It’s been a while since my last post. I got sick (a bad piece of goat or homemade honey beer?), so I had to re-load my intestinal system. Then my computer got sick (all my office programs just quit), so I had to re-load my operating system. Both took about three days.

Anne left for the US to visit with kids and grandkids and here I am finishing up the story of Bush Adventures.

Spears

The safety talk was serious. We were using actual Maasai spears (unsharpened). Don’t stick them in anybody. Look behind you before you throw because the back end is as dangerous as the front. When you fetch them after a throw, approach them from the side so that if you trip you don’t impale yourself. When you are walking in a line, carry them either vertically or hold them with the point off to the left so that if either you or the person behind you stumbles no one gets stabbed. This is probably more than anyone wants to know but I find it fascinating that there are taught safety rules just like in a shop, the military, or anywhere people are working with potentially dangerous equipment. The tools may be different but societies work out similar ways to insure safety.

The biggest lesson about actually using a spear is to figure out the range at which you are effective, then wait until the enemy reaches that point. It doesn’t matter if you get the lion 10 meters or 2 meters away, just be sure you don’t miss.

Rocks

Who would have thought that there is a technology to throwing rocks? Say that there is a gazelle in the grass that you are hunting but it is too far way to hit with a rock. First pick a small, smooth, flat stone and throw it beyond the gazelle. The smooth rock will fly quietly and the sound of the impact will drive the gazelle toward you. Next pick a 3” to 4” long, 1” wide, flat rock. Throw it so it spins like a paddle wheel over the gazelle’s head. The gazelle will freeze at the unusual whirring sound. Pick-up a substantial (2” diameter) round rock and hit the frozen gazelle in the head. And finally, later that night, over a delicious leg of gazelle, select a tiny (1/2”) rock, wedge it between the side of the index finger of your left hand and the tip of the index finger of your right hand. Press your right index finger with your left thumb and flick the rock at your buddy, stinging him in the back of the neck. He’ll get pissed. It’s great fun.

Tracking

We spent one morning tracking a stolen goat. Through bushes, mud, rocks, grass, tracks of goat herds, we managed to find the miscreant who stole the goat and soundly beat him with elephant chewing gum.

And yes, he was dinner that night (the goat not the miscreant). We watched, but didn’t participate in, the slaughter. Watching was something I thought I should do, not something I wanted to do.

Fire

Fire provides warmth, cooks your food, which renders some of the proteins more digestible and sterilizes it (with no refrigeration that is important) and it lets the dangerous wildlife know that an even more dangerous animal (an armed human) is about. A Maasai would not be able to survive long without fire. But, sorry, no matches. And it’s impossible to start a fire with just some sticks, isn’t it? Well, since we did it, I guess that it can be done.

Manyatta

Anne joined us the final morning and we visited a boma and manyatta. The boma is the corral made of thorny acacia branches. The manyatta is the house which is made of vertical sticks stuck into the ground, caulked with mud then roofed with grass.

It had five rooms; an entryway, a sleeping room for warriors, a sleeping room for the father, a kitchen, and a sleeping room for the mother and children. The sleeping rooms were filled with 6“ of elephant dung which was covered by tanned cowhide. Dried elephant droppings are not especially smelly and have the texture of hay. It is softer than sleeping on the ground.

One of the most interesting aspects of Bush Adventures was sitting around after lunch, during the heat of the day, and then again after dinner and talking to the Maasai. We discussed culture, religion, politics, the legal system, and life in general. Saita and Kortol live in nearby manyatta’s, follow a traditional Maasai lifestyle and have facebook pages. The world is changing, even in the bush.

On the first day Silas taught us to play Bao, a game similar to mancala but specific to the Maasai. It’s a little like backgammon but with no randomness (dice throwing). If there is demand I will write up the rules and post them.