Maasai Adventures

Upper David Shepley spent two months of this past summer on a remote campsite in Tanzania with an organization called the Tanzania People and Wildlife Fund. He lived with the Maasai people and kept a journal in efforts to later share his experiences, and this is the first of his series of journal entries.These entries explore Shepley’s cross-cultural experiences with the Maasai community, his participation in their cultural and tribal traditions, daring encounters with deadly local animals and observations about wildlife conservation and community development in the region.Shepley has decided to share his accounts with the Exeter community. He believes that they will provide an exciting experiences that will educate the community in the rich and famous culture of the Maasai. He also hopes that his journal entries will encourage and inspire other Exonians to pursue similar opportunities.Something that I witnessed in the Maasai kids that really caught my attention was their apprehension and shyness in the classroom. I was told that back in their old schools, teachers sometimes beat their students, often without reason. However, the teachers here at the Tanzania People and Wildlife Fund, based in Noloholo, are very supportive and work hard to restore a sense of security in the kids. But, in order to achieve this stage of reassurance, the Maasai children first have to get over their own shyness.When I was at the camp, I taught the kids a game where they had to introduce themselves and act out their favorite animal when they caught the ball. I noticed that most kids tilted their bodies away, stuffed their hands in their mouths or hid their faces completely. When they spoke, it was so quiet that I could barely hear them. For the first two days, the kids were paralyzed with shyness; it was quite a weird experience. One of the kids even started crying when he had to speak in front of an audience—he couldn't say his name or what his favorite animal was in front of the other kids.During my time with the kids, I realized that the small actions that I was doing were actually meaningful gestures. I was helping them overcome their barrier of insecurity. By offering myself to them as a friend and a protector (for instance, against the thorns as we drive through tree branches in the truck), I’ve realized that the kids were stuck in a figurative darkness of fear and needed a light to show them friendship and kindness. It made me realize that when I got them to laugh or helped them carry their things, although they were small gestures, they had a huge impact on the kids. It was incredible to see the walls of fear crumble as they revealed their own personalities.They really liked my Apple iPhone and camera. Often, they eagerly looked through my pictures. Some of them tried to teach me Swahili, and I taught them English. My vocabulary has grown exponentially from last week. They told me that it was easier to learn how to speak Swahili by learning vocabulary first, so I am doing my best to remember as much as I can. Two of the scholar girls have taken a liking to me, I think. They were interested in feeling the hair on my head, saying it felt like a leopard!