After a hard week's working, we decided to take a weekend "city break" and stay at a Maasai village. The Maasai are a tribe based in Northern Tanzania/South Kenya who still lead a very traditional way of life. They live in small villages called Boma's. The men tend to the livestock (goats and cattle), and the women pretty much deal with everything else - fetching water, cleaning, cooking, working in the fields, and building the homes. They are very distinctive as they wear brightly coloured red & blue Shuka's (often very similar to Tartan).
The village we visited was about 2 hours away from Arusha. On our way there we stopped at the Maasai market which takes place every saturday morning. Some of the Maasai walk for hours from their bomas up in the hills to get to the market to sell their animals and buy supplies. We needed to buy a goat as a gift to the village we were visiting !!!!
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| Maasai market.
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| Maasai Tyre Shoes |
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| Tyre shoes.
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| Lunch !!!!!!!
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| The butchers !!
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| Getting stuck in !!!!
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| Maasai village.
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| Masai Boma
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| Masai Boma
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| Inside
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| However we got a luxury tent.
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Merigay, one of the Masai from the village took us on a walk of the surrounding area and told us about their way of life and some of the traditional medicines they get from tree bark and the plants.
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| Merrigay.
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| Masai deoderant or Scentu.
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| Some young lads.
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| Gillian meets Mama.
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| Mama. |
After the walk it was time for dinner, enter our special guest the goat we bought !!!!
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| Meet your food !!!!.
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| I was asked to help the Warriors dispatch the goat. This was done by strangulation, as they don't want to waste the blood - they like to drink it !! |
The guys then butchered the goat. They were expert at it, it was not disgusting at all but very interesting. They just dismantled it like you would a car. I was offered one of the specialities - the kidney !!!
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| Warm Kidney anyone ?
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| Mmmm delicious !!!
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| Goat butchery.
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| Thirsty work, time to drink some blood.
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| Cooking the goat and a spot of Masai dancing. |
The next day we went for another walk up to a camp where the young boys stay before they become warriors and get circumsiced. They stay up there for a couple of months chilling out eating goat !!!
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| Next morning some Scentu and a traditional tooth brush.
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| Some women ploughing the fields.
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| Hiking with the Masai.
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| Women collecting water. The water hole was about 1 hours walk from the village. |
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| Some lemongrass.
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| At the camp.
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| On our walk we bumped into a newly born goat. The circle of life !!! |
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| Hiking back.
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| Merrigay's family. |
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| Gillian goes shopping. |
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| Last photo with our guide Merrigay. |
The weekend in the Masai boma was certainly an amazing experience. They made us feel so welcome and the goat dinner wasn't too bad either!
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