The Migrating Tourists

We took a break from the animals today. This wasn't just a safari. There were many days where the culture and history of Tanzania were explored. We spent the morning in a Maasai village. We were really visiting a family, but there were many homes with a fence (called a boma) surrounding the area.

As we entered, the first house on the right was for the first wife. The first house on the left was for the second wife. Then the second house on the right was for the third wife, and so on. There were a total of eight wives in this family. More wealthy men have more wives, paying the brides' fathers dowries of cows. We were greeted by the one and only husband and his brother.

Maasai breakfast is milk mixed with cow's blood. Our group gingerly walked into the family's corral, and one of the older sons chose a cow and chased him down. The handle was the tail, another son put his hand in the cow's mouth and gripped the lower jaw. The combination of these two hand-holds kept the cow still. Next, a rope was put around the cow's neck to restrict blood-flow in the jugular vein, causing it to be visible along the neck.

An arrow was shot at the jugular and bounced off. The arrow as too dull, and another was quickly found and sharpened. A small stream of blood spurt from the neck and was caught in a gourd which was half-filled with milk. When the gourd was full, the vein was clotted with human spit and the cow's own hair. This cow could expect to be bled about once a month. There was no refrigeration. The Maasai only kill cows for large feasts when there would be enough people to eat the cow in one sitting.

The gourd was shook a bit to mix the milk and blood. The Maasai each took a swig, and then offered it to us. We had already had breakfast, and decided to save room for lunch.

The wives came out of a meeting they were having in the first wife's house. They danced and sang a greeting. Soon we were all being dressed in Maasai clothing, and our group was involved in the dance.

The women (Maasai and tourists) went to the field to collect thatch which they brought back to repair the roof of one of the houses. Another demonstration was fixing a crack in the house's wall by mixing water, sand, and cow dung.

We crowded into the first wife's house to observe living conditions. Since there were eight wives and one husband, he would sleep in a different house every night. The children of each wife would sleep with her. Godliving served as translator while we asked the first wife about her life, and she asked about ours. She found much about our lives funny.

Time to shop. The Maasai women created a display of their art atop tarps and blankets. Negotiating was a must. The item I bought had an asking price of 10,000 shillings. But the final price was settled at 7,000. The husband of the family and his brother invited us over for a drink of his liquor. This was a very powerful rum. Had he poured the drinks earlier, the women might have negotiated higher prices.

Down the road from the Maasai village, we stopped at a store where wood carvings were sold. These products were from members of another tribe who are usually found in southern Tanzania. But since the tourists tend to stay in the north, these men migrated to this area to find a market. If you weren't a good negotiator with the Maasai, you might have your lunch eaten at this shop. These were hard sellers who confused people with fast talk, changing the items being sold, and switching between dollars and shillings. They even tried to deal with me when I said I had no money. The wood was very good quality, but I couldn't see how we would get some items home without breakage. We bought a small ebony bowl.

We started our migration away from the Taranguire area towards the Serengeti. This night we stayed in a resort called the Farm House in the foothills of Ngorongoro crater.