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.
Imagine walking into a field of golden grass, dotted with tall and expansive acacia trees. As you walk across the field, you step on sun-bleached jawbones, pelvic bones and long femurs. You continue walking through this dusty graveyard and you spot at least fifty Maasai warriors with spears, crouched in the grass under a cluster of acacias. Smoke billows up from large fires and entire ribcages speared on acacia saplings. The meat is slowly roasting. Some Maasai are crouching on the ground with machetes and hacking up a bull that was just grazing the grass a few minutes before. The skinned head of a bull rests on the left of a man who is carving the entrails out of a stinking carcass. To his right, steam is rising from the pile of the cow’s removed stomach contents. Packs of mangy shepherd dogs linger in the surrounding grass, snagging the entrails.
Laughter erupted from behind my back; all of the Maasai were crowded around in a ring. I squeezed through the mass to see what the commotion was about. Two Maasai men were in the center, wrestling in the dust, clad in their traditional robes. Suddenly, one of the men hoisted the other and threw him to the ground; but he got caught as well and tumbled into a cloud of dust. Their loose robes flapped around in the brawl, revealing their bare bodies. In a moment, the victorious Maasai pinned the other and the match ended, almost as quickly as it started. The loser rose out of the dust and hurried away from the crowd.
Laughter broke out amongst the men which made me assume that it was just a friendly competition. Yet, I sensed a hint of tension in the way the loser left so quickly. The men dispersed under the trees and began collecting the roasted beef. The aroma of meat, the sight of carnage, the fighting Maasai mutts and the raw testosterone of the Maasai warriors placed me in fearful awe. I soon realized I was in an incredibly intimate place that very few foreigners will ever have the chance to experience.