On Tuesday 7th June I was given the honour by the Chief of the local village to dressed as a Masai warrior for the day and lend a hand in herding the whole village's livestock. I was determined to take no short-cuts during this day so that I could gain the full Masai experience. The previous day I was forewarned about what would be facing me: starting from 8 a.m. through to 6 p.m. I was to have no food, and no water since Masai warriors only drink milk for breakfast and eat supper when the day is done. For those who know me well, this was going to be the toughest aspect of the day. Not only that, but also I would be exposed to the weather changes that frequently alter from boiling hot one minute to fairly cool the other. All this while I wear my bright, blood red Masai warrior dress complete with beaded necklaces, sword, club, and walking stick. Furthermore I was warned that it is not uncommon for lions to try their luck in capturing one of the cattle and if that were to happen they would expect me to do my best to scare them away (I had an alternate plan of simply running in the opposite direction... seems much easier). The only two short-cuts I made that reduced the authenticity of the experience was:
1. Masai boys have to be circumsized in order to be accept as a warrior... although the offer was there for a ceremony to be arranged in my honour, I politely refused.
2. I had my doubts about surviving for 10 hours under the Masai sun without a drop of water... so I snuck under my clothes a 1/2 litre bottle of water.
So at 8:00 a.m. I emerged from my room at the staff quarters fully dressed in my Masai attire. Since many employees have never seen a white-skinned person dress in such a uniform before, their expressions were a mixture of shock and laughter... many of those who are Masai then proceeded to offer me their sisters in marriage, again I politely refused claiming 'I'm too young to marry'. I met the other cattle herders outside the camp with their livestock numbering at 140! I sudeenly felt very apprehensive about losing one of them since the cows are the Masai livelyhood. With the cows all accounted for, Twangey, John, and I set off for our day's herding. First stop was to let the cows drink water from the natural mineral lake that was close by... on the other side of the Mara River. Either we went the long way round or we could cut straight through the river. Fortunately, for the sake of fun, we chose the latter. And so, with the hippos flanking us on either side watching with curiousity we coaxed our cows to cross the fast flowing river and finally, once the cows were safely over it was our turn. Needless to say I had a great time wading through the waist high river although I tried to ignore the fact that all it takes is one slip and the river would take me straight towards a group of bathing hippos. Nevertherless we successfully crossed the river and the cows drank to their hearts content from the salt later. Only then was I told that we had to cross back over the river but fortunately everything went smoothly and nobody was lost to the irate hippos.
But that wasn't the last we saw of them. 2 hours later while walking along side a large group of trees I turned a corner to my complete surprise there was a grazing hippo barely 10 metres away. Shock had made me incapable of moving so it was down to Twange to grap hold of my arm and motion for me to run for my life... which I gladly did. Luckily the hippo was facing away from us so he wasn't aware of our presense at all. 5 minutes later when we were sure that the hippo had gone we came out of our hiding place in the bushes and carried on with our work as if nothing happened (apparently stumbling across a hippo is a common occurance for the Masai so Twange and John treated it as just another day of work... I thought much differently).
The day wore on and the sun beat down upon my skin turning it the same colour as the blood red cloth I was wearing. The sandals on my feet were hard-soled and provided absolutely no cushioning for my feet as I stood and walked constantly for 10 hours... by the end it felt as though my ankle joints had eroded away. 3 o' clock passed by, 4 o'clock passed by, and by 5 o'clock I had not drunk water for 7 hours (I was not economical with the 1/2 litre bottle). So when we came upon the spring that the Masai use to collect their drinking water I happily drank 3-4 litres of some suspicious looking water, but it tasted like heaven and I didn't mind (I have no yet suffered any side effects so far so I think I'm in the clear of not catching a disease). By 6 o'clock I shuffled my feet back to Olonana and drank more and more water and feasted on two portions of everything that night. The stamina that these Masai warriors must have to do this every day is incredible; it was harder on the boday than any sports game I've ever played so far. I was also informed that no other guest in the our area of the Mara had ever undertaken an experience like this so I felt very privileged to be the first one to break the trend. At 9 o'clock I passed out in my bed and did not wake up till 12 hours later.
Xav
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