Safari

Our Safari began with an overnight stop at the Jambo Campground near Lake Manyara. As an added treat we were invited to a Maasai Village. A chief, his fifteen wives and 55 children greeted us with Maasai song and dance. We were invited to join them in dance, which is essentially very high, rhythmic jumping.
After the dance we toured their homes. Each wife builds a house of sticks and cow dung. These round huts have three rooms: a front room for baby livestock, a larger bedroom with a twig bed covered in cow hide for the chief on the nights that he favours this wife and a third is a bed for the wife and her children. These houses last about four years and then the wife needs to build a new one. All of the houses are arranged in a circle. Livestock are penned in the centre by nettle fencing.
Chiefs are allowed to have as many wives as they have cattle. For example this chief had 15 wives thus he had at least 150 cattle.
Maasai believe that vegetables and fruit are for cattle, thus they do not eat these. Instead there diet consists solely of milk, cow’s blood and some beef.
These people were very welcoming and happy to invite us to peek into their daily lives.
As we were leaving darkness was falling. We played a game with the flashlight having the younger children chased it and step on it. The laughter and competition was endearing.
This was a most informative evening.