The Maasai tribes of Tanzania
The Maasai are a tribe living in the North of Tanzania, they speak the Maa language. They are a nomadic tribe and have originally arrived from South Sudan and migrated southwards until they found the perfect conditions for their lifestyle with enough grass for their cattle to graze on in the South of Kenya and north of Tanzania. Maasai are regarded as warriors and are great at hunting and killing lions if they threaten their village and cattle. Nowadays they are not allowed to kill lions anymore, but back in the day they would throw a bow arrow at the lions and kill them this way. Approximately 50000 Maasai people live in the Ngorongoro crater. On the last day, we had a trip booked to a Maasai village. This was such an enriching and amazing experience, similarly to the Hibba village we visited. It started off with our tour guide – a sweet Maasai guy called Raphael, who would bring us around to show us the huts they live in. The village we visited, was still quite new. They only had 1 or 2 completed huts, the rest were halfway built. The huts are small and dark and sometimes split into two “rooms” where up to 3-4 people can sleep at once. Raphael showed us how they keep their cattle and explained a thing or two about their culture – for example, the Maasai tribe doesn’t drink water, only porridge during the day. They also drink cow blood. They extract the blood with a bow arrow from a cow’s vein and when they have enough, they cover the wound and let it heal OR another option is collecting the blood upon slaughter of the animal. They showed us some traditional dances in the village, like a dance they have to celebrate when a warrior kills a lion, or a dance to win over the lady you want. Some of the dances involve jumping as high as you can, the dance is called Adumu and is incredible to see and experience. They pulled us in to dance with them after they dressed us in typical Maasai clothes and gave us some necklaces and earrings. There were games like throwing a bow arrow where the arrow must poke the ground and stay like this and it was apparently difficult to do, or maybe they just pretended because i made it from the first attempt hahah 😀 I loved taking photos of the ladies in the tribe and the elderly, especially THIS gorgeous old lady, this is not my photo but i do have a photo OF and WITH her myself. We also gave them some colouring books and crayons and the ladies organized a market where we bought souvenirs, earrings and other things. I gathered everyone to take a few nice photos of them which I later sent to Raphael on instagram and he was very happy about them ^_^ Overall such an unforgettable experience!
Final Thoughts & Moments
Our last night was not in the Charity hotel, but closer to the airport, as we requested so in order not to have to wake up super early, and already knew what the traffic is like and didn’t want to stay 2h in traffic. The company booked us a great location where this beautiful lady, albeit a bit grumpy, asked if we want to order dinner as she needed to know an hour early in order to cook for us. Fill didn’t want to, but I did and this was THE BEST MEAL I’ve ever had.. ok at least for all African food i’ve ever had. Oh my god! I will never forget the taste and I’m drooling almost by only thinking about it – super tender half a chicken, soft and insanely delicious bread, African flat bread of some sort and the most delicious curry I’ve EVER had! You grab a piece of the bread and with it you hold some of the vegetables inside the curry along with the sauce. You only eat with your hands but OH MY GOD! This was soooo, sooooo, sooooooooo good! The best meal ever! And i eventually started talking to the lady and she even softened a bit. The breakfast the next morning was also great, but nothing like that dinner..
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