Mambo from the United African Alliance Community Center! We arrived here yesterday afternoon fresh (although somewhat smelly) off our three day Safari to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Lake Manyara National Park. We witnessed the laziness of lions, the zen of elephants, the staggering numbers of the zebra and wildebeest herds, as well as many of other creatures of the Serengeti such as: a leopard, a cheetah, a family of hyenas, birds dancing on the backs of hippos, a black rhino, giraffes, impalas, antelopes, buffalo, elands, blue monkeys, vervets, mongoose, diks diks, warthogs, bush backs, water bucks, jackals, white flamingos, ostriches, and many other species of bird including the largest flying bird in the world.
Upon our departure from the Ngorongoro Crater, we paused to snap a picture of a mama and baby baboon. Before we could close the windows on our jeep, the cute momma, with the baby in her arms, quickly transformed into a vicious momma, and proceeded to jump onto the roof of our jeep. Emily fell out of the car, Jill screamed and leapt out the window, Bridget searched frantically for something to hit it with before joining Emily and Jill in their escape, leaving Allison to face the baboon alone. Hearing the screams of terror, our driver quickly came to the rescue screaming and waving his arms. The baboon fled, only to return moments later with reinforcements. Giving new meaning to the phrase “guerilla warfare,” they baboons quickly entered the jeep next to ours, stole a box of crackers and quickly made off with their prize. We learned a valuable lesson that day: cute and fuzzy doesn’t always mean cuddly.
For the ten days proceeding the Safari, we lived in a traditional boma in the Maasai village of Esilalei. A boma is a large circular fence constructed from acacia trees, which possess large thorns, to protect the dwellings and livestock within from lions and hyenas. The dwellings are built from mud, manure, and tree limbs, with a thatched roof of grass. There are two separate structures, one for men and one for women, as well as a guest house constructed only of sticks, giving it a more open feel and allowing the breeze to cool it during the heat of the day; the latter acted as our dining hall. In the center of the three houses is a smaller boma. This is where the cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys ad chickens are kept during the night. We stayed within the boma in tents provided for us by Maasai Wanderings, and ate delicious food prepared for us by our chef Jackson.
While living with the Maasai we worked on three service projects: painting a road sign for the school, filling in a concrete foundation for the school’s kitchen, and constructing a water tank and gutter system for the kitchen that will catch precipitation during the rainy season. The projects took about five days to complete, and were greatly appreciated by the village and those working in the school. Some mornings we played with the students who were very eager to meet us, and found everything about us and our culture to be utterly fascinating. We loved spending time with them and teaching them American games such as Duck-Duck-Goose and ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.’
A typical day in the Maasai village consisted of a morning spent on the service project, and a lazy afternoon spent writing in our journals, doing laundry, and interacting with our ever friendly local hosts. In the evenings before dinner, we often helped bring the cows home under spectacular sunsets. We also visited a weekly Maasai market where Saxon bought a pair of traditional Maasai sandals made from recycled tires. We went on a walking Safari led by two Maasai, on which we saw elephants, giraffes, lions and wildebeests, saw a lamb being born, and slaughtered and ate a goat Maasai style. The celebration of the goat was a much needed thank you to the Maasai tribe for allowing us to stay with them. We saw how they skin and butcher livestock for meals, traditionally consisting of milk, blood, and meat. While the goat was being butchered, Allison performed an eye ball dissection, which was really fun and interesting to see.
As mentioned earlier, we are currently residing at the UAACC, a community center created by an exiled black panther named Pete. During our stay we will help teach English, art, sewing, music and computer classes to anyone who wants to learn, as well as to the twenty-two children who live here full time. After the UAACC, we’re heading to Rwanda for a few days to visit the site of the Rwandan Genocide and further our knowledge of the events of 1994.
Stay tuned for future posts!
Salama! (Peace)
Saxon, Bridget
