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A Day in Maasai Land

Amboseli National Park, Kenya 1984

By Barbara Jo Shipka

March 12^th, 2015

I invited an Australian friend and her two children to come with me.
We all lived and worked in Mogadishu, Somalia at the time. We rented the small white jeep in Nairobi and drove the 140 km south from Nairobi to Amboseli National Park.

I’d been on safari a few times before…and have lots of pictures of animals and pictures of people taking pictures of animals. Those trips were wonderful but very structured and contained by the organizers / tour operators. Any interactions I had with people in the area was staged, in costume.What I missed in those experiences was casual and authentic ‘beingness’ with the people who lived there. This time I intended to have a more informal experience where we could explore this rich territory and its people.
And animals would, of course, be a bonus.

We arrived at our cabin just as the sun was setting. Our cabin was lovely, rustic, and ours.
In the first light of morning, when we looked out at Mt. Kilamanjaro,
we found several new piles of elephant poo in our ‘front yard.’ We were that close.
When we returned in the afternoon, clouds has surrounded Kilamanjaro and a zebra was grazing nearby.

The next morning we piled into our jeep and headed off to explore the park. The first people we encountered were a Maasai woman and young man who were walking down the road. I stopped the car.For the next several minutes they stared at us and we stared at them. Almost breathlessly. After a time, they approached the car and began to look more closely at us and our things. It seems that we each found the other to be completely novel. Once lots of smiles were exchanged, we waved to each other and that was that.

Next we came upon two Maasai girls walking down the road together.Not having seen any villages or homes, we wondered where they lived and where they were going.

Then we came upon some tourist stalls. With no tourists. We guessed that the safari groups probably came in the early morning and late afternoon. These were the only people we saw who were in western rather than traditional dress.

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, four Maasai men appeared at the tourist stalls.
This experience of having people appear out of nowhere was now a common experience for me. It also would happen if we stopped in the Somali desert.
Where did they come from?

Lastly, we came upon a Maasai youth. This time we were more at ease. He was completely open. Our encounter ended with a photo of the three youth together.

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