SPECIES LIST:
(6 January 2014)
Mammals:
(morning)
lions (mating)
zebra
elephant
silver backed jackal
bat-eared foxes
giraffe
Thompson's gazelle (tomi)
topi
Coke's hartibeast
Grant's gazelle
impalla
waterbuck
Cape buffalo
striped mangrove
baboon
warthog
spotted hyena
(evening)
hippopotamus
Oribi
cheetah
Birds:
Masi Mara:
Black-headed heron
Coqui francolin
Black-bellied bustard
Southern ground hornbill
Common ostrich
Eurasian marsh harrier
Montague’s harrier
Eurasian marsh harrier
Pied kingfisher
Liliac-breasted roller
Rosy-breasted longclaw
Wire-tailed swallow
Hildebrandt’s starling
Pin-tailed whydah
Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
(6 January 2014)
Mammals:
(morning)
lions (mating)
zebra
elephant
silver backed jackal
bat-eared foxes
giraffe
Thompson's gazelle (tomi)
topi
Coke's hartibeast
Grant's gazelle
impalla
waterbuck
Cape buffalo
striped mangrove
baboon
warthog
spotted hyena
(evening)
hippopotamus
Oribi
cheetah
Birds:
Masi Mara:
Black-headed heron
Coqui francolin
Black-bellied bustard
Southern ground hornbill
Common ostrich
Eurasian marsh harrier
Montague’s harrier
Eurasian marsh harrier
Pied kingfisher
Liliac-breasted roller
Rosy-breasted longclaw
Wire-tailed swallow
Hildebrandt’s starling
Pin-tailed whydah
Red-cheeked cordon-bleu
The Masi Village:
After an AMAZING morning of safari, I passed up my siesta opportunity to to interact with some of the Mara locals. I paid $15 US dollars to be welcomed into a Masi village and given a guided tour by the chief's son and other tribe men who had learned English at the missionary school from "people like us" (white people from the west, Canadians in their case).
At Naltarakua (Red Cedar) Village I was able to observe and participate in 5 traditional activities:
1) a welcome song
2) a demonstration of fire making with a block and stick
3) a mens demonstration of a high jumping ritual (the ability to jump high is a quality men use to impress women and is used for partner selection) and a womens dance
4) a tour of a Masi home
5) a blessing song
The home tour was guided by a man with the western name of Benjamin. It was his mothers house that he grew up in. He explained to us how the walls and roof were made of a mixture of mud and manure to withstand the rain and that only very small windows were installed (open spaces) to prevent hyena and leopard from capturing children sleeping in the night. Masi homes all have low ceilings and stand about 5 feet tall, so we all had to bend forward to when we entered. Each Masi house has only four rooms: a sleeping room, a guest room, a room for calves, and a cooking room where the children have a bed. Ages up to 7 or 10 years old all have to sleep together in the children's room, which is basically an area cushioned with dung and plants in a space connected to the communal cooking area. We were told that when children are old enough, they are sent to live with their grandparents to learn about their culture.
Ben explained to me that they do not have gardens because when the annual wildebeest migration occurs in the Mara it pushes other animals out of the plains and into their village. Then elephants come and destroy the crops. (The Masi are historically nomadic but are now becoming permanent residents in many area of the Mara). He told me that the "people like us" that taught them at their schools, showed them how to set up a craft market to sell their traditional items, carvings and jewelry, so that they can buy food at the store to supplement their diets with other items besides meat and blood from their animals. I told him about the bee fences that conservationists have been recently experimenting with in Africa. I explained that elephants are frightened of bees and that bees can be used as a deterrent to keep elephants out of gardens.... This was after a long and confusing conversation, where I had to figure out how to explain to him what bees are because they are a species he had never heard of.... I feel pretty confident he was intrigued when I told him that their village didn't have to have one way (the craft market) like the other "people like us" told them about or the other (farming) that they tried before the other "people like us" set up a school next to their village. I promoted the notion that their village could have both, a craft market and a garden, and also honey.
