Talking Masai!

Written by Ali McClenaughan - GapBreak Tanzania Volunteer 2008

Well i have officially been in Africa for a month and am still loving it to bits!!

I have been continuing to work on the school project which is building a dining hall. pretty much we mix cement and carry bricks all day but it is fun! the kids are really cute and hold your hand as you walk home, this one little kid called esther is our favourite as she is such a cutie and is always around!



Last week i went to Ndarakwai which is a wildlife camp, where they focus on providing a safe and stable enviroment for the animals to live. It was amazing as it really made you feel life you were in the real africa. we camped out in tents and pretty much in the middle of no where but we had an electric fence around our campsite to keep the animals out! we went on early morning game drives and day drives and a night one which was really fun. we saw monkeys, impala, wilderbeast, zebra, giraffe, and elephants. the park only has lions when they migrate so very rarely. we also did some project work, like weeding a tree size plant, painting at a school and attempting to dig a dam for the animals to drink from.

It was such a lovely place to just chill out and the guy who looked after us was this cute little africa who literally did not stop smiling!

We were taken out to a Masai boma which was incredible. we learnt about the boma and how the man who owned it had 8 wives and coudln't tell us how many children he had as he hadn't counted.... at least 5 per wife though... he told us about hi livestock and how that was their only income and what they do everyday. His wives are pretty much on a rotation as when he gets sick of one he just moves on to the next!! he was quite a "wealthy" masai even at one stage bringing out his mobile phone... so random when they can't even afford food! the women came up to us (all of which had little babies who were sooo cute) and took our hands and lead us into their mud houses. They showed us around their house and our guide came in to translate as they didn't speak a word of english or swahili only masai!! they sat us down and started to make us some beads it was really cute as the braclets were so imperfect as if they ran out of one colour.. no worries just use a different one! my lady gave me a premade necklace then made me two braclets. we had little conversation which mostly consisted of her trying to tell me something and me smiling and laughing as i had absolutely no idea what she was saying... oh welll smiling helps she just smiled back! fthen we met the head wife or the 1st wife. and she showed us her home and it was slightly bigger than the others. she explained more too us and how they only eat maize and milk and rarely get to have meat. at the end she took off her metal braclet and gave it to me..it was a bit radom but apparently she wanted me to have it so it was really cool as no else got one so a very special gesture! apparently metal means superioty so i was very impressed!!

We had some of our chefs family come and visit and sing for us as they are masai and it was very cool. got some good videos and photos so will try and send some later. they explain to us how the masai men "book" their wives from before birth and asked us how our culture got married....it was quite awkward tring to explain love and that men only had one wife and how females could say no if they wanted to!!

Returning from Ndarakwai was very sad as we all enjoyed it so much and it really showed you how a different culture truly live.

I am back at our main camp for a few days doing a painting until next week when a group of people go to climb kili but i decided not to so i will be going to Kidea instead.

sorry for the essay long email, i will continue to keep you updated!!!