One year ago, I was in Tanzania living in a Maasai Village outside of the city of Arusha. Little did I know how much of an impact that this month I spent there would have on my life. Here is the 10th entry in my African Stories series.

This is the story of June 12, 2017

We were told that we were going to be touring the main village area where village chief and his family live and where the village gathers for celebrations.

The homes are small structures made out of a clay and the insides have partitions separating the different areas of the home.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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I found it interesting that the inside of the homes had newspaper all over the walls that had been constructed. I am not sure why that is, but I am sure someone in the group asked. I wonder if it had anything to do with insulation that may have been inside the walls and the newspaper was used to cover it.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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The village chief was showing up how the roofs of the homes were constructed, but he also grabbed a root that was drying up underneath the roof. That is his special root drying spot.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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After he grabbed a few of the roots, he brought us to a large blue drum and took the lid off of it. It was filled with a liquid, and some bugs and other strange floating objects. He dropped the roots in there with some roots that had already been floating around in there with the other various "things."

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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Then the chief dipped a cup in and started to drink it. He told us that it was an alcohol that they make. He then began to explain the process and all the ingredients that they use. Our interpreter was very soft spoken and I was busy taken pictures of the process so I couldn't really catch most of it. Plus I kept thinking about all the bugs and floaties in there. I guess the alcohol kills it, right?

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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The chief's father, that was the previous chief, grabbed a cup and dipped it in. He then offered it to me. While it was tempting to sit and drink with a village elder in the middle of Tanzania, I decided that I didn't trust the water that was used, the dead bugs, and the floaties that were in there. My stomach wasn't built up to handle all of that.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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One thing I really liked about the way the Massai dressed, was their beaded accessories. This woman even had a beaded pouch to hold her cell phone. The weird thing about the phone was that there was no generators or solar power anywhere in the village, so I am not sure how the phone was being charged, if it even was.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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This man was the chief's brother, so he was part of the "royal family" and lived in the main portion of the village as well. One of the members of our group had taken polaroids and told him that he needed to rub it on his clothes to help it to develop. I later had to explain to her that doesn't work and it ended up ruining this man's picture because his clothing has dust on it and scratched the whole photo up.

Around the village

After we had our tour we were told that in a few hours we would be going to the children's school for a celebration. So we had some time to waste, so I went out to take some more pictures.

If you have followed my African Stories from the first entry, you will recognize this little guy.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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His name is William and the time I would spend with him over the month in the village was some of my most memorable moments. To summarize the first African Stories entry, William would wait for me every night when we finished what we had planned for the day and him and I would go hunt "ndege" (birds) with my camera. He was always so excited to point them to me in the trees or in the fields. Then after I got pictures of them he would rush over to see the pictures in my camera.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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William found this huge bee's nest and wanted to show it to me. He called them "nyuki" and that huge ball of bees looked mighty yucky to me. I was glad to have a 600mm lens because I didn't want to get close to these bees because African Killer Bees in Africa are just called bees. Look at the thorns on the branches of that tree, even the branches will try to kill you if you aren't paying attention.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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Children were usually tasked with tending to the lives stock and fetching the water for the families. During our time there, one of the projects that we had done was set up a potable water station for the village that was a lot close to the main portion of the village.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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These are just some of the Maasai Warriors that live in the village. The one in the front is named Wilson. He was actually tasked with watching over our encampment at night to make sure that nothing got into it or messed with us. Inside the wall on the right is the area where we had set up our tents.

Wilson was a pretty awesome dude. One day there was a pretty bad rain storm that got someone blanket all wet, so they hung it out to dry on a post and while it was drying, a nest of bees decided they were going to make it their home. We were trying to figure out what to do about it and we were all daring each other to grab the blanket and run out of the camp.

Well I ran up to the blanket and grabbed a corner of it and started running with it, and the bees got pissed and started to swarm, so I dropped the blanket and kept running. Someone else tried after a few minutes once the bees calmed down, but they only made it a few steps before they dropped it and ran screaming.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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Then Wilson showed up with his sunglasses. We told him what was going on, so he grabbed some of the long green leaves, built a small fire and began to burn the leaves and they gave off a thick smoke. Then he walked up to the bees and waved the smoke towards them for a few minutes. Then he calmly walked up and grabbed the corners of the blanket and trapped the nest of bees inside the blanket. Then he started to run out of the camp smiling while twirling the blanket in circles over his head and then he chucked it out in the corn field once he was pretty far away. It was pretty awesome. I wish that I had gotten my camera and taken pictures of the whole experience, but I was too busy running like a baby the first time I grabbed the bees that I forgot to get pictures of the others that were going to try.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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Off to the school

After a few hours we set off on foot to the school to meet up with the village kids for the celebration. Along the way we passed several homes and were greeted by children that come out.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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Once we got to the school, there were children everywhere. It was awesome. They sang songs to us and welcomed us to their school.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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The marks on this boys cheeks and forehead are a sort of "branding" that is done when they are young. It is done as a form of medicine whereas they think that branding in these ways can heal certain things like allergies or other common problems that people have. He was always around me and always wanted to be in the pictures.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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So many children were happy to have their pictures taken and they were excited to see what they looked like on the back of my camera.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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We spent some time going around the school with the children and they showed us their classroom.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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One of the projects that the group I was there with has been working on is building a new school for the village. As you can see, the village is in need of a new school.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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I am not even sure how old the school is, but it is falling apart. Most of the rooms have no doors and one of the sides of the school isn't structurally sound and missing a huge portion of the wall.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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Despite all of this, the kids were still in high spirits and excited to try and teach us something, while some of us gave them some English lessons.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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Of course, some people just wanted to keep posing for the camera.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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After we spent some time in the school, it was time to go outside to prepare dinner. This is actually where I became Welcomed as a Maasai Warrior (African Stories entry #2). They were going to slaughter two goats and I was going to be able to slaughter one of them. The Maasai Warriors drink the blood from the animal as a sign of respect and for nutritional value after they slit its throat. So after I cut the goat's throat I went in for a large mouthful of goat blood strait from the neck. If it sounds gross, trust me, it was. I won't share any of those pictures in this post, but if you want to see them, check out that post. It is pretty awesome.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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This is probably the least graphic image of Wilson preparing the goat after I drank its blood. The younger Maasai boys were learning from the older warriors on how this is done because one day it will be up to them to do this for their families and for the village.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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I probably could have used this image and just said Wilson was cutting up the goat, but that wouldn't have been as fun.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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While the meat was cooking, the boys were given the hooves to snack on. It doesn't look like the most appetizing snack for me, but they were eating them like popsicles.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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It started to rain, so I took shelter in the school. Many of the kids had grabbed an ear of corn and was snacking on that while they were waiting for the goat to finish cooking.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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So we all waited around the fire for the goat to finish cooking and after it was done, we each got to eat some small portions of it. It wasn't the best meat I have ever had, but it also wasn't the worst. I am sure if it were cooked in an actual grill that could cook it at a consistent temperature so I didn't have to eat uncooked pieces and if it were seasoned right. I would have probably enjoyed it a lot more. Plus I had drank the goat's blood, so now it was a part of me, so I was pretty much participating in cannibalism at this point.

Heading home

After we finished eating the children headed out and we hung out with Wilson and the other warriors for a while. It was going to be dark soon so we started to head back.

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^{Photo taken by me @derangedvisions}

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We were greeted by more children on the way back. Walking around the village was always such a peaceful feeling. I loved being there in Africa and around these awesome people. June 12, 2017 was an awesome day. Definitely one that I will never forget.