Fifth in a series
After an overnight stay at Lake Manyara Serena Lodge, we got up early for our trek into the Central Serengeti. We are leaving the comforts of lodge/hotel living and heading to our very first tent stay and getting into the meat of our safari in the Serengeti plains.
Just outside the boundaries of the Serengeti conservation area, we stopped at a boma, a village of the Maasai tribe. Some of the tribes will allow you to see their villages and show you how they live because this is an income stream other than selling their livestock.
The Maasai have inhabited Northern Tanzania and Southern Kenya since the early 1500’s. They are easily recognized by their colorful red checkered tartan like dress. The only exception to this dress is when the Maasai boys are sent into the wild for several months after they are circumcised wearing all black with their faces painted black and white. They are not supposed to pose for pictures at that time but you will see them frequently along the roadway trying to get safari-goers to stop and take pictures with them for money.
The Maasai have refused a more modern lifestyle that the government has tried to encourage them to live but they are starting to take on some modern day conveniences. You would occasionally see a Maasai man with a cell phone. But largely, the Maasai still live in the traditional way.
In the boma, the women and children build the houses. The men make fencing out of spiky limbs of the Acacia trees that are in abundance in this area as well as other scraps of brush. The houses are small, usually no more than 10 feet diameter on the outside. We actually went inside one and it was incredibly small. A small area for cooking with a small vent to outside, the only source of light in the hut-like structure. A small bench like structure for sitting and sleeping for the adults. Children sleep in the floor of the hut. There is no electricity and no running water. Maasai women and children frequently walk several miles a day for fresh water.
The huts are made with cow manure and sticks with very low entrances despite the Maasai being very tall. The women lead me over to help them work on a house in progress which consisted of weaving long sticks together through other sticks to make a wall. I did not work on the “mudding” of the wall with cow manure and mud. I have my limits in this adventure!
We went to the school house where the Maasai children gathered to show us that they could read the alphabet and say different words in English as well as their numbers. All of the children attend school in the same school house. They all learn English as English is widely spoken in Tanzania.
My dad was absolutely fascinated by all of this. He has always been an avid student of Native American culture and has an impressive collection of Native American artifacts. So this part of the trip is definitely up his alley.
The chief of this village talked to dad and explained elements of their culture. The Maasai men then took my dad, cloaked him in a red and blue checkered blanket and gave him a walking stick. They then taught him the dance of the Maasai men. The women were with me and taught me the chant that they do while the men are dancing. So we chanted the song while the men (including my 79 year old father) jumped and danced. The look on my dad’s face was absolutely priceless.
My dad hasn’t been known to be a joyous person. He was a serious child even by family accounts. He always tends to ruminate on the past, either in his perceived failures or where others had let him down. He concentrated a lot on areas where he would have been more successful if <fill in the blank> hadn’t happened. He spends a lot of time armchair quarterbacking his own life in retrospect instead of living in the moment.
But in this moment, dancing with Maasai men, wearing their traditional clothing, I saw the child that my father never was. I saw unabated joy in his eyes and he was smiling bigger and broader than I have ever seen or could have imagined.
If our trip was over today, it would have all been worth it. My heart was full….my cup runneth over.
