By admin 
We knew that our go to with the Maasai People (Masai People) of Selenkay Conservancy in Kenya was going to be a cultural experience, nevertheless we had now thought how explicit it was going to be.
A Maasai People Village Go to
After a bumpy journey on the once more roads of Kenya, we ended up at a quiet camp in the middle of Maasai nation near Amboseli Nationwide Park.
Sooner than we started the wildlife portion of our Kenya experience, we had been going to get to know the Maasai people of the Masai Mara little increased.
And there was no increased place to take motion than the Selenkay Maasai camp.
Selenkay Maasai Camp
As we beloved some latest pineapple juice, the proprietor Leonard, suggested us why he decided to open the Masai Camp.
He outlined that he wished to create skilled employment for the people of the surrounding villages.
The Maasai People have been shedding their life-style and this lets them earn a residing whereas preserving their custom alive.
For the Maasai who aren’t part of the tourism enterprise, it’s a troublesome life.
They’ve misplaced plenty of their grazing land for livestock and water is an prolonged distance – as a lot as 5 km – away from the village.
People spend plenty of their day onerous at work making little or no money.
For a lot of who’re inside the tourism enterprise, it is a completely totally different desperation the place they work onerous for every vacationer buck.
Vacationers will seemingly be requested for money when taking footage and can seemingly be pestered to buy jewelry and souvenirs.
It makes it powerful to understand an understanding of their life-style.
Exact Working Maasai Tribe
It is a refreshing change to go to an exact village comparatively than a staged neighborhood organize for vacationers.
Our Data Makau, booked this Masai Camp because of everytime you e-book a night proper right here, a portion of money goes on to the Maasai people.
The people from the surrounding villages earn a residing in case you are given a glimpse into the traditional life-style.
On account of they’re a part of the camp and work on the camp, they welcome you into their properties and help you to take footage with out demanding money.
A lot of Masai people of the surrounding villages work on the camp .
A lot of them joined us in an evening of dialog so that we would ask them (by way of a translator) about their lives they normally can ask us about ours.
Our time at Selenkay Masai Camp.
We checked into our luxurious tent and had the afternoon to settle down and take a nap sooner than going over to the next village for a go to.
It was so quiet and fulfilling, we had been napping inside minutes.
We’d have spent a lot of days on the Selenkay Maasai Camp doing nothing nevertheless fulfilling.
Nevertheless we had been proper right here for a safari, so it was rapidly time to see what was happening.
Our Masai info, Joseph, met us on the consuming desk to escort us by way of the conservancy in route of the camp.
I couldn’t think about we had been actually strolling inside the African Savanna.
The Masai Village Experience
As we approached the village, we heard singing inside the distance. Your whole camp had come out to greet us.
Carrying vibrant garments and adorned with head apparel and handmade jewelry, they danced and sang songs welcoming us to their lives.
The women had beautiful piercings and the boys carried ceremonial staffs. They sang as we watched after which welcomed us to hitch them.
It was in all probability probably the most exhilarating experience to sing and dance with the Masai. As quickly because the welcoming dance was over, we took a stroll by way of the village.
Leonard was the chief of the group and he has that unusual mixture of being a part of every the Masai people and the stylish world.
He was our info and our translator all through our time inside the village.
He suggested us after we had been free to take footage and after we had been free to ask any questions that we favored.
The Maasai people had been proud to have us there and proud to point us their life-style.
And Leonard, was correct there to translate, inform and take photos of the event himself!
Just a few of my favourite moments was as soon as I watched Dave take footage and as he was doing that, Leonard took footage of Dave.
He grabbed Dave’s prolonged lens and snapped away taking some beautiful footage.
He knew his means spherical a digital digital camera the similar means he knew his means spherical having fun with a recreation of stones with the Masai males.
It is males like Leonard who will take the Maasai people into the twenty first century whereas preserving their traditions alive.
We took a look inside one in all their mud houses.
The Masai reside spherical their livestock. Their livestock is their life-blood and a really highly effective issue inside the village.
All of the animals sleep inside a corral manufactured from thorn bushes with the houses surrounding the pores and skin.
As a lot as 10 people can reside in two-room dwellings which is likely to be on the perimeter of the corrals.
The daddy sleeps on one side of the house in a troublesome mattress padded with leaves and cardboard with some children, whereas the mother sleeps on the other side with some further.
In between is a kitchen with a fireplace pit for cooking.
After a tour of the houses, it was time for the boys to point off their lives.
They made fireside for us out of sticks, confirmed us the proper strategy to play a recreation of stones, which I am nonetheless confused regarding the pointers.
As quickly because the skies cleared we went for a stroll to go to the women taking good care of the livestock.
Change in Africa
The women in Africa work the hardest and it is one factor that should be modified.
Now that the boys not have to hunt, they reside a lifetime of leisure whereas the women fetch water miles away, feed the livestock, milk the cows and goats, maintain the children and put collectively the entire meals.
The lads actually wish to choose up the slack.
After I requested the boys what they do by way of the day, they said “they buy wealth and give attention to points.” Nevertheless they didn’t have a clear reply for the best way they buy wealth or what they give attention to.
To me, it is clearly the women that buy the entire wealth by making the jewelry, tending the fields and elevating the livestock.
Hmm, come on guys, get to work and earn your preserve.
It is a very precise downside in Africa, nevertheless with further areas like Selenkay opening up, points are altering.
The lads actually cooked us breakfast and carried our luggage.
They taken care of the every day working of the place and by following the lead of males like Leonard, the long term is making an attempt shiny for the Masai People of the Selenkay Conservancy.
Our Lodging
Our day ended with a warmth bathe at our tent dropped at us by hand (carried by the boys I might add) and poured into the water reserve.
We then met on the campfire after dinner to talk with the villagers and alter information on our strategies of life.
The lads of the Selenkay Maasai Camp look like altering with the events and dealing inside the camp.
It appears like Leonard has found the steadiness that the Maasai people have been looking for all these years and hopefully totally different camps are following swimsuit.
For further information on journey to Kenya and a go to to the Maasai people of Kenya contact our good good friend Makau at Wilderness Zones
Study Additional:
Empowering the People one Brick at a Time – Kenya
Kenya Safari – The Masai Mara Experience
Born Free Lives on in Kenya
Kenya’s Unbelievable Lake Nakuru
Amboseli – Kenya’s Royal Courtroom