July 2008
Masai Village
For a "donation" of roughly $23, visitors may enter a Masai village, a circular arrangement of huts. People of the village come out as a group to sing a welcome song, complete with the whoops and yelps and, of course, the well-known jumping.
click here or on the
image above
to play an excerpt
of the Masai greeting song
Visitors then enter the village, and a group of two or three men (including the chief's son, in our case) share information about their tribe, their village, customs, and homes. Questions are welcome. Visitors are free to take photos and video without restriction.
We watched as a couple of men started fire in the traditional friction method, like in America with Boy Scouts. The fuel in this case, unlike with Boy Scouts, is elephant dung, and yes, that's what the chief's son holds in the picture at the left.
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Sure enough, after maybe a couple of minutes, the dung was aflame.
I'm struggling here to leave that worded tactfully.
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The chief's son said that his parents have picked for him his first wife. He will pick the second and any others.
Women build the huts out of dung and straw and mud. We were invited into one. The entrance way is extremely narrow and with a low clearance. Once inside, we found it completely dark, other than a few holes in the wall, for light and ventilation. Later, thinking about how several of the Masai are certainly taller than many Americans, I wondered: why not build just a few inches higher (and wider?) |
Mancala!
After the presentation, we were "invited" outside the circle of huts to a large semicircle of goods for sale. The villagers used sales tactics worthy of American car dealerships and timeshares.
Eventually, as we left, the tribe followed us to sing a traditional farewell song. We got back to the lodge just in time for the 4:00 game drive.
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Eldoret | |