Just inside the park, we had to stop as a colony of about 100+ baboons crossed the road right in front of us. We just stood through the pop-top completely surrounded by baboons.
We ran into a couple of elephants down the road, which were smaller than the ones in the Serengeti due to their diet. No matter how many we saw, our hearts still jumped each time we spotted one. We saw monkeys, baboons and even a giraffe walk across the road. It's amazing that something that big can hide so easily.
We drove to the hippo pool and witnessed over 30 different types of birds (some from Europe). This was one of the rare instances during a game drive when we were able to get out of the truck to walk around. As we got out of the truck I noticed out of the corner of my eye some movement and realized it was two huge male hippos walking towards us. I would say they were about 40 yards away. No matter how they moved it seemed like their eyes were always watching the crowd. You could feel the nervous energy from the other safari-goers AND guides. Even Kassim got out of the truck and told us to make sure we kept an eye on them. They looked like tanks and when they trotted it was easy to tell that they could run FAST if they wanted to. This was a pretty intense experience!
Just down the road from the hippo pool, we spotted a couple of giraffes with a baby sitting down between them. Kassim explained that Lake Manyara has albino giraffes. They are actually black with red eyes instead of white. We watched them for awhile and just when we were ready to start the truck, a giraffe came running full speed around the bend in the road right at us. It surprised us and I'm sure we surprised it. I thought it would stop when it saw this green truck in the middle of its path, but instead it continued running right by our truck (maybe 25 yards). Allison thought fast enough and shot a video of the event!
As we made our way out of the park we came across a couple of elephants in the road. Kassim positioned the truck perfectly. You could tell the elephants were hesitant about passing the truck. Then out of dense brush a big mama popped out. She surveyed the situation and proceeded to walk right by the truck. I could have stretched from the pop-top and touched her as she passed. Incredible!
We had a nice lunch back at the campsite (pizza, potato salad, and fruit -- African style). After lunch we spent some time walking down the street to get some gifts. Allison bought four small masks for $16 total. The original asking price was $60!
Next, we went to meet the Maasai people, with Amsee as our guide. He was very friendly and spoke pretty good English. As we started to hike, many children from the village ran up to us waving. We quickly realized this was going to be an experience we will never forget.
The Maasai are a small tribe in Tanzania and Kenya who closely follow tradition. They are herders, starting four-year-old children with one goat and then adult men have herds of cattle up to 60. They get up at sunrise, have a small breakfast, take their cattle out to find the best grasses and water and then come home at sunset for dinner and sleeping. The men tend to the cattle, and the women are in charge of gathering water in big plastic jugs.
Water is the biggest issue for the Maasai (and most of Africa) because they usually live where their ancestors did, and there is often no water, especially in the dry season, which is when we were there. This means that they walk up to 30 km per day to find water. On top of that, the water they drink is far from clean. They drink the same water that their livestock drinks -- brown, muddy, full of dung and parasites. However, their bodies have adapted and they don't get sick. I asked Amsee what it tasted like, and he pointed to the bottled water I was carrying and almost jokingly said, "It doesn't taste as good as that."
Amsee has two wives, and polygamy is common in the Maasai culture. The biggest hurdle in having multiple wives is paying the 20-cattle dowry to each woman's father.
We also learned all about the circumcision ritual, which each boy goes through when he is 15-years-old. It's a really big deal, there's a big celebration, and the boy is then considered a man and can marry. Most girls marry around age 13.
The Maasai wear three blankets -- one around their waist, one around their top and one draped across their front. The Maasai colors are read, blue and purple, and they predominately wear red to scare away wild animals. They decorate their faces with scars and put large holes in their earlobes with a knife and different sizes of wood. This tradition began during the slave trade because traders only wanted Africans that looked "normal." If an African's body was defaced, the slave traders would often pass on them.
The women mainly wear blue, have short hair and wear many beaded necklaces and earrings.
The men carry sticks to help herd their livestock and a spear to kill wild animals. Amsee has killed a male lion by spearing him in the neck. However, the Maasai only eat their livestock; they would never eat a wild animal's meat or drink a wild animal's blood. To celebrate a kill that protected their herd, they cut off the lion's tail and paw and have a celebration that includes dancing around with the paw and tail.
The Maasai eat mainly meat, along with some cassava, maize, and ugali. They drink their livestock's blood and then eat all of it and use their hide. The hump on a cow's back (the cow's they had were a different breed than what we're used to in the US) is a great delicacy, and usually the man gets to eat this.
A highlight was when the warriors chanted and danced for us -- a traditional activity and also a source of great fun.
The Maasai live in bomas, which are groups of huts and "fences" for their livestock. They make pens for each type of animal with fences made of dried acacia tree branches (the acacia is very thorny) bunched together. Their homes are made of sticks and dung mixed with sand and water. Once this combination dries, it is very hard, almost like cement. Each wife has a hut, and Amsee stays with one or the other.
He invited us into his home, and it was one sitting room, maybe 6' x 6', with a section to the side to sleep. The bed was made of sticks laid horizontally and covered in hardened leather. Four people sleep in this bed (Amsee, his first wife, and one or more of his young daughters). There was a separate "room" that needed a bed and a housed a set of shelves made from sticks that held about 10 kitchen utensils. A tiny storage area held maize. There was a tiny section under the shelves for baby cows, goats, and sheep.
When a baby animal is born, it stays in the hut during the night because it would easily be killed by lions or hyenas. So, there is livestock in your home going to the bathroom. There was a fire pit in the middle of the hut, with no chimney, so it gets very smoky and sooty. Food is cooked on this fire and the only other source of light is one kerosene light. As you can imagine, it is nearly pitch black inside the hut. If you're not within a foot of the single kerosene flame, you can't see anything.
We were struck by the lack of stuff -- Amsee owned an umbrella, a backpack, a messenger bag, some dishes, four extra blankets that would be used both as clothes and blankets to sleep, some maize, a lamp, and ironically, a cell phone. He likely got the umbrella, backpack, and messenger bag from tourists like us, and he has to walk to town to charge his cell phone every week. That's all he has -- no toys for the kids, nothing for leisure purposes.
This village sits amid endless dung and flies. The animals and the people go to the bathroom right outside. We were covered from head to toe in dust and walking through dung. Of course, there were flies everywhere, crawling on everything and everyone. The children don't even react to a fly crawling close to their eyes anymore. It's very sobering and brings great perspective to the excessive, consumerist way we live and to the value of sanitation.
Maasai Wanderings, our tour company, is committed to helping the Maasai. They spend 70% of their profits on helping the community, and we got to see a school that Maasai Wanderings had built in this village.
After our tour, Amsee told us we were going to our campsite. We proceeded to walk through the bush as Amsee led the way with his flashlight. We camped in the most rustic situation so far -- no water, toilets, or electricity -- just a clearing in the bush of Maasai territory. We sat around a campfire looking at a beautiful full moon with four Maasai warriors, Kassim, and Elias who was hard at work preparing a phenomenal meal (I gave him my head lamp to help). After dinner, we fell asleep listening to Kassim and Elias speak Swahili with the four Maasai who were watching over our camp for lions or other predators.
