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Published: March 4th 2006
We drove back to a clearing of plains where the toilets were and ran into a group of Masai herdsmen on the way back to the truck. I am not sure how they feel about us, but I get the strangest feelings around them. It's weird how they aggressively come up to you asking you to take pictures of them or with them.
Over time, with so many tourists taken unwanted pictures of them, they've adapted and now spend a good bit of time accommodating and even invited tourists. who can blame them though. Being pushed steadily from the land they called home for centuries further and further over time by the govenrment in an effort to preserve and use their land as 'national parks' for tourists to gather. It seems natural that they'd have to figure a way to "work the system" that had displaced them.
All that being said, it still makes me uneasy when you see them stop herding to come up and sell their wares. I feel forced to buy just so I can ontribute to this new way of life
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Dee
non-member comment
Masai Sheperds
You know, I'm not big on tipping--not b/c I'm cheap, but b/c I feel like why should I be made to pay the person waiting on me. Come on, I'm already paying for whatever service I'm getting. On the other hand, I wouldn't feel uneasy about contributing to the herdsmen's "new way of life" because tourists are the ones encroaching on their territiory. They should be the ones benefiting from all excursions taking place on their land. But that's just me...