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Published: June 15th 2010
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Satisfaction: the contentment one feels when one has fulfilled a desire, need, or expectation At about 5pm today, I didn’t think it was possible for the day to get any better. I am on safari in the Masai Mara with my parentals who have flow to Kenya to spend a week with me before my program starts. We had just witnessed a cheetah feasting on a baby impala (kinda gross when you could actually hear the crunching of the impalas skull but very cool at the same time), and had spent the day viewing lions, elephant, giraffe, hippo, buffalo and many more incredible animals going out their daily business in the wild. So when we were given the opportunity to visit a local Masai village, we happily accepted not really knowing what to expect.
A young man named Peter greeted us and, after paying a kind ‘donation’ of 1000ksh, welcomed us inside the stick gates surrounding his traditional Masai village. The village is home to 120 people of 20 different families, each living in small mud brick houses with cow dung roofs. We were greeted with a ‘welcoming song’ by a group of men and a demonstration of their
traditional jumping competitions, which ‘papa’ (aka Dad) was kindly invited to join. In the Masai culture, the men learn to jump as high as possible so that when they go to get married, they pay the least dowery. Unfortunately Dads bad knee kept him on the ground but it was incredible to see the way they do things. Mum and I were then invited to join a ceremonial wedding song and dance and then we were shown various other things including how they create fire from using sticks.
Peter then proceeded to invite us into his family home. Sitting in a tiny room probably only a touch bigger than my bathroom at home in my Adelaide unit, Peter explained to us that this was where his family cooked, slept and caged their baby animals. He then went on to explain many important traditions from the Masai culture, which they still adhere to today (boys….google the Masai’s tradition for circumcision if you want to cringe).
After all this came the hard sell, where we were shown jewellery and all kinds of trinkets we could buy. This is the part that will put some people off and I guess the
reality is that this is where tourism has come into their culture. But the way I see it is that if me purchasing a gorgeous necklace for 400skh (approximately $7 AUS) can help them maintain their culture for many more years to come, then bring it on. Plus is about half the price I would pay for a similar necklace back home in ‘budget jewellery store’ DIVA and will probably last about 5 times as long.
So getting back into the car the thing that really got me is the amount of pride this village had for their culture and the love that you could feel between them…it was overwhelming. And I guess why shouldn’t they be proud? Their tribe is one of the most famous in the world and they have still managed to preserve its traditions. There once were 42 different tribes in Kenya, each with their significant cultural traits, however the Masai people are one of the very few to actually have maintained their traditions. They survive by substance farming and their diets largely consist of cows, animal blood and milk.
Only the other day I read the following quote in a book that my
sister gave to me…
“On a scale from 1 to 7 where 1 means ‘not at all satisfied with my life’ and 7 means ‘completely satisfied’ the people of Forbes Magazines list of the 400 richest Americans average 5.8 - the same as the cattle-herding Masai of Kenya, who live in dung huts with no electricity or running water”
It wasn’t until now that I really get the extent of this. They live such a simple life with such a deep level of satisfaction and happiness…miles away from the western world.
For me, this is what travelling is all about! Having the privilege to experience (and learn from) such an incredibly different culture. And on a personal note… how incredible is was to be able to share this experience with my own Mum and Dad!
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Ally
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Freaking awesome .... and not loserish at all!!! xoxo