Tiffany has spent some time among the Masai over the past 5 years so rather than going to the commercial village all the safari-ists visit, Mingati took us to his village, where a wedding had just occurred that morning. A few people were very drunk from the wedding, and one man asked if I would be his wife (he already had 2) for 20 cows. I am told that is a good price, since he paid 10 cows for each of his other wives. They became disinterested when I mentioned my father didn't have any cows, and that I was 28 (the Masai women become brides when they are 15). I saw dancing, baby goats frolicking, drank tea with fresh milk from the cows, and watched as an excited crowd gathered around Tiffany as she handed out sweets, bouncy-balls, notebooks and pencils to the school children.
The school situation is tragically compromising; the government supports Christian schools, but in order to go to Christian school you must have a uniform, speak English, go to church, and have an English name. They are not allowed to do the ear stretching that is traditionally practiced by the Masai, and so the culture is slowly dying out (not everyone has the opportunity to go to school, so many children are able to continue in the Masai traditions).
At night, we stayed up with the Masai and learned a bit of their language. I can now semi-successfully count from 1 to 10, but either 8 or 9 is missing: Nabo, Aray, Uni, Umwhent, Siyet, Le, Napechwomo, Miyet, Tonmon. One night my legs started stinging, which turned into burning. I had stepped into an ant colony in the dark, and they were crawling all over my legs in my jeans. I was literally jumping around going "ee! ee! ee!" shaking my legs trying to get them out of my pants. I was very unsuccessful, so I ran into my tent (with much trouble because it was pitch black), and took my pants off. There were probably 5 or 6 crawling on my legs and on the inside of my jeans, with some squashed ones in my sandals. I tried to squish them, but quickly learned that when you feel them pinching and squash them, they just die with their pinchers in you and that causes the burning.
Another night the biggest grasshopper known to man fell in my lap. Not sure why this thought occurred to me, but at first I thought an apple had fallen from the tree into my lap in the dark. Then I realized there are no apple trees in the Masai Mara, and slowly looked down, saw nothing, got up, and as the huge thing rolled onto my chair, I shrieked, probably woke up the whole camp, and ran away from the chair as the Masai (commonly acknowledged to be some of the bravest men alive, hence the term "Masai Warrior") laughed at me. I was super duper embarrassed.
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