Quack Quack or how Masai women give birth

One of the things I love about Africa is that it let's you experience so many new things that you never dreamed of seeing.

One of those things I experienced with the Masai, is witnessing childbirth.

The wive of my husband's brother who gave birth recently. 

As generous, warm and welcoming the Masai are, I was first invited to watch a Masai lady give birth in February 2012, when I had only been living with them for a month.

Masai women traditionally have their babies at home, aided by a traditional midwife and many many of their female relatives.

The hut in which a woman is labouring is swarmed with her sisters, neighbours, mother and even grandmother. Any woman who is around is invited to watch and to support her.
However, there are rules regarding age and respect for your elders. No woman younger than the lady in labour is allowed to watch. Also, pregnant ladies are not allowed into the hut until the child is born and mothers with babies who have not yet teeth are not allowed unless they leave their children to be watched by someone outside of the hut.

Myself with two of my sisters-in-law during a ceremony.

The traditional midwive and older ladies sit on the bed with the woman in labour, holding her, rubbing her back and checking her dilation every so often. They are all naked from the waist down. This, they believe, helps the woman relax and open herself for childbirth.

After the baby is born, the traditional midwive also oversees the passing of the placenta. To help this along, a boy (or the husband of the new mother) is called to climb the roof of the house with a stick and tap it repeatedly saying 'Quack' over and over again until the placenta is out.

It is then wrapped in leaves and taken outside by two women holding a machete. The machete is used to fend of wild animals as well as men while they complete their task of burrying the placenta in the bush.

Masai women dancing at a ceremony after the birth of a child.

The women that have been called to witness the birth, help by cooking tea or porridge and boiling water for the new mother and the baby as well as the helpers. They also help clean up after the birth. Then no matter what time it is another pot of tea is cooked for the helpers.

The day after the birth a sheep is slaughtered and people are invited to celebrate. The new mother is given as much as a litre of liquid sheep's fat to drink (I tried it, and yes, it is just as disgusting as it sounds). This is thought to help her heal.

The new mother will stay inside of her hut with her baby for roughly two months and her mother and mother-in-law do all the work for her, cooking, washing, looking after the goats and much more. They also help her with the baby at night.

Her husband does not stay in the same hut as the new mother for up to three months.

Masai women from our boma receiving reusable sanitary kits through one of my projects.

Women call each other to witness each other's birth even in the middle of the night. The sense of community and love is inspiring. I have witnessed five births so far and have yet to succeed in keeping a dry eye.

Only recently my sister-in-law had her second son and I was called to her hut at 1 am. For a second I thought about just continuing to sleep but the feeling of responsibility and of showing my support to my fellow women, made me get up.

I sat in her hut, watching her labour with many other women for over 2 hours, until she gave birth just after 3 am and I held her tiny baby for the first time not long afterwards. During the birth of her first child, she was in labour for nearly 48 hours and all without any kind of pain relief.

Myself with women from my family and a friend from Colombia

The strength, kindness and generosity of Masai women (as well as men) is something that I will never cease to admire and be grateful for.


This is why I am currently running a women empowerment project in our community, teaching Masai women how to sew their own reusable sanitary kits. If you would like to support us in this endeavour, please click on this link: 'Stephanie's Masai Women Enterprise'.

Thank you!

Swahili for beginners

Hi everyone!


I have had a few visitors lately, many of whom were struggling to get to grips with Swahili. 

So here is a beginner's guide to Swahili, the official language of Tanzania and Kenya.

The way you will be welcomed to these two beautiful countries will be quite different and definitely warmer if you know a few phrases in Swahili.

During the recent visit of my friend from Colombia (myself: left in pink)

Hello/How are you?                 Habari/ Habari yako?

Hello back/ I am well               Nzuri/safi

Are you OK?
(Literally: peaceful)                  Salama?

Answer to 'salama'                    Salama

Habari za asubuhi?                  Good morning

Habari za leo?                            Good day/afternoon

Habari za jioni?                          Good evening

Nzuri/safi/salama                       Replies to anything starting with 'habari'/ different
                                                       versions of 'good'

Shikamoo                                     Respectful greeting to elders (from arabic)

Marahaba                                    Reply to 'Shikamoo'

Haujambo?                                  Are you well?/How are you?

Sijambo                                         I am good, reply to 'haujambo'

Jambo!                                          Tourist version of 'haujambo'


Wapi?                      Where?

