Catching my breath and catching up

So I thought feeding orphaned kittens was a big deal, but they’ve got an elephant orphanage here, because there are so many problems with poachers killing elephants to harvest their tusks, so that they can be sent overseas and crushed to make aphrodisiacs for certain misguided cultures that I won’t name here.

The leaders of a large contingency crossing the road in front of us at Amboseli, some of the most fertile of what was originally grazing land of the Maasai. The government appropriated it, to turn into an animal reserve. Note the indentation in the lead animal’s tusk; it’s probably an injury from a poacher’s snare. Check out the tag around its neck; they don’t all have them, so there is some concern about this animal, and it’s being monitored.

The whole family moving through

Kwenia with his cattle

The Maasai are pastoralists, which for them means raising cattle, and cattle represent wealth. They absolutely adore their cattle, and their lives revolve around them. At one time they were nomadic, moving with the cattle as they grazed, but now (because of a governmental redistribution of lands) they live in more permanent communities, or bomas, and move the cattle as needed. Two Maasai will set up camp and sleep with the cattle if they are far from the boma, and they are on duty for a week at a time. Tom, our warrior guide, says this is the duty that a Maasai loves the most.

When a camp is set up, the warriors build a corral out of the spiny branches of trees, surrounding the cattle with the nursing calves, and keeping the slightly older, weaned calves in a separate corral. The Maasai say that all the cattle in the world belong to them, and I think they are not kidding when they say this!

The Maasai are also warriors, and they take this quite seriously, even in the modern world. After adolescent boys are initiated (circumcised) they go through training to become warriors, after which they carry a spear and a club with them always. Part of the ritual to becoming a man is to kill a lion. This is the only impact they consciously have on the natural environment around them. Even though the savannah is full of antelopes and other wild animals that could provide a food source for them, the Maasai never kill a wild animal, believing instead that it is better to live side by side with them in peace. As a result, the animals are quite relaxed in the presence of humans, because they have nothing to fear from their presence.

The Maasai believe that they shouldn’t alter the earth in any way, to the extent that they won’t even make a small kitchen garden plot. They say that God gave them cattle, and he gave other tribes agriculture, so they get their produce from other tribes, such as the neighboring Kamba.

Richard admiring Kwenia’s staff, with Loorpapet in the background

Tom, the warrior who took us on all of our walking safaris through the Merrueshi savannah, and is an incredible font of knowledge about the natural world around him, history, and politics.

What walking safaris are made of….

Our little room at Merrueshi