I lived as a Maasai woman today. We had our second home stay today, this time with Maasai
families. Naturally I was thrilled
about today before it even happened because I love the Maasai people and
culture. Sometimes I border on
obsession with Maasai and wish I could be Maasai so today gave me an inside
look at Maasai daily living. One
of my first thoughts about my wish to be Maasai is the realization that I may
be too weak to be Maasai; these women are so rugged and strong, they never
cease to amaze me. But more on
that later.
My partner, Natalia, and I were dropped off at a Maasai
boma, along with two other pairs of girls, which was about 3 minutes away from
our camp by land cruiser. Despite
the short distance from the camp, the maze of sisal plants and thorn acacias
needed to pass through to arrive at the boma left me completely lost. It never ceases to amaze me how you
don’t know youre at a boma until you’re there. They blend into the landscape so well with the thorn fences
and mud houses with thatched roofs.
The boma we stayed at was home to one family, which apparently had about
fifty children. I did not see this
many children but it could have been referring to the several generations’
children. There was the head Mama,
the matriarch of the family, then several of the second generation Mamas, one
of whom we stayed with and of course the children. We found out that this boma is actually home to two of our
staff members, Motero, who works in the kitchen, and Kinyako, who is an askari
(security). In fact, Motero and
Kinyako are actually brothers, which we did not know. Side note on
Kinyako, he has the best smile in the world and is always so happy. He stands at the gate to camp during
the day and whenever we go out of camp or come in, he is there with his huge
smile and waving excitably. I
don’t know him very well, but his enthusiasm is contagious.
Natalia and I stayed with Mama Aggie, who is Kinyako’s
wife. They have four
daughters. I think we only met
two, Sabina who is 10 years old and Priscilla who is probably around 3 years
old. This was like the last home
stay where I was unsure of which children belonged to which mama. I thought two other girls we met were
also Mama Aggie’s daughters, but they turned out to be her sisters. Mama Aggie was wonderful. She was so friendly, helpful, kind, and
excited. She wanted to hear all
about our lives even though she can’t speak any English and our Swahili is
still rudimentary at best. We
fumbled through my Swahili-English dictionary to try to figure out how to say
everything. I feel like my Swahili
improved today though!
We started out the day by sitting in the house small talking
and showing Mama Aggie pictures of our families while Sabina made chai. I can’t get over the chai that has been
served at my home stays. I always
try to replicate it at camp but can never get it right. After chai and washing dishes, we had
to gather water. In Tanzania we
were told we might get to fetch water with the family, but none of us actually
did so, so fetching water was an exciting experience! This is where I learned how weak I am and began to really
admire Maasai women. The stream
where the families get water was about a ten-minute walk from the boma, and is
actually right next to our camp.
After our water jugs were filled, the Mamas showed us how to carry the
water back by putting a strap around our forehead that was connected to the
jug, which would rest on our back.
I started off well but after like 2 minutes, my neck and back muscles
were screaming at me. I’m going to wake up sore tomorrow, I can already feel my
lower back aching! I wish I could have an excuse like the jug was really huge,
but I don’t have an excuse other than I’m weak, especially because three of my
fellow classmates with me and our Mamas were doing just fine. I finally decided to loop the strap
through my arm and carry the jug on my shoulder, which was much more cumbersome
and made me trail behind the group.
I think Mama Aggie felt sorry for me so she switched our jugs, hers
being considerably smaller than the one I was attempting to carry. Maasai women! I tell ya, they look
small but they are so strong!
After getting water, we started making lunch of ugali and
cabbage. After my last home stay I
decided I would never eat ugali again, but yet again I forced myself to eat
ugali. Mama Aggie was fine letting
us take over cooking the meal, which was pretty great. There isn’t too much to cooking the
cabbage and the only problem with ugali is stirring it when it gets really
thick. At lunch, Mama Aggie put
icebergs of ugali on Natalia and my plates, much to my chagrin. Covering the ugali in cabbage, which I
actually think is delicious; I ate half of the iceberg before it expanded in my
stomach to twice its original size.
After lunch,
the kids started jump roping and we joined in, Mama Aggie even joined in the
fun! The kids and I shared jump-roping
songs and they actually knew one that was a staple in my neighborhood; we
called it “school” where we would start with “first grade” and jump once than
run out, and increase the number of jumps with each “grade”. It was a lot of fun!
After jump-roping for a while, we were told we needed to
collect firewood and went out with Mama Aggie and Sabina to do so. In Africa, all the plants have thorns
and if they don’t have thorns, they are poisonous. Trying to navigate through this kind of a landscape, much
less live in it presents numerous challenges. Though, the abundant thorns do make a suitable replacement
for tweezers when you have a sliver as Natalia found. After collecting sticks for about an hour, Natalia and I
strapped them on our back again and headed back home. Before we got home, Mama Aggie saw a huge dead tree limb on
the ground and picked it up with no problem and hauled it back to the boma.
For the rest of the day, we played with the adorable
children and talked to Mama Aggie.
Before we knew it, the end of the day had arrived. It was such a good day. Mama Aggie was such a good “mother” to
us, she even gave me a bracelet as a gift, and all the kids were of course
incredible.
On a purely academic level, we have been learning about
environmental degradation in Africa since day one. We have heard all about how local people are polluting water
and how forests are being deforested for the sake of firewood and how this
needs to be stopped immediately.
Taking part of this in a small extent today and witnessing how the
families need these resources for daily survival put a more human aspect to the
problem. Yes, environmental
degradation is awful and I want to spend my life making sure it never gets to
an irreversible state; however I feel like sometimes in our crusade to save the
environment, we can forget about the people. Especially here, I feel like it’s so easy to demonize the
local people and wonder why they don’t care about the environment or wonder why
they don’t realize that they are hurting the environment. They do know though, the Maasai
especially have always lived very close to the environment and know what will
happen to the environment, but what other choice do they have? I guess what I’ve been realizing is
there needs to be a balance between what the environment needs and what people
need. Without people the
environment wouldn’t have much purpose and without the environment, people wouldn’t
be around.
I don’t know if I could make it as a Maasai woman as much as
I want to. Life is hard for them,
this ecosystem is a hard place to live.
Though life may be hard, the people I met today and at my last home stay
have been some of the most kind and loving people. They work hard but they make time for their family,
neighbors, and guests. I don’t
think they complain about their hardships, at least it doesn’t seem like it,
they are always so positive. If I
could take anything away from these experiences, they would be to not complain
about my life back home and be willing to help anyone out. Life is shared here, the hardships and
the good things. I want to do the
same with my life and be able to share what I have with others. As for the complaining, how can I
complain about anything in my comfortable life when my new “families” have so
much less and must put their daily energy to surviving?
I’m blessed.
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