Maasai Manyatta

I got to wake up bright and early this morning since I was on cook crew. I probably cracked about three dozen eggs and made about two pounds of bacon. After breakfast we had a field lecture at a Maasai manyatta. The manyatta is a settlement of several different bomas or homes. It’s set up for tourists to visit, but they try to keep the experience as authentic as possible. The people still only eat meat and drink milk but are not as nomadic as traditional Maasai. The tour started with a welcome song, which was beautiful. We then entered the Manyatta and the tribe demonstrated the infamous jumping, which the two guys tried. They both said it was pretty difficult and a bunch of the staff had fun trying to jump high as well. Since they are a polygamist society, the son of the chief demonstrated a wedding ceremony and explained the differences in the ceremony depending if it is to the first or second wife. We were split up into groups and then got a tour of a boma. They are really tiny and made of mud, sticks and cow dung. It was pretty dark and the inside. I asked our guide if he and his wives share one house and he said yes. He had five people living in his tiny house! They had a little market set up where we could buy some goods to help sustain their community, so I bought a necklace made by some of the women. After we were done shopping, they demonstrated spear throwing, which was pretty cool to watch. We also got to see their version of kindergarten. After the tour was finished, the son’s chief led us in a Maasai prayer and thanked us for coming. After lunch, we had another computer lab to analyze the rest of our data from Tarangire. We have a “poster” due tonight on habitat preferences and population densities on a species of our choice. After working on another assignment, I’m glad tomorrow’s a day off!