Red Runs Through My Veins

Its finals week! We’re back in Arusha after our two week long safari, and I’ve got so much to say from the trip that I’m planning to write multiple blog posts this week. Starting with this post, an introduction into Maasai lifestyle through the lens of my camera. For three days this week, starting early morning on March 25^th to the morning of March 28^th, I lived in a Maasai boma on the shores of Lake Natron in Ngaresero, pretty much the heart of Maasai land. The area was beautiful with the Mountain of God rising in the south, and flamingoes constantly flying overhead, and the time I spent with my homestay family was simply incredible. Our task during homestay was to live and experience Maasai lifestyles and take as many photographs as we could. In return for our families hosting us, they have asked for a photo album of the pictures we take during our stay. But for those of you that don’t know much about the Maasai, let me give you a brief introduction before I describe my experience.
The Maasai historically do not originate in Tanzania. From the period of 0 to 1500 A.D. the Massaians began to emerge from regions around the Nile river and move south towards Kenya. Then, around 1700 A.D. they began to expand to Tanzania. Now the Maasai land encompasses a large region of Northern Tanzania and part of southern Kenya. As Maasai culture is polygamous, the men are expected to have many wives, simply in order to care for their cattle. Cattle are some of the most important and most valuable possessions to a Maasai, and they are extremely expensive in the Maasai community. Maasai believe power within the community is determined by those who successfully own and graze the highest number of cattle, thus it is understandable that one cow is worth over 600,000 Shillings, or equivalent to nine goats.
Maasai age sets and dynamics are also very interesting. One of the important sayings in Maasai lifestyle is “Mejool emurt elukunya” or “the neck will never overtake the head”. This basically means that the oldest men in the Maasai culture will always be the most respected, most revered, and most looked up to in the community. Maasai loiboni are respected because they have experienced almost an entire lifetime, learned from their past and are able to guide the younger men and women the most successfully through their younger years. Men in the Maasai culture follow a very specific age hierarchy, beginning with young boys, moving to warriors, junior warriors followed by senior warriors, elders, and finally loiboni. Women follow a similar schematic, starting with girls, young wives, middle aged, and elder women.
Men become junior warriors once they are circumcised. Circumcision periods switch on and off every seven years. Thus, men in the right age group during a circumcision period will be circumcised and become junior warriors. At this time they begin flirting with the younger girls, and begin looking for wives for when they become senior warriors. Junior warriors learn traditional dances and songs in order to perform for the young girls. The warriors who jump the highest, throw their spears the furthest, and perform physical feats the most successfully will be the top of the class and most likely to have a larger number of wives, and become more success in the community.
Women are married at very young ages and begin having children almost as soon as they can first conceive. As young girls, they are constantly courting and being courted by the young warriors. Once they reach maturation, women are circumcised and enter the young wives stage. Once they are married, they will build their homes with mud and sticks that they will collect, and begin to have children and care for their husbands cattle.

So, with a little cultural background, here’s how my experience went. My mother Saumbai, and sister Anna dressed me in robes while I was practically still in the doorstep. I had imagined the loose Maasai robes to be cool and comfortable, but once the polyester skirt had been tied around my waist, all my previous beliefs were out the window. Wearing six layers in 90 degree heat without a tree in sight for shade is not the most comfortable environment I’ve ever experienced. My first day, we arrived home at around noon, and sat inside for a good portion of the day. It was too hot to begin any physical activity and we simply enjoyed each others company until the evening fell. My sister, is fifteen years old, and about to enter her phase as a young wife. Thus, as the sun began to set, we made our way over to a Maasai tradition called "the Esoto". The Esoto is a meeting between the young warriors and the girls at which the warriors jump, chant, and sing, in order to impress the young girls or their soon to be wives. The girls in return dance and sing as well. This was some of the most impressive dancing I have ever attempted, and I’ve found I certainly do not have the “moves like the maasai”.
We headed home, and slept, pretty restlessly on a bed of sticks. I found myself tossing and turning throughout the night in order to find a comfortable position, and by the end was even wishing for my college dorm room mattress. But waking up to watch the sun rise over the mountain of god was more than worth it. Our second morning we left the house early after having rice for breakfast, and collected firewood for about two hours. With machete in hand, we cut through branches and tied them up with two thin pieces of leather. Then, get this, we carried all the wood we had collected on our heads. I walked side by side with my sister for about a half an hour with a bundle of wood balancing precariously on top of my head. But because of this my poise, I believe, has greatly improved. We spent the rest of the day beading, and I continued to take photographs of the children running around the boma during the day.
Just a quick fact: There are two definitions for a boma in maasai culture. A boma is both the individual house built by the women in the village, and the entire home unit surrounded by a fence. Interesting right?
Anyway, we spent our last day taking pictures of the cows, of my mama, my sister, and beading two new anklets. Our last day was incredibly hot and we really couldn’t do too much physical activity without dehydrating almost immediately. But early in the morning we did take an hour hike to an amazing waterfall! Ill post a picture below! On that note, while we were beading one of the elder males in my boma had what we believed to be a heart attack. He was carried out of his home and laid on the ground. Within the first few seconds of chaos, almost every single woman in the area was running out of the house towards the sick man. It was absolutely incredible to see how close knit the women in a boma truly are.
Once the man had recovered, in the early evening, the women in the boma took the students staying nearby, including myself, and taught us some of the dances that they traditionally do during their courting rituals. I took many pictures, and even some videos because I am absolutely positive I wont remember the dances when I return to America, and I would like to teach friends and family some of what I learned!!

Overall, I am still trying to wrap my mind around my homestay, and my feelings towards the Maasai culture. It is a culture unlike anything I have ever experienced before, so different from my own, but so strong in its own way. The beliefs and the values of the Maasai people are so varied and so new to me that I think its going to take some time to sort through the confusion that is currently wracking my brain. But as I work through the static I’ll be sure to keep you updated on how I’m feeling!
I’ll post soon about the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, so keep checking! for now, here are some photographs from my homestay!

My mom - Saumbai

Learning some Maasai dances

Waterfall!!

My mom, cooking Ugali!

Looking at my Boma from the campsite

In the meantime keep wandering. You never know when something is going to grab hold of you and pull you completely into something new, unimaginable, and entirely unexplored.