My Maasai Family

Every time I think I am experiencing the most exotic, astonishing cultural event I end up going to something that amazes me even more. Today I was able to do a homestay with a Maasai family in a nearby boma. There were four generations of women in the family and several 20 year old girls who took me in like a sister from the moment I arrived and showed me everything that a girl my age does on a daily basis. The husband of the oldest woman had 7 other wives and all the other women that were married tended to be one wife of many.
From the minute I walked into their house nobody could seem to stop smiling. One of the first things we did was crowd into the kitchen area (which consisted of a shelf and a fire pit with three rocks to hold up pots) and blew on coals to light a fire. The tiny room (with no ventilation) filled with smoke immediately and before I knew it there was a blazing fire at my feet. We balanced a pot on the three rocks and boiled water and milk with loose leaf tea. Through broken English, Kiswahilli, Maa, and pantomiming we had fabulous conversations about our daily lives, families, and futures.
After tea all the women prepared to collect firewood by strapping all the young children and babies to their backs with cloths. To make sure I didn’t feel left out they tied a baby on to my back and handed me a huge knife to chop branches. Considering how many thorns I usually acquired while walking through the bush I was extremely nervous that the sleeping baby was not going to be pleased being on my back. Nevertheless, we walked for about a kilometer and then set the babies down and collected thorny firewood from surrounding acacia trees. We stacked the firewood in neat piles and tied it together with rope we made from peeling strips off another plant. To carry it back we strapped the rope to our foreheads and lifted the load onto our backs. On the way back the women taught me Maasai songs which completely distracted me from my physical discomfort.
As soon as we got back to the house we started preparing lunch. When there is only one pot, one fire, and a dozen mouths to feed, meals become quite an ordeal. We took turns chopping white cabbage and stirring a pot of ugali (white corn meal). When the ugali was done we mixed the cabbage with “pure white fat” (as the container said…???) and a little bit of onion and put it over the fire. With so many people and a scorching fire in such a tiny room I was soaked with sweat the entire time, and I was completely covered in flies from head to toe. Nonetheless, considering that the white food group is my favorite, I was actually quite content with white cabbage and white corn meal for lunch.
The afternoons in Kenya can be dreadfully hot since being on the equator makes the sun incredibly intense. To get out of the sun we all sat in the dirt in the tiny bit of shade from the house, leaned on each other, and took a nap. I already felt so comfortable and close with all the women that I dozed off immediately as one of the girls stroked my hair with amusement. After resting for about an hour we got out beads and I learned how to make traditional Maasai jewelry - which gave me a new appreciation for the amount of work that is put in to what originally seemed like a simple bracelet.
When the afternoon cooled off we once again tied the babies to our backs and carried water jugs to a spring that was also about a kilometer away. After filling up all the containers I immediately offered to carry the biggest one, thinking I could impress all the women. I first strapped it on my back (without the baby), took two steps, and fell over. Embarrassed, I tried it again on my shoulder, and then on my head, and once more on my back. I blushed as I continued to fall over into the dirt. I eventually accepted defeat and took a smaller water jug. Holy cow do I have a new appreciation for my faucet.
I dreaded leaving these wonderful women and couldn’t thank them enough for teaching me so many things and putting up with my naivety of their daily activities. Doing such strenuous jobs with such content, cheerful women taught me more about being happy than anything else I have every experienced.