Masai

Our tour guides and tent camp providers were Masai tribesmen. One day we went on a "nature walk" around the camp. I can't remember the guide's name so let's call him "Steve." (We can kind of guess that our driver guide's name was not really Dominic, so let's guess at the other guide's name as Steve.)

Steve took us around the camp, would take a couple of leaves off a bush or tree, hand them to us and ask us to guess what they used it for.

Steve took these small twigs off a bush, sorry can't remember the name, trimmed down the bark, started chewing on it to soften it and then turned it into his tooth brush.

At another bush, we touched leaves that were very soft, velvety soft. They used them for toilet paper. Leaves from another bush were as rough as sandpaper, and yup, they used them for sandpaper (would hate to get those two trees mixed up).

Steve cut a long twig from another bush and proceeded to strip the bark off in one piece. The "inside" of this long twig became like a switch — to whip or steer animals or young boys. The outside of this twig, the bark if you will, was like rope. You couldn't rip it and the Masai used it to tie together twigs and such when forming thatch for houses and fencing.

One of the other twigs were sweet yet salty smelling. They put them in soup to flavor the broth.

They carry those spears around and tried to teach the two guys with u how to use them. They never offered us gals the chance. Then again, we never saw women around the camp, they were only in the village.

One day we were on our way to look for the elusive leopard when we discovered it was laundry day. The women were by the creek washing the clothes. I set a very fast shutter speed and hung the camera out the window to capture this colorful shot (another photo for mom).

This shot was also taken in a similar fashion. I found it kind of amusing — Talek Country Club with rooms available.