Girls and Girls

We recently took on an interesting challenge; to take 15 girls from a private girls’ school in Hampshire to meet 15 girls their own age in Maasaini. The English girls had climbed Kili and prior to leaving the UK, had raised funds to give to the local school to help complete classrooms for the students, who currently come to school in stages throughout the day. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet people from a very different culture but the challenge was to make the experience as real as possible rather than just another tourist activity.

Such things cannot just be done at anyone’s whim and this trip took several meetings with all the right people to organise properly and appropriately.

The Village Elders

So finally we set out early on a Monday morning heading up and over the hills with a short stop to take in the view right across the land they would be crossing to the ‘bush,’ where they would meet 18 or so esiangikis of the same age. The four car cavalcade wound down the hair pin bends to the bottom of the escarpment and out across the dry landscape, sending a rising cloud of dust into the clear air. In the distance were tall brown spirals of dust devils with the broad dark base of distant mountains as a backdrop.

Miles and miles of bush....and dust....

 
When we arrived at the village school the students stood around in simple dark blue uniforms and watched as the English girls climbed out of the minibuses in long multicoloured dresses with their bags and bottles of water. A shy meeting between the two took place at a ‘safe’ distance while they checked each other out.

 From the school we drove on to the meeting place all packed together in the pick up climbing up through deep korongos (dry river beds) in low ratio to the delight of the students. As we came through the trees to the camp, there was a choir of esiangikis dressed in all their finery singing a welcome in Kimaasai to all the girls. As each dismounted and walked into the smiling crowd they were greeted by an esiangiki who took off her bead necklace and put it around each girl’s neck and then they all began clapping and swaying to the song, a group of delighted western girls being welcomed by a group of delighted Maasai girls.

Hello!

 We had to stop the singing as the food was ready and the Maasai , who love to sing, could have gone on through the night! We were standing in the shade of thorn trees that provided a canopy of shade but many of the branches were quite low and several girls’ long hair kept getting caught in the thorns on the lower branches. It was interesting to see the looks of amazement on the Maasai faces - they were fascinated to have such real live examples of Europeans to study – and with such interesting hair.

The village chairman and secretary were there in their best suits, sitting dignified on the bench with the school teachers, and in groups around were various morani and some of the husbands of the esiangikis. Passing in and out of the crowd were inquisitive herd boys attending sheep and goats coming down to be watered.

Everyone was fed and had a cup of sweet chai (tea), and then we started our cultural exchange. Each side asked a question in turn - each group had been preparing what they would like to know. The Maasai went first with the question ...

 ‘Amongst us, boys are circumcised with a knife and girls are circumcised with a razorblade, what do you use?’ There was a pause as the western girls listened intently to the translation. The men standing around were smiling knowing what the question was. As the interpreter finished there was a synchronised gasp as 15 faces looked up in horror and shook their heads.

 ‘We don’t do that,’ they said and all the men laughed. The difference was emphatic and dramatic and other questions naturally followed ... The historic traditions of the Maasai culture and the journey of these girls within that culture was explained. Questions followed about boys and husbands, followed by more about babies and marriage arrangements.

Question time

It was a privilege to be there as an observer and a delight to see girls of the same age meeting each other - 15 well educated and privileged girls with diverse aspirations and 15 or so esiangikis, most of them married and some with babies, all on a different cultural journey through life, but with the shared basic interest of finding good life partners and having families.

 The two groups worked in similar ways with their quieter members not saying much but listening with interest whilst the more engaged and voluble members carried the conversation.

At the end the English girls stood up and gave a hearty rendition of a school song as well as another sung in a round with a finale of their favourite pop song, all of which was loudly appreciated by the Maasai. The journey home was quieter as tired girls pondered the day’s events. Everything had been said and now it was time to commit it all to memory and experience. Despite the huge cultural differences, they were all just teenage girls underneath.