We also talked to Ben about traditional culture and modern culture. From what I understand from his explanations, if you make it to the university in Nairobi, as he did, the rules for how many wives you can have and when such life events take place are less rigid than those for the Masi who stay in the village. I also asked if he grew up drinking blood from cows (I saw it on National Geographic) and he said "yes" but once you leave the village and eat other things your tastes change and that he prefers "coca cola" and doesn't want to drink cow blood.
After an AMAZING morning of safari, I passed up my siesta opportunity to to interact with some of the Mara locals. I paid $15 US dollars to be welcomed into a Masi village and given a guided tour by the chief's son and other tribe men who had learned English at the missionary school from "people like us" (white people from the west, Canadians in their case).
At Naltarakua (Red Cedar) Village I was able to observe and participate in 5 traditional activities:
1) a welcome song
2) a demonstration of fire making with a block and stick
3) a mens demonstration of a high jumping ritual (the ability to jump high is a quality men use to impress women and is used for partner selection) and a womens dance
4) a tour of a Masi home
5) a blessing song
The home tour was guided by a man with the western name of Benjamin. It was his mothers house that he grew up in. He explained to us how the walls and roof were made of a mixture of mud and manure to withstand the rain and that only very small windows were installed (open spaces) to prevent hyena and leopard from capturing children sleeping in the night. Masi homes all have low ceilings and stand about 5 feet tall, so we all had to bend forward to when we entered. Each Masi house has only four rooms: a sleeping room, a guest room, a room for calves, and a cooking room where the children have a bed. Ages up to 7 or 10 years old all have to sleep together in the children's room, which is basically an area cushioned with dung and plants in a space connected to the communal cooking area. We were told that when children are old enough, they are sent to live with their grandparents to learn about their culture.
Ben explained to me that they do not have gardens because when the annual wildebeest migration occurs in the Mara it pushes other animals out of the plains and into their village. Then elephants come and destroy the crops. (The Masi are historically nomadic but are now becoming permanent residents in many area of the Mara). He told me that the "people like us" that taught them at their schools, showed them how to set up a craft market to sell their traditional items, carvings and jewelry, so that they can buy food at the store to supplement their diets with other items besides meat and blood from their animals. I told him about the bee fences that conservationists have been recently experimenting with in Africa. I explained that elephants are frightened of bees and that bees can be used as a deterrent to keep elephants out of gardens.... This was after a long and confusing conversation, where I had to figure out how to explain to him what bees are because they are a species he had never heard of.... I feel pretty confident he was intrigued when I told him that their village didn't have to have one way (the craft market) like the other "people like us" told them about or the other (farming) that they tried before the other "people like us" set up a school next to their village. I promoted the notion that their village could have both, a craft market and a garden, and also honey.
We also talked to Ben about traditional culture and modern culture. From what I understand from his explanations, if you make it to the university in Nairobi, as he did, the rules for how many wives you can have and when such life events take place are less rigid than those for the Masi who stay in the village. I also asked if he grew up drinking blood from cows (I saw it on National Geographic) and he said "yes" but once you leave the village and eat other things your tastes change and that he prefers "coca cola" and doesn't want to drink cow blood.
When we were finished up in the traditional house and heard the blessing song that both the men and women sang together the chief's son picked up a cow horn instrument from the ground, that like everything in the village was covered in black flies, and blew it until a low sound filled the air. He offered it to me and I gave it a try. With some success a dull noise came out of it. I am pretty sure that with the concern my traveling companions had for excessive sanitation this behavior made me an oddity.
My traveling companions also had questions about how much a wife is worth and how many wives the average man has (Masi women are bartered by their families in their polygamous society). They were also jokingly attempting to barter me for 600 cows. The Masi have a good sense of humor and our guide laughed a bit and said "yeah I should get a white wife". Then when I was walking back to our car our guide playfully asked me if I had a high jumper back home, teaching me quite possibly, the most amusing and esoteric slang EVER.
My traveling companions also had questions about how much a wife is worth and how many wives the average man has (Masi women are bartered by their families in their polygamous society). They were also jokingly attempting to barter me for 600 cows. The Masi have a good sense of humor and our guide laughed a bit and said "yeah I should get a white wife". Then when I was walking back to our car our guide playfully asked me if I had a high jumper back home, teaching me quite possibly, the most amusing and esoteric slang EVER.