Maasai

 

The villages I’ve been in over the past few weeks are predominately Maasai. Maasai is a tribe with a large presence in and around the Arusha area of Tanzania. Out of all the tribes here, I find Maasai the most interesting, partly because their culture is so different from mine.

Their livelihood revolves around their cows. They value their cows very highly not because they worship them but because of the milk, manure, and meat that they produce. Wealth is measured in cows: the more cows one has, the more prestige that person holds in the community. Even brides wealth is paid in cows!


Coming of age is a very important part in a Maasai man’s life and involves several steps. As explained to me by our Maasai intern Hagael, first the boy (who may be between the ages of approx. 14-18) must ask his father for permission to be circumcised. If permission is granted, he must then prove his strength by catching a bull and tying its legs together. After this, the boy must go to his grandfather for his blessing, and then he can be circumcised. The circumcision is done using no anesthetics, but if the boy cries or shows signs of weakness during the ceremony he brings great shame upon himself and his family. I cringe every time I see a Maasai boy all in black, because his clothing indicates that he has recently been circumcised and is still healing.


Although I have yet to experience it (since our trainees are generally hard-working), I have heard that Maasai men are very lazy and that their only daily task is to take the cows in at night. Women do the cooking, cleaning, child-rearing; they fetch the water, gather firewood, and of course cater to their husband’s every need. It’s not uncommon for the lucky man to have several wives to do this work for him, although I’m told that polygamy is becoming less prevalent in Maasai culture.


Due to their value of cows, a meal of milk and beef is often considered a good Maasai dinner. Unfortunately there is a belief in Maasai culture that fruits are for children and the weak/ill, so they are not consumed as commonly as they should be, contributing to malnutrition. Also, in general Maasai just don’t like vegetables (the Maasai word for green veggies like lettuce and spinach actually translates to “grasses”) so they are lacking in that food group as well.

The Maasai wardrobe is very interesting. The men wear “Maasai blankets” which are rectangular pieces of red, blue, or purple plaid cloth. They generally wrap one around the waist and one around the chest, and sometimes wear a third one like a cape. The women may also have a Maasai blanket handy to carry their babies on their backs. Most women wear a khanga wrap and lots of elaborate bead jewelry. Both men and women have stretched earlobes with large holes through them… I must admit it was hard not to stare during the first week I worked with them (even though I get stared at whenever I’m in public).

 

 

 

As for my vacation week, it was absolutely fantastic. Actually it couldn’t have been better. I got to hang out with my Dad last weekend! It was soooo nice to get to show him around my temporary home. We took a long tour of downtown Arusha on foot looking for soccer balls. My Dad made it a mission to buy soccer balls for a school down the road because he had seen the kids playing soccer with a bundle of rags during recess. The mission was accomplished! We also went on a safari, which even Dad appreciated despite his dislike of animals!

 

I don’t think I have to even tell you that Zanzibar was amazing. I’m not even ashamed to say that I spent all my time by the pool and on the beach (and not doing any kind of work whatsoever) because you would’ve done the same!! The scenery was breathtaking and the weather was perfect all week. It was really hard to come back home!

 

This week I’ll be in Arusha finishing up my last week of sustainable agriculture training, then I’ll be starting HIV/AIDS trainings!

"Vijijini" (In the Villages)

Hamjambo!! Hello everyone! Over the past two weeks I visited two rural Tanzanian villages with GSC: Maroroni and Tingatinga.

During my first week of field work, we camped out in Maroroni village (about an hour’s drive from Arusha). We brought buckets of our own clean drinking water, we heated up water for our bucket-baths using a good old-fashioned fire, and there was a pit latrine located conveniently in the center of our campsite. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were made for us by a local, Leonardi, but they were made on a Tanzanian time schedule (one day dinner for 7pm was ready at 9pm). There’s not much to Maroroni. It’s extremely dry, there are chickens and donkeys roaming around everywhere, no electricity, and lots of school children who are fascinated by wazungu but too afraid to talk to us. The village people were mostly very welcoming, especially our trainees. Each day, me and the other trainers taught groups of villagers about bio-intensive agriculture (kilimo hai in Swahili). Kilimo hai is “a method of organic farming rooted in maintaining soil fertility and living soil.” We teach in English and everything we say is translated for the villagers by our Tanzanian interns into Swahili. The first couple days we just lecture, but the rest of the week we demonstrate kilimo hai through practicals. Our first group was extremely attentive, and it was really cool working side-by-side with the locals!

 

We were in Tingatinga, a Maasai village, for my second week of field work. This was my home during my stay: 

 

The scenery was much nicer than in Maroroni (which was like barren savannah). Tingatinga actually has green plants, and you can see Kilimanjaro from almost anywhere in the village!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lot of the little kids here were excited to see wazungu and not too shy to talk to us, but I did run into one little girl who cried when she saw us because she was scared of wazungu. However we did make some friends in Tingatinga. We became quite close with two little kids, Everest and Kesia (right).

 

On another note, unfortunately we didn’t have any trainees this week. We had almost 50 people registered for our trainings but only a couple showed up. We were told that this happened because the villagers don’t want to come unless they get paid for it (some organizations do offer money for people to come to their trainings, but not GSC). But I don’t even want to teach people who just come for money! In order for what we teach to actually make a difference, we need people who are actually interested in learning about kilimo hai so that they will use it when we leave. Anyway, we had to cancel the trainings and we made some keyhole gardens and grain storage tanks for a few villagers instead.

 

This Friday was both Sarah’s and Ayo’s birthday, so of course we went out to celebrate!! -->

After a fun night at the Babylon Club, Saturday we went on a hike up Mt. Meru to the waterfalls with Luke’s host-brother, Hans, as our guide. The whole climb was absolutely gorgeous, and I finally got to see the tropical side of Africa!

Lots of exciting things to come!! This week I’ll be teaching kilimo hai in a new village, I get to hang out with my dad next weekend, and then I’m off to Zanzibar! NBD.