We visited a Masai compound, a tribe of Kenya one day. And as the group was negotiating with a compound elder of how much money it would take to allow us to enter the compound and photograph Masai life, I was out in the parking lot negotiating how much it would take for this Moran guy to give up his spear. No, it’s not what you think. A Moran is a young male person assigned to guard the compound’s cattle from lions to make him eligible to have a wife. In other words, you have to have killed a lion with a spear before you can marry.
The compound is fenced off with a thick fence made from thorny Acacia brush with a single opening. All families living at this location live within this compound. It’s what we would call living in a barnyard with the cows. The Masai flies were very thick in the compound. They are a bit smaller than our House Fly.
The huts were made of thatch material with a roof and walls made from the manure of the cows. The ladies put on a show dressed in their colorful robes showing their scars and other decorations.
As I was standing there thinking what I wanted to photograph, I noticed a young woman standing beside of a hut and kept looking at me and finally she motioned for me to come where she was. Not knowing what to expect I moseyed over to her. At the doorway she pushed me over and back to the back of the hut behind a hanging blanket to show me her tiny baby. I had to let my eyes get accustomed to the darkness. They build fires in these huts for warmth, so everything was very smoked up inside. I was granted a luxury the others never got. Seeing a newborn Masai baby. She wanted to show me her baby.
I noticed another thing while in Kenya. Nothing goes to waste. After getting this spear I was looking for a cardboard box to cut up to wrap the blade in. It is a very sharp blade. I finally found a motor oil box while going through the town of Narok at a filling station. I knew that after getting back to Nairobi there would be little time to wrap and pack up my souvenirs for the trip home. I might add again I am souvenir crazy. When we reached Kennedy airport the sharp blade had vibrated and worked itself out of the cardboard, I had wrapped it in.
So here I was arriving at Dulles with an exposed Masai spear! It’s a wonder they didn’t find me a cozy jail cell.
