On Friday night, Sam, Becca, and Ms. Fogarty went on the first homestay of the group. Shauni brought us to Loosela’s boma, and we met his family, including his first and second wife and his six children and his brother and his family. Before sitting down to dinner in a traditional Masai hut, we unsuccessfully milked goats. The children managed to fill the cups much more quickly than we did, but we tried. Before the delicious meal of rice, potatoes, and cabbage, we drank tea and looked at a photo album from when Loosela was becoming a Masai warrior. This process is called a maran. In the morning he showed us his bow and arrow which he claims can reach over a kilometer. A group of five, six, and seven-year-olds sang and danced for us in the dark and so did the women later. His first wife laughed at us when in response we sang “Yesterday” by The Beatles. After a long day of work we went to our bed consisting of a cowhide on top of sticks looking up at the stars. We were woken up at 6:30 to an angry papa goat. Again we drank tea and then exchanged gifts with the instruction of Shani. Each of us received beautiful beaded jewelry and we gave Loosela a pocket knife, his first wife fabric, and his children bracelets. They then left to herd their goats and we headed back to the work site. Brandon, Katie, and Josiah went to their homestay on Saturday night at Simon’s boma.
On Sunday, we went on our first game drive in Shompole Conservation Area. We saw all sorts of animals from zebra and gazelle to baboons and giraffes. We stopped by a river and enjoyed lunch. After munching down some sandwiches we looked at the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and tried to prioritize them in order to create a utopia. It was challenging and thought provoking, and even now we cannot completely agree upon what is most important to solve (disease prevention, economy, child mortality rates…). As you can see in the pictures, those of us riding in the open land rover were caked in dust by the end of our adventure, but nevertheless a good time was had by all.
