Life as a woman

Today on the way from our boma to the village, I bumped into a group of women on their way back home from church. They invited me to come join them in the shade for a while.

We greeted one another and they asked about my son. To which I replied that he was doing fine. They then asked who was looking after him today as I had left him - to which I said that he is with my husband's cousin and his aunt.

Masai women dancing at a ceremony 

Then just as I was about to take my leave as Sokoine was waiting for me in the village, they asked me a question that I had heard a lot of times in the last six mobths: 'So has your son stopped nursing yet?!' To which I replied: 'Of course, quite a while ago!'

The women then burst out laughing saying 'Oh I see, so where is your baby belly?!?' Onto which I started laughing saying that I did not have one yet AGAIN! I took my leave and caught up with my husband Sokoine but this conversation stayed with me all day, as many do. It is particularly catching that this conversation happened while I am preparing to have a talk with the Masai women from our village about overpopulation and their role in it.

The way they see their role as women, all they have to do is have child after child after child. They usually nurse their children for two years - sometimes a little longer, sometimes a little less. And often the reason why they stop nursing, is because they are pregnant again. So a Masai woman gives birth every 2.5 to 3 years. Given that they are married very young and have their first child around the sweet age of 16, they often have 8 children in their lifetime or more.

My husband's cousin's wife with her boy.

I have been asking myself a lot why this is lately. And I came up with this:

It is lack of education and lack of choices and opportunities that leaves women to believe that there is nothing for them to do in this world apart from having babies. But it is also the influence of their mothers that puts an emphasis on having babies, rather than on getting an education.

How many girls in our village fail to attend secondary school because they fall pregnant in the middle of it? How many girls get married off when they are a mere 13 years old? Too young and too malnourished to even fall pregnant?

I ask myself what their mothers are thinking? Is it the 12 cattle that they want, that are being given to the father of the bride in exchange for marrying her? Is it, that they just don't know that there is another way?

It is these questions that I aim to address in our next village meeting this week as part of my Masai Education Fund which aims to tackle environmental and cultural challenges within the Masai tribe.

I have no idea how my talk will be received but I see a golden glimmer of hope in that I am well known in our village and that I have lived alongsid the Masai now for six years and have gained their trust.

All that I do, I do out of love for them, for their beautiful culture, for their kind souls and their ever smiling spirits and for the awe-inspiring wilderness they call home.

I hope this love will shine through and make our community back me in trying to provoke positive change for them.

Get in touch to find out more about my Masai Education Fund and find out about ways to support us!

As strong as a woman

Can you do this?

My sister-in-law doing her washing with her son strapped to her back.

Masai women, and generally women in Africa, do back-breaking work on a daily basis. They walk kilometres to fetch water, having to either carry it home on their heads, or loading it onto a donkey. They often do this with a baby on their back.

When they get home, they do not sit back and recover, but start cooking their own food over an open fire. In the African heat, this is another strenuous task.

If they have a spare minute, they go out into the bush to collect firewood. Again they carry a huge load by tying it together and carrying it on their backs with a string wrapped around their foreheads.

Masai women are also in charge of house building. Masai huts are built out of wood and mud. The women fell trees which serve as pillars and hundreds of thick branches which are wrought together with flexible tree bark to serve as walls. 

This is then weather-proofed by plastering it with cow dung and sand. 

Men take no part in building houses or fixing them. Nor do they fetch water or firewood or play a role in raising their children. 

Women do everything in the Masai world and they never complain.

I have come to know how strong we can be, through them.