Description
In this episode I describe how I go searching for an authentic Maasai Village in Kenya by catching a matatu until I could go no further. They thought I was lost but I finally convinced them of my interest in their culture. I was invited to stay the night with a family in one of their typical bark and dung huts. This led to a friendship in which I returned every weekend after living for the week with white Kenyans in high-fenced estates, looked after by servants, and then each weekend living in the Maasai boma with the family, eating the ugali and spinach and drinking sweet milky tea.
One day I was sitting on a stool in the smoke-filled hut when I felt a sharp pang in my forearm. I was told it was a scorpion and I should take my clothes off. I thought it was weird but I am glad I changed my clothes as I found the tiny scorpion still on my skirt in the morning. I felt the toxin move up my arm and by morning every nerve was alive and I had similar feeling of pins and needles over my whole body for three days.
I spent each weekend at this boma for a couple of months, being taken to some of their ceremonies and enjoying the bizarre lifestyle I was leading as a horse rider during the week and as a budding anthropologist on the weekend. I eventually stopped going when I was continually asked for big sums of money each time I turned up.
From this period, I learnt that sometimes it is scary to take a risk but if you do not take a risk, then you don't get the reward. I took a risk going out on my own to find the Maasai and accepting their invitation to stay, but this allowed me experience their life, their culture and immerse myself into their activities. The lifestyle I lived felt surreal - colonial living during the week and as a nomad on the weekends with pastoralists. The rally car event through a village with no resident car, made it feel even more surreal.
I was very lucky with the scorpion incident as my body reacted to the sting but not to the point to be life-threatening. Note, pandadol does not help! You cannot carry a chemist store with you, but it may be worth carrying strong pain killers and always have a backup plan if things go wrong, especially if you are travelling alone.
Lastly, unfortunately we have created a lot of these problems changing Indigenous cultures through tourism. Just turning up changes their lifestyle. We come through sometimes flashing enough money that would keep them for a month to a year. Some take advantage of it and suddenly it costs money to do anything. The Maasai have been very popular to the tourists, e.g. charging US$20 for a photo (equivalent to a month's wage when I went through). It became easy money and the Maasai got good at asking, and less time finding other work. I don't know what it is like now but I would be surprised if it has changed. We need to be aware of how we interact with different cultures and think of the potential long term impact our behaviours can cause and act appropriately to minimise our impact.
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