Fabulous Trip to Africa, 22 Sep to 4 Oct 2015, Post 10 – Masai Mara

Today was another early start: 6:00 wake-up call and 6:30 take-off. We got to see the hot air balloons taking off as we ourselves took off.

We headed out to see what we could find, and it turned out to be birds, topi, Impala, and elands, along with some banded mongooses before breakfast.

After breakfast, we saw two lions, a mom and her 3-year-old daughter with a warthog’s’ head in her mouth.  Further along, there was another lion who went to investigate some noise in a gully, and a cape buffalo came up to meet her challenge!

In addition, we saw the usual variety of antelope, zebras, a crocodile and warthogs.

The sky took on an interesting feature, as a halo of light surrounded the sun.  There were clouds in the sky, and knowing how dry the season had been, we asked about the likelihood of rain.  We were told that the halo was usually seen before rain showers, and sure enough later on in the day, it did rain for a short while.

The highlight of the antelopes we saw were three male eland, which could be easily differentiated from the females by the large dewlap they had hanging below their broad necks.

This afternoon we’ll visit a Masai village hopefully!

And it was quite a visit. The headman in the village introduced himself to us, and then presented the Masai men, who did their chant with bass and harmony (no instruments, mind, just with their voices), and to these chants, they jumped — who jumps the highest? This went on for quite awhile, and then they approached us and we all participated in the chant and structured walk.

Next he took us into the village proper. This is a rough circle with about seven houses in it. There is a twig fence around the whole thing, with four openings, one for each main family in the village. When their cattle are driven into the center of the compound for the night, they know to come in the correct entrance. The houses themselves are made out of sticks and cow dung daub, mainly because the cow dung does not get infested by pests.

The next was a demonstration of making fire. The men gathered a flat stick about 1.5 inches thick and a round stick about a foot long and half an inch in diameter. One of the men then put his long knife on the ground, flat, placed the flat stick on top of it, and then used the round stick to spin back and forth creating friction. Meanwhile another man pulled some elephant dung from the roof of the house next to him, and pulled it apart, exposing the undigested dry straw. The heat from the friction and the softness of the wood began depositing smoldering ash on the knife below, and when the man spinning the stick decided that he had enough burning material, the generating sticks were removed, and the embers were put into the elephant dung. With a little blowing encouragement, the fire indeed flamed up, and if it had been wanted for broader purpose, it would have been put under larger wood shavings. From what they said, the bush people taught this to the Masai.

We went into a house, designed and built by the women. There is an entrance room, followed by the main room where the fire for the cooking burns. This has benches on two sides, and a vent hole high on the wall behind the fire. The houses are dark (no windows), and the roof is flat, with cow dung on top.

We came out and the village women gave us their version of chants and songs. They also were unaccompanied by instruments. The women didn’t jump, however — that’s just for the men (and boys).

We were lastly led outside of the village proper where there were the women had laid out their wares for us to peruse and purchase if we wanted to. We all picked out something to buy, and bargained our way to the deal.

It was back to the camp, and this evening Nixon (whose village this is) is going to talk to us about the Masai some more.

Nixon’s talk went into more detail about the Masai culture. They believe that God (undefined) dropped the first human on earth in the Northern Africa area of the Nile River, closer to the source than the delta. He is named, and his wife is named, as are their three sons. Their three sons each started a clan, and the rule became no one could marry within their clan. There are now thousands of clans, and the rule still holds. Marriages are arranged between the parents of the man and prospective wife, based in part on the dowry (in terms of number of cows) on offer.

Their diet consists primarily of the blood, milk and meat of the livestock (cows originally, and now including sheep and goats). Masai are nomadic, in part to provide feed for their livestock, and to account for the weather. Nixon said that the warrior who has two wives will leave his primary wife at the first location, and take his second one with him to the second encampment, to build the house and keep him in the way he has been accustomed. Apparently his village is planning a seasonal move within the next couple of months as the grass is getting too dry to support their herds.

He also talked about the changes that have come about to the nomadic aspect due to the need to have their children in schools. Providing education requires a more stable community, and so that has slowed down the movements of the tribes. He talked for a good 30 minutes, and covered a number of topics. Then it was on to dinner and back to the rooms to pack for tomorrow’s trip to Nairobi.