A weekend with the Maasai...lengthened version

A few of us spent and incredibly interesting weekend with a Maasai family, a man and his four wives in their family compound. We spent most of the first day singing and dancing with them and playing with the children. Then we camped in their courtyard and got up the next morning, hiked down a large hill to the well, and hauled water...yes on the top of our heads...up the hill. Thankfully we didn't have to go fetch the firewood...that would have taken the whole day.

We had our meals in the main hut which is the first wife's home. Women build the ho uses here out of wood and dung plaster. The houses are small with a small general area space which is adjacent to the cow section and goat quarters. We had out meals on a makeshift dinning table in the cow's area. Some people had to sit in the main area (which could accomodate three chairs total) to sit at the other side of the table. The food was great and it was amazing that it was all cooked in a tiny cooking hut.

We camped in their courtyard which was the common outdoor area for the other houses. All in all there were about ten children it seemed. After hauling water and eating breakfast we too a long, long walk with a Maasai man and then we made it to the Maasai market which sold everything a person or animal could need. We still had out Maasai capes on and caused quite a stir in the market. People were falling off their stools laughing...we assume with us rather than at us. Some women were kind enough to get up and straighten out our cape dresses.

The Maasai, as you have by now surmised, continue to practice a traditional culture and life style... although they do use cell phones. Tiny children wander the great Maasai steppe with their goats and tiny girls have babies strapped to their backs as they do household chores. The group that led the tour have been major donors to a school project in the area and the young people see the value of education and are excited about studying and speaking English. One of the young women in the family just completed high school and plans to go to a teaching college in January. So the modern world encroaches bringing advancements and complications. Female circumcision is reportedly still practiced by the Maasai, but many people told us that the practice is, fortunately, being curtailed.