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TANZANIA
05/07/2004 |
The Night at Masai Place |
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The night from Sunday to Monday (05-06 July) we slept in Masai tribe village. It was
more of a settlement of two families than a village. Our delegation
consisted of 7 people: me, 4 Dutch girls and our friends Chris and
Abbou, who knew the Masai.
We drove West from Morogoro for about 60 km in a dala dala- that is how
they call minibuses in Tanzania. A minibus has seats for 14-16
passengers, though, as a rule over 20 or I would not be surprised if
even 30 passengers would pack the bus from outside and inside.
Those four Dutch ladies blabbered all the way... Even at Masai place 1-2 communicated with the others and the rest 2-3 blabbered and blabbered non-stop... :)
We reached the Masai place only at 6 PM. As it got dark during the rest
30-45 minutes, we made very little pictures.
In the evening Chris was our cook and he made rice with vegetables. The
rest of us sort of communicated with Masai people. The Masai were
impressed when we told that cows in Europe give over 50 liters of milk a
day whereas their cows can hardly provide 6 liters. Of course the
difference is that their cows have to give a lot of milk to their
offspring and in our lands cows get a lot of grass.
After an hour of stay with Masai we started bemoaning on how these
people spend their days when there are only sands with appropriate
bushes around and they have to drive their cattle every day for 20 km to
the water.
There are lots of flies in Masai village. If a Masai child stood still
for 10 seconds you could count 100 flies on his face... Flies were
sticking around us too but not so disgustingly. As i was told, main
liquid for Masai is a cow milk. They use milk to wash themselves too if
they wash themselves at all. Many people told this tribe does not wash
themselves so they stink immensely. They walk covered with red check
fabric and have nothing else under it. Their ears have a big stretched
hole where they shove their apparel. They put the apparel – metal
glitter on their hands, foot and neck... Masai man always has some 50 cm
stick with a knob on the top. The stick with a knob is made of one-piece
wood. Masai men and women always eat separately. Children eat with women
and when you are a 12 years old boy you join the men.
One boy caressed my soft hair with his soily hand when a Masai woman was
showing me her kitchen with special vessels for keeping milk. Those
oblong vessels are made of certain fruit. Unfortunately I can't remember
the names of the fruits and vessels...
In the morning we were awakened by cows and nasty flies since we slept
in an open tent. As girls planned to travel to Dar Es Salaam the same
day, we photographed some cows and those several people, paid the Masai
some money for their “service” and left their settlement at 8 in the
morning. We went towards the road, took a packed dala dala in which my
head was leaning upon the ceiling...
Augustas
Morogoro
Tanzania |
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