The great migration -- part 3

I was woken up in the morning by Patel thumping on the door. Being the obsessive runner that he is, he was doing his daily run by the light of a torch around the foggy, freezing grounds of Lake Manyara lodge.


Right on schedule all 22 of us were up and loaded into our land rovers by 6:30am. All my doubts and notions about travelling in such a large group with so many kids were falling apart. Things had gone very smoothly so far.


I was excited about my company. VT knows a lot about animals, MT has the best photography equipment, they speak kannada in the most entertaining manner and have a fantastic sense of humor.



Ngorongoro is located between Lake Manyara and Serengeti. It is close of the western wall of the Great African Rift Valley. The rift valley runs for about 6000 miles from Syria to Mozambique. It is formed by the earth being ripped apart. Its a highly volcanic and earthquake prone region. But this process has been a blessing to archaeologists as numerous fossils have been uncovered in the deep fissures formed in the earth's crust. Olduvai gorge nearby is where an Australopithecus dating 1.8 million years was discovered.

The Maasai people
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We were taken for a quick visit to a Maasai boma. The Maasais are one of the 100+ local tribes, but one of the most famous. They are cattle herding nomads who believe all the worlds cattle was created for them. They travel around the pastures of East Africa is search of fodder for their cattle. Any money they get from contact with tourists, they use to buy more cattle which is a symbol of status.

They also draw all their sustenance from the cow. Their staple diet is a mixture of cow's blood and milk (The cow does not die, its more like blood donation) and occasionally meat. They sleep on cow skin, their homes are built using cow dung and urine. They also apply a mixture of cow fat and ochre and smell funny, but it apparently helps ward off lions.

Each Boma is a joint family. They practise polygamy. The paramount chief near Masai Mara apparently had 10 wives and 67 children. The women build houses, collect water and firewood, milk cows, cook and care for the young. The warriors are in charge of security while the boys are responsible for herding cattle. The elders act as advisers.


The people look healthy and happy. The warriors are very tall, proud and have well defined muscles and can be thought handsome. They all wear bright cotton blankets mostly with bright red color called Shukas. The lions can see this and usually give them a wide berth. They also wear a lot a bright bead jewelry. They have large hanging ear lobes (which is formed rather painfully by drilling with a wooden stick)


The Boma is organized in a circle. The inner enclosure is for the cows, around that are small round circular home that look like bread loaves. Each is probably 8 ft in diameter and 4 ft in height. If you squeeze in there, there is room to cook, sit and sleep!!! There is small kindergarten for the young ones. The calves are kept in the separate enclosure outside the main enclosure.

Many ceremonies mark the life a Maasai. Important ones being:
* Circumcision upon reaching puberty. This is done without any numbing agent and is supposed to be very painful. But every boy wants to go through it because it signifies his transition into adulthood. (women have to go through it also)
* Warrior graduation after 10 years in warrior camp. Originally, this involved the slaying of a lion. But that has been mostly abandoned because of wildlife protection laws.
* Marriage. The groom has to give the brides family about 10 cows. Each father gives the young boys a few cows to raise. The boy has to raise them and form his own herd of cows to give away when he gets married.


We were welcomed into the boma by traditional singing and dancing. The dancing is a lot of swaying back and forth and jumping (very high!) and the singing is very deep guttural with sudden high pitched notes. We visited the homes and the kindergarten, took some pictures, danced with them (they took off their necklaces and put it on us). They were charging $25 for each necklace.


We saw some more zebras nearby and reminded ourselves we had not yet reached Ngorongoro. So we bid farewell to the Maasai people and continued on our journey.