exaggerating. Samantha has a couple of bites, I somehow have NOT ONE BITE. I don’t have one bite from any insect at all, and I have not worn bug repellent since I arrived in Africa.  I guess the bugs don’t like me.

After morning chai, the group of us set out with three Maasai guides to climb Mt. Monduli. We walk around 4KM to the mountain itself then up maybe 3 or 4 more kilometers to the very top of the mountain. Monduli mountain represents the very middle of Maasai lands and is sacred to them, a very large symbol of their existence. At one point, we walk through a small rain forest, then come out on top of the mountain. Walking back down gives us some phenomenal views of Maasai lands.

Another interjection here. On the way back down, we stop at another Boma and meet Baraka’s, Isaya’s brother, intended wife. She is only 14 years old, but they will marry sometime next year and she will be his first wife. Isaya explains that when girls are born, the parents of boys “order” a wife for their son, to ensure that they will have a woman to marry. When you live in a polygamist society, I guess you do tend to run out of women to marry, so “ordering” one is smart living arrangements.  I also think that you lose the true meaning of what they are explaining in the translation from Maasai language to English.  She acts shy around us since she knows that this is the man she will marry, and she even runs and hides when we try to get closer or take pictures, but she is carrying her baby sibling on her hip like a pro!

After our mountain hike, we head back to Isaya’s Boma and have lunch of Ugali, which is corn that is made into a sort of thick chunky bread and milk, again wonderful straight from the cow.  The whole family gathers around to say good-bye.  Then we set out to trek it back to civilization and it is heartbreaking to walk home and feel like you just scratched the surface of this amazing existence.  Most people never get to see what we saw over these two days, tourist are not exactly welcome, so to be invited in as guests just left me feeling honored and awe-struck.  Africa will just never be the same for me now.

We return to our boring house in Arusha after this jaw-dropping weekend, and the first thing we do is strip every piece of dirty, wet, nasty, mud-caked, urine caked, dung caked clothing off and put those clothes outside the house. Then I put everything that made the trip outside, the smell is indescribable. I have never enjoyed a shower more in my life, NEVER, and I live in Africa.

I know this is one of the longest blog entries I will write, but I hope you took the time to read the whole thing. It has taken me three days to write it, because I can’t find the right words to explain or describe what I went through out there, English words just don’t exist to describe what I felt, experienced, survived, enjoyed.  I feel like I came alive as a human being at this moment, something stirs from deep inside of you and you feel this amazing connection to the people standing there with you, showing you their life.  You look at the earth and understand where you really came from, how human beings are all one species and yet how cultures can be so different.  And the mystifying, strange thing is that you understand this during the moments you are experiencing it so you savor every second, every moment, every smile, every word and look passed between you and these AMAZING people. You could not have dragged me camping at home, those of you who know me well would have laughed hysterically if I told you I was going camping in the bush.  But being here, living in Tanzania changes things, changes how you see life, changes the color and tint of the glasses you view life through. It was one of the best weekends of my entire life, ever!