meet the maasai.

Recently, we were lucky enough to visit a Maasai Boma. The Maasia settled in this area around 200 years ago. Daniel, the Swahili professor and one of our drivers, is Maasai, along with a few other staff members. The group at this Boma greeted us with cultural singing and dancing—clad in their traditional, colorful fabric and large beaded necklaces.This lasted for quite a while, as they even pulled a few of our group into the dancing.

The Maasai traditionally practice pastoralism and have a large coral, lined with thorny bushes, where their livestock stay at night. The thorns are only minimally effective though, because wildlife still occasionally attack their animals. (This is one area of our research: their attitudes toward wildlife and proactive ways to alleviate the tension). As for their living space, mud houses suffice. A traditional Boma is made with sticks and mud, sometimes a thatch roof. Inside it  is dark and fly infested, no larger than my room at home.  After the boma, we had a chance to pass by their preschool, nothing more than a square mud structure- no books or blackboards in sight.

However, through the dust and the relentless flies, the fact that we had a chance to meet a Maasai tribe was quite eye-opening. Their resources are clearly limited: the closest water source was 6 km away. Their houses are tiny. Their livelihood is laborious. But these observations are all by my Western standards. This certainly does not make them any less joyful or welcoming. From our brief experience, all of these traits are more than plentiful resources.