Nani?                       Who?

Nini?                        What?

Lini?                         When?

How many/
How much?            Ngapi?



What does this cost?                  Shillingi ngapi?/Bei gani?

What is your name?                   Unaitwa nani?

Where is.......                                 Iko wapi......

Toilet                                              choo

Restaurant                                    hotel/ sahemu ya chakula

Shop                                               duka

Beach                                             pwani

Water                                             maji

Food                                               chakula



Thank you!                  Asante.                                      1         moja                   6      sita

Excuse me                    Samahani                                 2        mbili                   7      saba

You are welcome        Karibu                                       3        tatu                      8     nane

                                                                                           4        nne                      9     tisa

Good bye                      kwa heri                                   5        tano                    10     kumi
See you later                baadaye                                  
 
                     


I will leave it at these for today so as not to fry your brains! Let me know if you would like to know more or if there is anything specific you would like to get into.


Wishing you a great day!

More of a woman

There are days where I am just bursting with inspiration and often this inspiration comes from the beautiful people I share my life with, but sometimes (and this has been the case recently) I struggle to pick up a pen and start writing.


Today though I feel like I have something to share with you again and this comes from my recent wish and desire to improve the lives of my fellow Masai women and mothers.

With my son Yannik in May 2016

As I am a mother. And I am so proud and happy that I have chosen to become one.

I remember a friend of mine once telling me, that she asked herself, after the birth of her first baby, why she had not done this earlier as it is the easiest thing she has ever done. I have to say I disagree. For me, it is not the easiest thing, it is quite possibly the hardest thing I have ever done, but as is so often the case with us humans, the hardest things, that we cannot imagine ourselves doing or accomplishing in life, turn out to be the best, most rewarding things at the same time.

I for my part feel that I am complete now, but by that I do not mean I am completely happy or completely fulfilled. On the contrary, having a child, has left me with a hunger and a need to DO more, to ACT more, to BE more. It has opened my eyes and my soul and has made me want to reach out and connect with the world to bring good to it. It has made me stand up and work towards a better future for my child.

A family snapshot with all the women. (Myself: back row, right)

So I am not complete, but I am completely happy in myself. I have learned to love and accept myself for who I am. When you see your body go from small to big and back and when you have had your life turned upside down and go back to normal within a couple of years, you understand really that there is nothing wether good or bad that lasts forever and that there is nothing to worry about or fear as there is nothing really that you cannot achieve if you put your mind to it.

I am more of a woman now and more of a person and I am so thankful that I have made it through the first two years of my child's life and have come out stronger.

A beautiful Masai women and her son.

If you are thinking of having a baby, if it is your heart's wish, then do it, because you will be just fine. And if you already have become a mother, then please share with me here, what you feel your baby has given you in life. Mine has given me confidence and purpose and the strongest desire to live life to the full as well as huge amounts of compassion towards my fellow women, wether mother or not.

Wishing all you beautiful ladies (and gentlemen) a beautiful day!

Masai customs

I am often being asked how I managed to adapt to the Masai culture as it is so different from my European background. The answer is: I managed because I wanted to.
Moving to a different country, surrounding yourself with new people and an unknown culture is always a challenge but one, that can teach us great lessons about life and make us stronger.

My mother-in-law milking a cow with my son Yannik on her back

I would like to share with you today, some of the lesser known, smaller Masai customs and taboos that I had to get accustomed to and that sometimes make me roll my eyes, but more often than not, put a smile on my face.

1) when lying down outside because of illness or tiredness, one has to make sure, one lies in such a way, that one's head points towards the sun.

2) when you pour milk out of the traditional enkoti, the dried out pumpkin shell in which milk is stored, make sure you do not empty it completely, leave a few drops inside.

3) when putting logs on the fire, make sure, the big end of the log goes into the flames.

4) when sitting on a chair, and encountered by someone older than you, give that person your chair and sit on the floor or on a log.

5) never step over a man's stick, walk around it.

6) when shaving your head, do not let the wind disperse your hair, collect it and bury it somewhere secret.

7) Masai clothes are always tied together on the right shoulder, exposing the left.

8) when you see the new moon rising, pick up a pebble and throw it at it.

A group of warriors eating meat outdoors.

