Maasai Culture

Where: Kenia

Who: Vacanze egiziane

Muteleu Traditional Village was born from a girl's dream and now the all community is involved

If you are dreaming of flamingos, savana, mountains and beaches, you will come back with a heart wormed up by the people you met. This travel -of ten or eighteen days- will bring you to the Merrueshi village in the Ukamba region of Kenia.

Where women are very important, as Susan Simayiani, founder of the association Naretisho and responsible of the Muteleu Maasai Traditional Village, proudly told us: <

Muteleu Maasai Traditional village was build by a group of women, comprised of married and widows, who are dedicated to actively participate in business, social and cultural activities to empower and improve our community through income generating activities such as -:

Building of the 10 maasai huts “manyatta “ to host tourist, In the Maasai society women are responsible for all domestic tasks which include making their homes in which they travel long distance to get the guilding materials e.g mud, sticks, grass, and cow dung, they also milk the cows, collect water (a heavy and arduous task), cook and look after the children
They do workshops on how to make and quality decorative beadwork items e.g necklace, bracelets and earrings that they eventual sell to the tourist and other markets • They do welcoming to tourist with traditional music
They prepare food and make beds, wash and change beddings in the houses and the up keeping of the houses, according to the Maasai tradition and they include: boiled or grilled meat, rice, flat unleavened bread, tomatoes, cabbage, beans, a white grit and a vegetable similar to spinach.
Collect firewood that we use to light fire for cooking and warming water for shower. With the consent of the elders of our community we carry forward a number of educational projects for our people’s evolution keeping our original culture alive. >>.

How was this trip born? Here is the tour operator Viaggi del Sogno account: << We choose Kenia, because it was the will of the community to organise a tourism project protecting their traditions. The idea came from two young Maasai- Susan and her brother-, to build better life conditions, health, but expecially to give women a new dignity through work. Now, women sell ornaments and share earnings, but they also built homes and organise welcoming and cultural events.

It is a real experience to be received in a real Maasai hut, an unique experience, but also an opportunity to participate to real life and help the environment. It is a project increasing the territory in value, improving development. But more than everything it is an example of how the rural community can again get possesion of its own land and millenary culture, traditions and origins. With a trip here, we help to rebuild local's ethic and responsible managemnet >>.

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