Longido Maasai

Yesterday, Brad and Denise decided to climb Mount Longido. Our friend Julius took them and originally told them it would take two hours to get up and two hours down. They left around 9am and did not return until around 4 or 5pm. They had a wonderful time, but were very tired. Julius told them that they might see elephants along the way, but they only saw evidence of the elephants. Julius is a Maasai and is 27 years old. He is currently in college studying wildlife conservation. He knows all the plants, trees, birds, and other wildlife, so he's been teaching us a lot. He struggles to pay his school fees and had to convince his school to let him take his final exams this year, as he has a balance due. He is the only member of his family who has achieved his level of education. We have been told that usually only one child in a family is educated and it's usually the father's favorite. When we visited the Maasai women who make jewelry, they told us that they make jewelry so that they can have some money. Their husbands only pay for healthcare for their favorite child, so the women are left to pay for the other children and themselves. The husbands will sometimes tell their wife(s) to go to her family to get the money if she needs it. This made me want to buy even more jewelry from the ladies and it also made me realize why they were so pleased and thankful when we bought from them.

While Brad and Denise climbed the mountain with Julius, Bob, Luca, Lakule (Luca's friend) Lodi (driver), and I went for a walk to hopefully be able to see Mount Kilamanjaro. There were too many clouds though, so no such luck. As we were driving back, we saw a giraffe, so Lodi pulled off the road and we started driving through the bush. We then saw three more giraffes and soon we saw eight of them. One began to run towards the larger group and joined them. It was really neat to see so many in one place. As we began to leave, we saw two more.

Bob and I went back to our guest house, I did some laundry and we then we went out for a walk. We walked by some kids playing soccer and Bob joined the group. We've been teasing Bob because while his students were here, they had given him some nicknames like Bobster and Bobboo. Well, in Swahili, Boboo means grandfather and several people called him that not knowing his nickname. We would all die laughing and call out "Bobboo"! So, the kids were quite impressed to have a bobboo play with them.

We walked towards the pavillion where the ladies sell jewelry and as soon as they saw us coming, they got up and started running to the pavillion to put out their jewelry for us. We walked around and shopped. There were about 6-7 ladies there and I tried to buy something from all of them. One lady put on a big headdress/necklace on me and wanted a picture. It was fun and they had a great time.

Last night, Luca stayed in the extra bedroom at our guest house with us. Julius came over and we played cards with them. We taught them how to play the card game golf. After one practice round, they had the hang of it. After each round, Luca would declare who the "worsest" player was and we'd all laugh. He also gave Bob a hard time if he wasn't doing very well with his hand. They wanted to keep playing, but we stopped around 9:10, because the lights go out at 9:30pm. They only run the generator for electricity from 7:30-9:30 every night.

Today, Julius took us to his boma to meet his family. His father is around 90 years old. Julius said that he was born around 1910-15. His mother, sisters and their children were there too. We got to go inside their boma, see where they cook and sleep. While we were inside, Julius' mom took off her headdress/necklace and put them on Denise and me. She then took off her shuka (fabric/sheet) and put it around my shoulders. When we went outside, the other family members laughed and pointed at us. We took many pictures, then Denise and I danced with the girls. They thought it was funny and I'm sure they thought we were terrible dancers, but it was a blast. Julius is engaged and has told us that we'll be invited to his wedding ceremony, so I told him I'll be sure to practice my dancing. He said that we'll have to wear traditional Maasai clothes to the event, and we said of course!