Massai Village

About a month ago, we had the privilege of visiting a Massai Village in Kenya.  The Massai way of life is so very different from that of Rwandan culture.  It's far more different than New York City versus Kerrville, Tx, even more different than Kerrville versus Paris, France.  

All of the ladies of the village dressed up in their finest to greet us with a welcome song and dance.  

The homes are made of dirt and cow dung.  

The inside of the home.  They call this the "multi-purpose" room, where you can visit, cook, eat your meals, and sleep all in the same room!  It also happens to be the only room in the house, except for a back room which is built for the baby calves.  

Here is the stove, where the wife cooks all the meals.  It is located in the multi-purpose room and also serves as the homes' heating system.  

Ruthie and Hannah declare, "We will never complain about cooking on the mission house stove again."  The lady of this house is sitting next to them.  

The Massai are livestock owners, ranchers as we would call them back home. Rwandans are farmers. They grow wonderful produce in their gardens, while the Massai are herding and raising their livestock.  The Massai raise cows by the hundreds and goats and sheep too numerous to count.  In fact, according to Massai teaching, al the cows on the earth are descendants of THEIR cows, because they once owned all the cattle in the world.  

A Massai village consists of small houses, built by women, which encircle the large, round, all village goat corral, where the goats and sheep all stay safely huddled together each night.The houses all have a room for their calves, to keep them from feeding during the night so their mamas will have milk for the family in the morning. AFter milking, the calves are allowed to return to their mamas and are let out to graze during the day.  Young massai boys spend their days herding the goats, sheep and/or cows.  I didn't learn what the young girls do. The women cook pretty much all day on their small, open fire inside their home.  I'm also not sure what the grown men do during the day, but I know it is something, as these people all work very hard! 

One thing that was very hard for me was to see the way polygamy is a way of life for the Massai, at least in the older generation. It seems to be dying off a bit in the new generation, but I'm not sure if that might be just with the folks we met.  I would not want to share Tim with some other wives.  I can tell you that for sure.  I just can't quite wrap my head around the concept.  

Each wife builds her own house, and the man visits the different wives on different days of the week.  Sometimes, after the children are about 6, they all go to live in yet another small house in the family group with one of the wives.  So, one wife seems to maybe become sort of in charge of child raising of all the cousins, or half brothers and sisters, or whatever they would be called.  

The Massai people are beautiful and so strong,and have such a keen understanding of their animals and of the wild animals around them.  I really liked them a lot - but boy, talk about a different culture.  IT was by far the most different thing I've experienced in Africa up to this point.  

If you notice, we Bergs are like giants compared to most of the Massai.  Not all - a few are quite tall - but mostly we are so much bigger than they!  I'm thinking if I built one of these homes for us, we'd have to make it at least a foot or two taller, or else Stephen would surely get a back ache from always being hunched over in the house!