On a 3 day tour of duty with Flying Medical service I had landed in Pininyi, western shore of lake Natron, and decided to go for a walk in the village. The doctor and nurses didn’t need me to attend the outreach clinic.
In less than 10 years that village has sure changed a lot. There were only huts by then. Nowadays, there are brick houses and brightly panted o top of that. Beautiful blue hue, isn’t it? The mamas are not exclusively Masai anymore. Some Sonjo people as on the picture from a neighboring valley have moved in for the waterfall and river benefit.
But traditions still go well, like this Masai woman sowing…
or these ones building a mud hut with branches.
Homosexuality is a big no no in Africa (still a crime or even wishful death penalty in medieval Uganda) but affection gesture between friends, children or adults, is fine. Notice the rubber boots in a dry and hot country (35 d Celsius is an average on lake Natron) but the people here are masters in irrigation canals…
This alley used to be the airstrip. With the village expansion, it was decided to make it the main artery for business (yes business but Africans tend to overuse that word, even to describe the sale of 3 flip flops on the side of the road…) and the airstrip has been relocated towards the lake, which made sense. Now it looks like in Europe, big ideas, the beginning of some work is spotted then nothing happens for years, just a vacant, or mostly vacant street with trees growing. About 15 huts or brick houses on an old 500m airstrip is not a lot.
This one of the buildings along that main artery. As anyone can can see, in term of architecture there is room for improvement …it reminds me of the Egyptian architect in Asterix and Cleopatra…
Dried cow skin are commonly used for mattresses, I have used that a coupla times when I had to spend the night in a Masai village. Not too bad I must say.
Milk! The main food for Masai people.
Not rare but not the most common way to carry things around. The whole load on top of the head seems the favorite and for good reasons. A piece of rag of the head serving as a cushion doesn’t leave marks whereas a strap like on this picture leaves a dent over the years. Seriously, the skull digs in.
This kid kept on filling that bag with dirt then running quickly home to offload what was left of the dirt. With holes like that….notice the homemade wheelbarrow that is a V shaped branch with 2 pieces of tree trunk for the wheels.
