August 2nd --Prepare yourself, this one is long

These are a couple of the huts that make up the boma

From Thursday morning to Saturday morning, we stayed at a Maasai boma. As you might not recall, the Maasai are an indigenous group which have probably fought the most vigorously against Westernization. They still herd cows and goats and at least in this boma, they still live in their traditional huts, and wear traditional clothes.

We talked about concepts of development while we were there, and some interesting ideas came up. Some of the Maasai have "modern" things like cell phones and cars, but no running water. I put modern in quotes because we came to question the idea of modernity. Basically, the way people use the word "modern" means "Western." For example, the signature clothing of the Maasai is not the same clothing that they have always historically worn. The patterns and colors and styles have changed just like Western clothing has, but yet they are still somehow not "modern."

We also discussed Maasai traditional medicine. One lady that we met with had done research on the science behind Maasai medicine, and it turns out that there are several reasons that the Maasai often live to be over 100 years old, and furthermore when they are old, their minds are still sharp, and they can still do most everything for themselves. The different plants that they use have some of the same chemical properties as those in "modern medicine," but the Maasai have also found out which plants complement the others. This means that the negative effects of one ingredient can be controlled by another. This lady, Jema, had all of the names of the chemicals and plants and properties and what receptors they inhibit and so on, but seeing as I'm done with my science credits, I just took away the big ideas. Basically, I was pretty safe for the last three days, even though according to the US travel clinics I should just fly right now back to the safety of America... right.

OK I'm done ranting, now for the parts leading up to the ranting. The roads to the boma were very small and very bumpy (kind of a theme... I don't think you'd survive, Mom) and once we got close, we visited the secondary school for a bit. We talked to the headmaster, who was very interested in "modernizing" (hence the first rant), even if it meant losing a culture. Yeah, he seriously said that plainly. Our Maasai host then promptly said "OK I think it's time for us to eat." We then started our hour-long hike to the boma. Oh, and a boma is a clustering of Maasai houses belonging to an extended family. We arrived at the boma, met our host's family and had lunch, and then had a lecture on ethnicity and identity in Maasai culture. Basically, Jema just gave us the basic structuring of Maasai society and some relationships they have with other tribes in Tanzania.

After that we had tea and another lecture on ideas of development. It was all very interesting because I love hearing different perspectives on things that I've seen basically one way my entire life. Then we, literally, journaled until the cows came home :-) I was so excited to use that phrase. Once the cows (and goats) came home, we attempted to help milk them. Some of us were better at it than others. We then had dinner, talked a bit, and went to bed in our tent. All nine girls decided we wanted to sleep in the same tent, so Chris (the only guy) slept with our drivers and the cook, and our Professor and her assistant got a tent to themselves. We all fit, but it was definitely snug.

The next day we hiked to the Orpul site, which is where the Maasai go to give and receive medical treatment. Those who are squeamish, skip the rest of this paragraph. Once we got there, two warriors (circumcised men 18 to 40 or something like that) sacrificed a goat. The Maasai sacrifice by suffocation so that no blood is spilled, so it wasn't gruesome. I mean, I wouldn't want to do it myself, but I'm not scarred for life. After that they proceeded to clean it and such. They cut up parts of the kidneys and liver to eat raw (4 of the 12 of us participated, I was not one, I know you're disappointed), and then drink the blood (again, some people tasted this, but not me). The meat was roasted on a fire, and most of the other parts of the goat were made into a soup with some medicinal plants. I did taste this, and yes, it was nasty. I was glad that I hadn't partaken in the other parts though because those people had to drink a full portion of the soup to kill any bacteria or whatever was in the raw stuff they ate. We also had additional food cooked for us for lunch there (rice and meat).

Anyway then we had the lecture about the science behind the medicine and walked back to the boma. Nothing very exciting happened until we had dinner. Oh and I forgot to mention that dinner was always exciting because it was always dark by the time we ate, so we ate by lantern light which was difficult. It was sometimes surprising when you couldn't see what you were putting into your mouth. Anyway, we talked for a long time with our cook and our host, Lesikar. We showed the cook pictures of snow, and he told us he was going to have nightmares. He kept exclaiming "How can you live in this?!" and was honestly weirded out by it. Later we were joking with Lesikar, and he was pretending to use his powers as our spiritual leader to predict our futures. He also always joked that Chris had 9 wives (the Maasai are often polygamous), and that Lesikar was going to take some of us for himself. We would always say that we were waiting for a better offer, that Chris could not afford to send 500 cows to America for us, and that Lesikar's wife would kill him if he got another wife.

After all of this, they had a dance which I guess they always do the night that the warriors come back from Orpul. Of course they had us join in, and I'm sure they got a huge kick out of us attempting to mimic their dances. Needless to say, the women can move in ways that we couldn't even comprehend, much less imitate. We had a ton of fun laughing at ourselves though.

So yes, this ends the incredibly long post.