Maape Ang! A bit about the Maasai Home

Maape Ang!

(Lets go home!)

When I think of a typical suburban American neighborhood, I think of things being spread out, far away from each other- you need a car. The towns in Kenya take this to another level. Ilnarooj is technically the town where I was staying, but Jonathan’s house was still about a forty minute walk from the few stores and huts that constituted the center of the village. A neighbor is anywhere from five to thirty, to ninety minutes away- walking through bush, trees, pastures, up and down hills, climbing rocks…

The amazing thing is though, as much as I know how to navigate the streets around my parent’s house back in California, or the subways here in New York, the Maasai know exactly where they are going, regardless of where the obvious road stops. 

Jonathan and David (Saoyo and Saitoti) on the main road

They walk at night without flashlights and can tell you where and where not to step. Kids as young as five years old guided me to their school almost an hour away, taking shortcuts through trees that all looked the same to me.

The walk to David's home

Inside Jonathan’s house there are three rooms separanted by thin plywood walls draped over with colorful sheets and shukas, posters and photos. One room is for guests and volunteers; another for himself, his wife Eunice and baby Moses. The main room is the living space. This is where we gathered to eat, drink shai, listen to the radio, "make beads" (aka do beading) , tell stories.

If anything, Jonathan’s house is quite modern. It has a cement floor, wood panel walls, a tin roof and clear room divisions with a separate hut for the kitchen.

Living room- Right to left: Peter, Eunice, Bertille with Baby Moses, Jonathan &me

 The traditional Maasai house is built with sticks and mud and a family will typically have two or three on their land- one with a bed and cooking space, the others left for bedrooms. The floor is the same dirt as outside. When cooking, dirty water, extra shai or any other useless liquids are poured straight on to the floor.

In these houses, families gather around the cooking fire and this is where time is spent together.

David and Emily's kitchen

Emily making Pankakes

Solomon cooking dinner

Jonathan’s house is just off the road (barely a road), surrounded by a stick fence. When my taxi arrived late at night, his wife Eunice and a volunteer, Bertille from France, came out to greet us. There was no light except from a small kerosene lamp and small flashlight Bertille brought along. At this point it was already past twelve, but we gathered around the living room table and I had my first Kenyan Shai- Kenyan tea with milk and sugar. Lots of sugar.

I was so tired I don’t remember much of the conversation during that first gathering. It probably had a lot to do with introductions and the kind of small talk you have with people who you don’t know but with whom you know you are going to be spending a considerable amount of time with. What I do remember was the ambiance. The feeling of being welcomed unconditionally into a home. 

Hanging around the house

Eunice making beads

Saitoti, me and Michelle