If you didn’t know already, beads are a big part of the Maasai culture. The women make beadwork, they wear it on a daily basis, even at home. And, when it comes to church or anything celebratory, they really load it on!
When we first arrived, as part of our welcoming ceremony, we stood up front and they came up and loaded bracelets on our wrists and put necklaces over our heads like flower leis in Hawaii.
Whenever we go to a celebration, to church or to meet with our partner organizations, we get what I like to call, “beaded up”. Most of the time, we simply wear a modest bracelet, but sometimes, like for church, we put on necklaces and I wear the earrings the neighbor lady made for me. The community folks like to see us wearing the beads, even if its not something we would normally do.
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| Bracelet collection |
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| I use some of the necklaces for wall decor while its not in use. |
Also, Doug has a few “engudi le olpayiani”, which are elder sticks. Essentially, he was told that an “olpayian”, (a man of middle age, an elder) doesn’t go on a walk anywhere without his stick. Its used traditionally by the pastoralist locals to prod their cows, but it also means that you are an authority in your home and in your community. We can see the boys carrying their engudis both in play (especially the tiny boys) and also for the purpose of herding their cows. It is not uncommon to see boys or girls less than 10 years old out “in the middle of nowhere” hanging out with a big herd of goats or some cows. On our walks, we like to have the engudi in the event of an encounter with an animal or reptile of distasteful nature.
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