9) warriors are not allowed to eat inside a woman's house, recognised by the presence of 1) enkisojet, the tree twig with which the enkotiook (pumpkins used to store milk) are cleaned, 2) olmasarr, the cow tail which is used to disperse ashes inside the enkotiook as a means of preserving the milk and 3) ilkiperre, the specially carved tree stick with which emutu, the Masai's staple meal of maize flour, is stirred.

10) when milking a cow, make sure you stand on her right hand side, where her branding is.


How many of these querky Masai customs are you familiar with? Let me know if you have a questions or would like to know more about a particular one. Of course there are more, but I think ten is a good number to stop for now 😊.

Wishing you a lovely Sunday.

Speaking Masai language (Maa)

It has been nearly a month since my last post - I hope you can forgive me!

In the Masai Steppe, cattle often take over the roads.

It is not like I got tired of sharing stories with you. It is because I was so super busy running my crowdfunding campaign, Stephanie's Masai Education Fund, to bring environmental education to the Masai community I live in.
It was a successful campaign and we raised enough to take part in a three day Bootcamp in land management and conservation at the Mara Training Centre in Kenya. I am so excited by the change and opportunities this project can bring for us!
I will keep you posted!

So the last two months, I was glued to my tablet all day long sending emails, replying to donors, posting updates, etc. All my energy and inspiration went into this project and it left little time for anything else. Now I am back and would like to share with you another beautiful aspect of Masai culture: their language.

In the western world the Masai language is often called Maa. I do not like to use this term, as it is not what the Masai call it themselves. When they mention their language they call it: Enkotok te Masai, which literally translated means: the mouth of the Masai.

Myself (right in red), my family and my friend Nare from Armenia.

Here are some basics and their translation to English. Masai language is pronounced as it is read. Vowels are pronounced seperately and treated as syllables. For example the number two is pronounced: A~Re, three is: U~Ni, six is I~Le.

Numbers:     nabo                        one                                      
                       are                           two 
                       uni                           three
                       omwan                    four 
                       imieyet                    five
                       ile                             six
                       napischana            seven   
                       isiet                         eight
                       endoroit                  nine
                       tomuon                   ten

To say yes, you say: E-Eh     and no is: A-Ah 

Greetings:     supai                      greeting for boys, girls, warriors and old men
                        hapa (ipa)             reply to 'supai'
                        takwenya              greeting for women
                        iko                          reply to 'takwenya'
                        kiduaye                  we will see each other
                        sere                         bye
                        kadake                   later


Basic vocabulary:    sidai                  nice, beautiful, good
                                    torronok           bad, ugly, unpleasant 
                                    enketeng           cow
                                    enkine               goat (female)
                                    enkir                  sheep (female)
                                    enkerai              child
                                    enkema              fire
                                    enkaji                house
                                    Enkai                 God, higher spirit
                                    enkolong           sun
                                    olappa               moon
                                    lolkirr                star
                                    oljetta                tree
                                    enkoitoi             path
                                    enkarre             water
                                    endaa                 food, ugali
                                    endito                girl
                                    olaiyoni             boy
                                    enkitok              woman 
                                    olmorani           warrior (circumcised boy)
                                    olpaijan             old man 
                                    owaou               grandmother
                                    kuyaa                 grandfather
                                    esepata               true
                                    muluki                false, untrue



Colours:         naiborr           white
                        narok              black
                        nanyuki           red
                        nanyorrei       green
                        pus                   blue


I hope you find their language as beautiful and interesting as I find it and enjoyed this post. Drop me a comment if there is a particular word or expression you would like to know. Wishing you a lovely week and promising to not keep you waiting for too long for my next post! 😉

Masai misconceptions

Today, after having been silent for 11 days! (forgive me!), I would like to share with you some of the myths about my husband's tribe.

There are many books about Masai culture but sadly, 90% of the time they are outdated. The Masai have a culture that dates back to over two centuries ago and they try to hold on to it even today in 2018, yet they have to adapt daily to the many challenges modern day planet earth brings with it.

My husband and his brothers working to inject one of our bulls.

Because of this, their culture is changing quickly and there have not been many publications that deal with these changes in Masai culture.

I would like to give you examples of some customs here and would like to ask you to comment below wether you believe they are true or false.

I will then reveal the answers and explain.

1)     To become a warrior, Masai boys have to kill a lion.  True or false?

2)     Masai men share their wives with visitors.  True or false?

3)     Masai women do not use hygiene products during their periods. True/false?

4)     Masai celebrate Christmas.  True/false?

