Have you ever slept with your face rubbing up against the wall of a mud hut? Have you ever gone hunting with a group of 10 Maasai warriors? Have you ever eaten every single part of a goat? These are just a few of the highlights from my trip to Edoynya Erinka, a small village in Maasai land.
My classmate Mike and I traveled to Maasai land on Saturday morning and stayed for three nights. A friend of my mentor named Jonathon Ololokum was the Maasai guy who took us around, found a place for us to stay, and did all of the translating.
On Sunday after church we went hunting. The weapons were spears (which Mike and I tried throwing but didn't have the skill) and clubs used for throwing called Eringas. It wasn't a very successful hunting day as we only captured a baby Bushbaby, (and that took 45 minutes because one of the Maasai guys insisted on climbing an Acacia tree to get it, and if you know anything about acacia trees they are covered in thorns; therefore the guys had to hack off branch after branch to get up to the Bushbaby) we killed one snake and one bird. The bird kill was impressive. I have heard that people in Australia used to kill birds with boomerangs, but I never knew how they did it, but this week I saw how it was possible. Someone would spot a bird in a bush, (most of them only as big as sparrows) everyone would surround the bush, they would throw rocks or sticks in to scare it out, and when it came out the closest people would through their clubs at it while it was flying away. Of course, while this was happening everyone also had to be careful not to get hit by another flying club. It was an amazing adventure to be trampling through the African bush armed with nothing but a club.
Later that night we went jumping hare hunting again (which I told an earlier story about). We were successful this time! I was in hot pursuit of one jumping hare and my hands had brushed against his tail when I fells into the dirt. I was soon running again after the same one and he stopped when it came to an acacia tree. I had to slam on my brakes to keep from running straight into the thorny tree, but again my hands slipped around his tail but he jumped out just in time. Luckily he jumped right in from of another Maasai guy who just grabbed the whole hare by the body. Success!!
Jonathon drives a Toyota Hilux, but because we broke the truck on the trip out to Edoynya Erinka we weren't able to go on a big game drive that we were planning for Monday. The day didn't turn out all bad through. It was their first day of cold winter, but it still wasn't too cold. Since we couldn't drive places we ended up tracking elephants on foot rather than by car. This was another great adventure and I kept thinking that my life is like a dream at times; how many people get the chance to walk across the African savanna and cross rivers in search of elephants? We left the spears at home this day because we didn't have enough people in the hunting party to be taking down an elephant anyway.
The first two nights we slept in a guest house of a missionary family, but the third night was spent in a Maasai hut. We watched a lady prepare dinner in one house and we ate dinner there also. The houses are set up with a bed one one side, a fireplace/cooking area in the middle and another bed on the other side. And by fireplace I mean open fire with a U-shaped ridge that the pots can sit on above the fire. The interesting thing about the Maasai houses is that they don't have ventilation for the smoke to escape. It works well for heating purposes, but it doesn't work well for visitors who aren't used to EXTREMELY thick smoke going into their eyes at all times. It doesn't phase the Maasai who grew up in the smoky huts, but for me, I begin crying after three seconds of entering the hut and I continue crying for about an hour, and my nose runs the entire time also.
After eating in Jonathon's sister-in-law's house we went to the house where we were staying and just sat on the bed for a while. We went into the house, Jonathon said goodnight because he was staying in another house and he left--taking with him all forms of communication because no one in the house spoke English, and Mike and I didn't know any Kimaasai. We sat on our bed and looked at the bed across from us, the room was lit by the remaining coals from the cooking fire and a small lantern made from a rum bottle. All we could see were six young faces just staring at us and sitting their silently. We didn't know what to do. Were we expected to go to bed right now? Were we supposed to take off our shoes and socks? Were the girls going to stare at us until we fell asleep? We were quite the attraction because I'm sure they had never had wazungus staying in their house before. Mike and I started talking to each other about what we should do while the onlookers just watched. I was finally brave enough to take off my shoes and make it look like I was preparing for bed and I laughed hard when Mike said, "I'm trying to find a way to tactfully take off my pants." I finally laid down in my bed and put my blanket over me (still being watched by six people) and I said "lala salama" (which is sleep peacefully in Kiswahili) and this finally broke the silence. A bunch of them giggled and started talking in Kimaasai and I just then realized that they knew Kiswahili. So we were finally able to communicate a little bit. I told them we were tired, so we were going to bed, and we would see them in the morning. After I said this five of the people left because apparently they weren't even staying in that house that night. I guess we were simply the main attraction and our act was simply preparing for bed. That night I slept in many different positions, trying to get comfortable on the bed which was a frame made of sticks but covered with blankets. I would have slept comfortably if it was a little longer so I could have slept on my back, but because it was too short I had to sleep on my sides and it made it more difficult. It was a fun experience anyway.
posted by Caleb Acton @ 6:29 AM
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