There is something about the big walk to the waterfall that quickens the pulse and excites the group no matter how many times we do it…

The maasai themselves rarely get there, so our expeditions have become eagerly awaited and oft talked about

Partly I think, a chance for the traditional forest maasai, the guys who are are guards and guides and who are now becomming our friends, to stock up on the seemingly wide ranging larder of medicinal plants

partly it mirrors the maasai’s own meat feasts and trecks into the forest during their journeys of initiation, (we always take a goat or sheep with us for fresh food),

and somehow stories of the previous year’s trips seem to be repeated afterwards and replayed to us on our return…

And it is one heck of a walk…..with one heck of a set of views at the end of it…

We bumped into an old friend of mine in the Loitas who has designed and helped set up a lovely camp style, from which to base a Loita visit, perhaps on the next visit……

I really like the use of a design based on a maasai traditional hut design, with all the modern comforts inside.

And particularly the design of the loo….

My favourite hills and forests, shady places to camp, highland maasai, and a long long walk to a big big waterfall…

In traditional maasai society, children are an asset the family enterprise in so many ways.  As well as being loved for who they are, they are celebrated as the future of the family, as well as vital to its effective functioning.  We have seen what we would call tots, barely three of four years old, out in remote places looking after the sheep and goats.  As they grow, the children take on more and more responsibility and more arduous tasks.  The girls fetching and carrying heavy loads of water and firewood, and helping their mothers in the construction and maintenance of the traditional mud houses.  The boys trecking with the livestock, and taking on the more complex and arduous cattle watering, grazing, and livestock care.

So when education beckons, it can be hard for some traditional families to release children to go.

We heard a heart rending story from a volunteer at the school, who came across a girl carrying firewood just like in these pictures that we took on  our game walk with John.  The volunteer asked the girl didn’t she want to go to school.  In reply, the girl said nothing, but tears simply streamed down her cheeks.  The volunteer made her drop her load, climb into her car, and took her to the teachers to talk with the parents for her to enrole.  The girl, Nasiaku, is now in class full time.

Yet the joining of the old and the new in this way is not always easy.  John ole Mpoe chairs the school committee, which run a rescue programme for girls and boys that want to come to school, and which are prevented from doing so by their parents.  They patiently explain to the parents the benefits that education can bring, for example, with girls going on to be nurses, social workers and teachers themselves, bringing local employment, and allowing the community to cater for and care for its own, rather than relying on officials from outside areas.

Yet some parents will remain stubborn, and refuse.  In some cases, arranged marriages of what in the west would be under-age girls still goes on.  In these cases, and where parents still do not listen to reason, the school will bring in the administration or police to resolve the issues.

Except perhaps at times of drought, when all hands may be needed on deck to move cattle, and the school is understanding, generally, parents are seeing the benefits of progress, and enrolment rates continue to rise.

On our last visit we where shown the mother and calf classroom, a classroom for the newly arriving infant children built by the mothers of some of the children in a traditional style.

For a maasai infant, a traditional house in warm, dark, rounded, smokey and comforting.  A modern classroom is large, bright, angular and intimidating.  When the infants first come, the teachers bring them to the mother and calf classroom to settle in.  Invariably they return the next day, and in a few days more, are ready to join their brothers and sisters in the main classrooms.

On our visit to the school this time, I took a more keen interest in the headmaster’s lecturn.  My son, Joe, had designed one for his headmaster’s use at his school in England. I wondered about the differences in design and approach, the materials available, and the functionality.  The two are equally valid and to me convey an equally important platform for headmasters to deliver meaning, but the two nicely sum up the difference in resources between our two worlds….

Our walk with John took us to where the cattle are watered, though with the recent rains, most cattle where able to take water from surface pools as they graze.  The sound of the cattle bells, the warm breeze, the gentle zinging of cicadas, all make for a restful and peaceful day.

Also of course, the sights and signs of the struggles of the night before all around, including the warthog picked off by the leopard

The hair of the maasai women is not cut after giving birth, leaving the women with a full head of hair until the naming ceremony at a few months old.  Then the hair is shaved, and the more usual appearance is adopted again.  These photos were taken at a child’s naming ceremony to which where invited shortly after travelling to the Loita hills.

Beautiful day spent circling herds of giraffe, eland, zebra, impala and thomsons gazelles, with the maasai cattle moving in between them and us.

We saw a circle of vultures wheeling and walked the mile or so over to where they were patrolling, to find the remains of a warthog eaten by  leopard the night before.

On the way, we come across a miniature tortoise, a kobe, similar to the bronze cast we have at home which we use as a hand warmer, glad to say this lifesize model is alive and well, unlike the model used for the bronze cast kobe at home.

Setting up with Joseph ole Ntaaye and his sons.  James is in the Kenyan army, back off leave after seeing action in the north of the country.  He is happy to be at home after a more than slightly interesting tour of duty.

Of which more anon.