January 18, 2015

January 18, 2015 OMG! Yesterday we thought it couldn't get any better and then it did!! This morning we visited the Massai boma that is very near our lodge. We were on our way by 6:00 a.m. and arrived just in time to milk the cows. Women milk the cows and men look after moving them from grassy area to grassy area all day. The Massai begin their day at about 5:30 a.m. An interesting fact with the milking is that they put a calf onto one side of the cows udder and then one woman milks from the other side while another woman holds the cow by its nose. Everyone has a breakfast of fresh milk before starting their day of work. Massai fences are made of accacia branches. The thorns on these branches are vicious! I know this first hand as one jumped out and grabbed me as we entered the village. Inside the village we met the chief and all the residents. Everyone was very excited to meet us. The Massai speak their own language (not Swahili) and no other tribe speaks it. It is one of the ways that a Massai knows whether or not he is facing an enemy or a friend...anyone who speaks Massai is a friend. The other way they recognize one another is by the distinctive clothing they wear. Traditionally Massai children did not go to school but today it is common for them to have that opportunity. The two Massai men who work at the lodge we're staying in are sending all of their kids to school. Massai boys begin taking on responsibility for moving the cows by the time they are 5. Yes...5 years old! By the time they are 10 or 12 it is common for them to be out from morning till night with a herd of cows on their own. They entertain themselves by practicing their singing or dancing, or jumping, or running. There is a lot of structure in their culture and at the same time a lot of freedom. Back to the village...we were able to go into one of the huts in the boma and once our eyes adjusted to the dark, we were able to see that while it is crowded, there is room for all the necessary functions of the home. You enter via a curved hallway (there are no doors) and come right into the living room/kitchen. There are two bedrooms off this main room. One bedroom is for the children and the mother the other is for the father. All of the cooking is done in the hut and there is no chimney so the house is unbearably smoky. The woman cooks the food the man has provided and then leaves the house. The man comes in to eat his fill. The woman gets whatever is left over. If there is nothing left over the woman cooks more for herself. After we'd learned all we could about the hut and life in it we went back out into the yard of the village (the same yard where the cows had been so we had to watch where we were walking!). Once outside it was time for a demonstration of the traditional dances and song. I should add here that this village is not used to having visitors and so they are not performers at all....just regular people living the life they've been born to. The men and women lined up across from each other and the men started it off with some singing. I would describe some of their singing as 'throat singing' and found it interesting to think that the same sounds show up in the Arctic too! Once the singing was well underway the dancing/jumping began. Those men can jump! Then we moved into a marriage dance/ceremony and Lynda married about 3 of the men there! In the marriage dance the woman wears a decorative collar and dances/bounces her way across the divide to the man of her choice. Once chosen he turns slightly away from her and the deed is done! After the Massai village we went into a nearby town of 27,000 (Mtowambu - translated means mosquito river) where there are more than 120 tribes living in harmony. Intermarriage is allowed and may be one of the reasons that so many tribes can work cooperatively. One of the groups we visited were the Makonde. They are the only tribe in Africa who work with wood. They came to Mtowambu from Mozambique in 1974 during the civil war there. The people we met today were the children of those who would have made that long hard walk and one of the stories they told us was about a carving that has great meaning for them. It is an image of 120 + people standing in a tower shaped carving. All are supporting one another. They carve it to remember the importance of working cooperatively and in honour of their parents who made the long walk because of war. They want to remember the consequences of war so they never repeat it! While in Mtowambu, our guide for the day, Lulu, told us that the word for white people in Swahili is wazungu. Lulu was born in this town, as was her mother. While there we visited the rice fields, a family who makes banana beer (yes we had a taste of both the beer and the wine), we walked through banana plantations and along alleys and roadways that took us through the heart of village life. It was an amazing day! While inthe village we also enjoyed a wonderful lunch that had been prepared for us by a group of women who are working together and in partnership with the tourism office to boost their local economy by preparing this type of traditional meal for visitors. It was a special treat and we would not have been able to get all of those local dishes any other way! After lunch we visited another cooperative. This one was made up of 12 artists who paint most of the pictures you see in the shops throughout this region of Tanzania. Prices were good and quality high so they made a couple of sales from our visit. By the time we made it back to the lodge we were all done for! Temperatures were high and we had walked for miles. A dip in the pool helped revitalize our spirits and the drink at the bar helped a little bit too. We are now the only people staying in the lodge so have the entire place and its staff to ourselves. Yamiti, the manager is such a nice man! He told us the story of how he was able to break with tradition and obtain an education that has put him in a position to get the job he has today. He lives at the lodge when he is working and when there is no one in residence, and he has days off...he can go home to his village (about 1.5 hours by bike or 3 hours on foot) Tonight while we were sitting on the patio overlooking Lake Mynara and the grasslands between us and the lake, a group of Massai boys (and their cows) crossed our vision. It was such a magical sight I don't think any words I can type would describe it. so...just close your eyes and imagine what you think it would look like to be sitting in Africa, looking out over the grasslands while a group of traditional Massai boys wearing traditional costume moved their herd through the picture. Yep...you've got it! It was especially fun when the boys noticed us in the distance up on the deck. They may very well be some of the same boys we'd met earlier in the morning when we visited the boma. Anyway...they saw us in the distance and put on a little private show for us. They practiced their jumping one after the other while we clapped and cheered until it was time for them to move along with their cows. It truly is such an honour to be able to feel so included in the everyday life of the local people here! There are so many stories, and so much learning I know I am leaving a million things out but...I'm done for this day and it is going to be a long hot day tomorrow en route to Lake Eyasi. We may feel like we're in the middle of nowhere here but I have the feeling that we'll be going deeper into Africa when we head out tomorrow morning. We will miss our new friends here and feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to get to know them and their culture a little better. Hakunamatada, Darlorlynga p.s. just killed a scorpion on floor as it was crawling toward me! Yikes! Tonight a scorpion - maybe tomorrow a lion!!!