The trip out to the Serengeti National Park is 5 hours. We saw plenty of corn fields, it’s just about harvest time now and the maize will be shucked, husked, and put in storage for the year. The road is paved but every time we go through a village there is some combination of very fat speed bump proceeded and followed by a more textured rumble strip of three bumps than we are used to seeing before a toll on the Turnpike.
The dirt is more clay then anything giving the grounds in front and beyond the street side stores a red hue. With each strip of storefronts there is a deep expanse of small cement and mud hut housing. We continue to drive on this road up some hills, passing some commuters and shippers on bike—shippers because they are carrying a bundle of branches or a larger bundle of empty 5-gallon jugs, we guess, used for porting water. The bicyclists are sometimes pulled walking their bike up a hill or fixing their gear, perhaps it’s a manual gear shift for hills….
In order to go to the Serengeti we must first pass through Ngorogoro Conservation. The difference between a conservation and national park is that Maaasai people can live on a conservation, but only animals and safari vehicles allowed in the national parks. Ngorongoro is our day 3 safari so we are just passing through. The road is incredibly bumpy, rocky, and dusty. We will not drive on any surface better than this until we leave to go home after the third day’s morning game drive.
The Maasai People
The Maasai people are incredibly strong people and have been known to live up to 125 years old! We see them scattered all over Ngorongoro, dressed in their traditional red/black or purple/black checkered blankets you can find at shops leading up to the conservation. Some sitting on the side of the road, getting sprayed by the dirt in our wake, others walking with their large sticks along the side or off in the distance, and the young boys (age 12-13) heard cattle. Almost always, when we pass them they wave at us and we wave back. But are all these safari vehicles really welcome here? It is certain their lifestyle has changed as a result of the safari industry.
Their villages are nothing more than a cluster of mud huts with thatched roofs made of a straw/hay-like material. Before the government stepped in and restricted their hunting they survived on animal meat, cow’s milk and cow’s blood. Now they receive government aid for water and maize. They can still kill their animals, but not the zebras or other safari wildlife. We saw some safari vehicles parked next to their village so that safari’ers can take pictures with the Maasai and of their village. A tourist trap, says our chubby, friendly driver.
Oops, our Safari Team
My heavens we haven’t introduced you to our Safari leaders.
Frankie, as I just said is sort of chubby, not many Africans with such a body type. He laughs at our jokes and is very knowledgeable in all things Safari. He wears corduroy pants, a black T-shirt with zebras on it that says Tanzania, and big old black knit hat with Jamaica colored stripes around the bottom that scream rasta!
Saidie (pronounced Sah-eed-ie), is our cook. Actually his name is just Said, but everything here seems to end in ‘ie’—baggie, Marchie (the month), eightie (8). He is skinny, very closely shaved head, with hush-puppy-like shoes and jeans with a Calvin Klein wash fade to them. He doesn’t speak much English but is very polite and a darn good chef, too bad his meals take an hour to prepare all the time. We asked him if he cooks at home. His response: “I have a wife.” As in America, circa 1980, men usually do the grilling, while women do the rest of the cooking.
Maasai Circumcision
We pass by a spot where there are boys wearing black robes and have white paint on their face. What was that!? “Those,” Frankie says, “are the Maasai that have just been circumcised.” Maasai go to school to about 7th grade, then after their goat and cattle herding responsibility is over they reach their manhood landmark at age 14-15 of circumcision. As you can probably imagine, the Maasai do not have sterile utensils to perform this coming of age activity and as a result many get infections and die. After the circumcision is done, the group of boys stay together for a month, away from their village to recover. Someone from one of their villages will bring an animal for them to kill and eat. This was strange, and the black clothing made these boys look scary to me.
Last depressing Maasai factoid: they are polygamous and share wives, as a result HIV is a bad problem among this population.
