A Day In The Life

Today we ride with Dominick. He speaks five languages and can guide fluently in three, (French, English, Spanish). Actually, he could guide in 4 but there isn’t much demand for Swahili language safaris…yet. Many of his sentences are punctuated with a melodic, emphatic “ye-ah?”

Dominick

More Dom

OAT Duffel Bags Ready to Load

The Big Five:

Elephant

Lion

Rhinoceros

Leopard

Cape Buffalo

The big five is a list once created by big-game hunters of the most difficult animals to hunt on foot. The term was co-opted by safari operators as the “must-see” animals. We’re buying into the list idea and definitely hope to see them all.

Dom introduces us to the little five; all animals connected to the big five by their names.

The Little Five:

Elephant Shrew

Ant-Lion

Rhinoceros Beetle

Leopard Turtle

White Headed Buffalo Weaver

Not an imposing list. But, we’ll keep it in mind.

Today we’re traveling towards the Serengeti on a mix of paved and rutted roads. Dom tells us there is so much road-induced jostling they can’t rely on the gas gauge needle. Instead, each day they set the odometers to zero and calculate by mileage how much gas they’re using.

Even on the paved portions he’s forced to maneuver over speed bump after speed bump. When this portion of the road was unpaved people could see and hear cars coming from a long distance. Once it was paved the cars came quickly and quietly and individuals were struck while trying to cross. People staged a protest by laying in the road and eventually forced the government to place speed bumps in populated areas.

For every driving infraction the police will charge you $20 per offense.

80% of the people in Tanzania live in rural areas on $1 a day or they barter and live without money. A successful farmer makes @ $10,000 a year.

There are also, for real, zebra crossings. If they need to get to the other side of the road, they just go. We are entertained.

We also stop when Dom spots a leopard turtle in the road. It’s a big beautiful creature with leopard-like spots on its shell. Dom is about to rescue it from the road and redirect it back to safety, but as soon as he stops the truck several little boys come out of hiding and scoop the turtle up. Then they ask for money to allow us to take photos. Not wanting to encourage this devilish (but enterprising) deed, we move on.

Chief Labulu welcomes us to a Maasai village. He is a young chief who’s earned his respected position because he is an effective communicator and mediator and also because he once killed a lion single-handedly.

Chief Labulu

Each village represents a family. There is one hut for the male and one hut for each of his wives. The compound is fenced with sisal plants. The spikey sword-shaped leaves not only provide a barrier against unwanted visitors but their fiber is super strong. It is dried and woven into rugs and rope and is also used as a medicine. Sisal provides moisture for animals in the bush. They squeeze it like sugar cane. 

We are greeted by a line of women who come dancing and singing from the far side of the compound. They are dressed in maroon robes and wear beaded neck discs. Thrusting their shoulders makes the discs bounce.

They wrap the women in our group in lively red sari-like robes, cinched at the waist. Gorgeously beaded neck discs add a finishing touch. They invite us to dance with them and we perform in an enthusiastic but ultimately pathetic effort.

The men then perform their leaping dance. They jump into the air from a standstill. The higher the leap, the higher the admiration.

Maasai Leaping Dance

So You ThinkYou Can Leap?

Their round huts are plastered with a mix of cow dung, soil and ash and have dry thatched roofs. We are invited (women only) to try our hand at adding dried straw to a rooftop and to smear a wall with dung. Why would we refuse? Afterwards we are treated to a cleanup session, our hands are scrubbed and our nails cleaned with a switch of straw. The Maasai women’s nails are worn down to nothing and their hands are coarse and work-roughened.

Thatch Work

Drying in the Sun

Raw Materials

Stucco Work

Maasai Manicure

Learning to Use Our Heads

The huts have a living area with a wood fired cooking stove and benches. A wall divides off a sleeping area. Baby animals are brought into the living area at night for protection.

