Maasai & Manure

Today we visited a Maasai tribe and had a little tour around their village. It was pretty cool (and commercialized). The tour began with a song and dance show (literally) by the Maasai men and women. The Maasai warriors jumped super high in the sky and did a kind of grunting chanting song. The strength of a Maasai warrior is based on how high he can just (and they jump HIGH). The women stood in a straight line and sang. It was pretty interesting to see. The men wear these cool shoes made out of tires! They were awesome, I may have to bring that trend to CA. After the "show" we were welcomed into their village of dung (well that's not what they called it, but it really was a village made of dung!). We gathered in the center of the village where the cows and goats are kept for the night (more dung) and watched a few of the Maasai warriors light a fire with sticks. One of the guys in our group had the warrior "brand" his arm 3 times with the tip of the stick. It was nuts! After he was burned they rubbed... yup you guessed it, dung, on his welt. People can be yo-yo's sometimes! After that we went into one of the warriors house of dung and met one of his 3 wives and 2 of his (???) children. He talked to us about killing a lion and tried to get me to trade Pasi's super cool Timex for a lion tooth (I later found out that it is illegal for them to kill lions and the tooth was not likely real). The home was separated into three rooms (with walls made of dung). One room was for the baby animals (cows & goats), one room was for sleeping and the other was the kitchen. The women build the houses, which takes about 2-3 weeks and the men go between the homes of their wives. When our little tour was over we were able to haggle with the Maasai and buy some interesting items. I was happy with what I got! Tomorrow we are back to working with the kids at Humble Hearts! I've missed them!