 

Central Living Area

Cookstove Chimney

Hut Ceiling

Ombeni Explains How This Milk-Filled Gourd is Shaken to Make Butter

View Through the Hut Window

In the Maasai culture men have lots of free time. Women do all of the work. Current wives often suggest wife candidates hoping they will be added to the family and share in the workload. A man pays a dowry, (cattle) for a wife. The dowry can be paid over time.

Young boys tend the cattle. When a Maasai meets another Maasai the first two questions asked are: “How are the kids?” and “How are the cows?” A strong indicator of what is important in their pastoral lives.

Maasai don’t celebrate birthdays. If you ask their age they will give you an older age so they get more respect. They have great deference for old people, as they are ready to go to the other side of the line where they will join the ancestors. If they give the ancestors a bad report  (if they talk badly about you) you could be punished in this life.

Maasai men carry a machete used for cutting meat and also for defense. They also have cell phones.

The circumcision ceremony is performed every 7 years for all boys between 11 and 18.  This is an important rite of passage for a Maasai male. He proves his bravery by not moving or crying out during the procedure. A flinch causes him to be labeled a coward.

After circumcision boys are considered warriors and garner respect, as a mature person, moving from child to adulthood.

Once circumcised the boys stay out in the bush for several months dressed in black robes with their faces painted white. When they return there is another celebration.

Their dreadlocks are cut off and they are considered fully-grown and responsible.

Circumcision Boys

Female circumcision is illegal, carrying a penalty of 35 years in jail. However, the practice is sometimes still quietly carried on because it is such an ingrained part of the culture.

The Maasai medicine doctor doesn’t accept money, only gifts (often an animal) if his cure works. He has gained his knowledge from his ancestors and doesn’t take credit for his wisdom. Ash from the fire is used as a medicine.

The Maasai women spread out their beautiful beadwork on the ground for our perusal and purchase. We each select a few treasures as a way to remember these women and to support them. In this short morning we’ve made a connection, woman to woman without spoken language. We just know.

A Deal is Struck

Woman to Woman

The Makonde is the wood carving tribe of Tanzania. We stop to watch several carvers work with ebony and acacia. They shine it to a handsome luster using shoe polish and wax.

Bottle Cap Decor

At  a happy room stop we discover bats clustered on the ceiling. A mosquito free zone.

We follow a curving road ascending above Karatu’s green fertile valley. It’s well watered by the Mto Wa Mbu River (river of mosquitoes). The soil here is good and the water table is high. It’s more green than we’ve yet seen. The ground yields maize, beans and peas. There are mango and almond trees and bananas in great piles. We’ve gone from the savannah to the tropics.

At another happy room stop young boys appear from nowhere (Dom says they hide) with armloads of jewelry. We bargain through the windows. After Smita and I agree to buy several necklaces they continue to want to sell more. Becky says, “close the window, Pauline”. Why didn’t I think of that?

We turn down a dusty red dirt road; drive past shacks and ruined walls to a solid wooden gate. When opened we are admitted to a touch of paradise. Green grass, immense flowerbeds, and the charmingly attractive Tloma Lodge. The grounds are completely fenced so it’s safe to walk alone at night. There is so much water here the sprinklers are spraying over massive flowerbeds and an impressive organic vegetable garden that feeds the lodge guests.

We’re given a key to Mbobo (Swahili for buffalo). Our room is like a little house with a sitting area, fireplace and a porch. There are solar panels on the roof, promising hot showers. Laundry left in a basket outside the door will be picked up and returned within hours for $1 a piece, (two socks count as one piece and mine go immediately into the basket).

There’s even a hair dryer….first one since we arrived. I’m disappointed when I turn it on and it goes pfffft. Fortunately, there’s a back up that really, really works.

Coffee Beans Drying in the Sun

We’re at a higher altitude, so it’s cooler at night. When we walk the path to the main lodge there’s a fire blazing in the pits on the open-air deck. They’re mixing dawas, a specialty cocktail of gin, tonic, fresh lime and lemon juices, and honey served in a martini glass with a straw cut from a reed. Dawa means magic potion or medicine in Swahili. Aptly named.

Happy Hour

The Dawa

Jupiter shines brightly in the black sky. The moon is just short of full.