5)     Masai girls are circumcised before marriage. True/false?

6)     The colour of the cloth a man wears, displays age or social status. True/false?

7)     Masai dance is exclusive to men. True/false?

8)     Warriors whistle to their cattle. True/false?

9)     Masai girls herd the goats. True/false?

10)   There is a hidden meaning to facial markings. True/ false?

11)    Masai live only off meat and milk. True/false?

12)    Masai don't wash. True/false

13)    Masai live close to famous National Parks. True/false?


Please click on the 'comments' icon below this blog post to type your answer for each example. Looking forward to chatting!

Please also check out my crowdfunding campaign which I am running to bring environmental education to the Masai community I live in. Thank you!

An african love story

I have not shared stories with you for a while as I am so involved in my Masai community education campaign which is leaving little time for anythung else.

It is taking me on a journey to reconnect with old friends and to also go beyond my comfort zone to ask people for support, but it has so far been an AMAZING experience and one that is leaving my heart full of love every day!

We have also had a very sad week as we lost a young warrior in a tragic accident but the amount of love and support that has and is being shown to his family is just overwhelming and is leaving everything else in its shadow.

I am wrapped in a blanket of love, in the mood for sharing this beautiful emotion with the world and this is why I would like to tell you a love story - my very personal one. The story of how I met my husband Sokoine:

Sokoine taking a break while herding our cattle

I had met him on Mafia Island. A magical place. Paradise. A haven of peace, blue seas and the most amazing diving. Mafia to me was Zanzibar’s little sister. Just as beautiful and cultured but more herself. Less altered by the hordes of tourists that befall Zanzibar so frequently.

The day I set foot on Mafia was the day I met Sokoine.

I was with a group of volunteers, exploring the village of Utende, when we bumped into some Maasai. I was enthralled at first sight. He was taller and bigger than the others, but what drew me in were his eyes. Dark and fiery, yet infinitely kind and patient.

Our wedding day.

I tried to keep him there, on the dusty road in the midst of the village, with my year’s worth of Swahili I had picked up working in Ifakara, close to the Selous Game Reserve in the south of Tanzania. I did not want this moment to end. Another one of those moments that made me feel so intensely at one with the dust under my feet and the sun caressing my skin; at one with the country I had come to love, with the Swahili flowing freely off my tongue, with the immensely beautiful and fascinatingly exotic people standing in front of me.

He worked as security for one of the hotels by the beach and everyday, when we walked past, I tried to make myself as noticeable as possible, pushing our dive cart, laughing, talking; and should I glimpse him watching me, my heart would beat a little faster.

Five weeks passed and I became more and more attached to Mafia, its people and Sokoine. I knew I would not go back to Germany.

And when my friend Michael, whose shop down by the beach was right next to Sokoine’s, told me one day that Sokoine liked me, it seemed I had even more of a reason to stay.

That this beautiful, proud, mysterious human being that comes from a world I cannot even begin to envision, should like me, this ordinary white chick, was too much for me to comprehend. But it was true and we got together and spent the most amazing three weeks under the sun and the stars of Mafia Island…

…a year later we married and moved to his traditional Masai home in the Masai Steppe of Tanzania.

Our son Yannik, Sokoine and I. 

Six years later, and I am still here with him, his parents, his grandmother and more recently with our son. I am as in love with the beautiful country as I have always been and have recently launched a campaign to bring environmental education to our Masai community to make a stand against the ongoing environmental destruction of their homelands.

If you would like to support me in saving the Masai culture along with the wilderness they live in and depend on to feed their cattle, click on this link.

A New Year's wish

The holidays are over and we have started a new year.

Well not so much us - the universe really. So, what are you going to make of it?

2017 for me was the year, where I have finally woken up. It only took me 31 years.

What I mean by that? Well, I feel that I have finally come to understand what is wrong with our planet, for one, and how everything is connected, for another.

Celebrating New Year's Day with friends and family

I have always been passionate about saving our planet - I have always had a huge amount of compassion in me, which is what made me aim towards becoming someone who would make a difference in this world.

I studied Conservation and came to Africa full of enthusiasm and my green-eyed view of our planet's issues. But I did not really SEE.

Now, 8 years later I am finally doing that. And I think what opened my eyes and my soul to the essence of things is my son Yannik, who was born beginning of 2016.

Myself, my husband's Sokoine and our son Yannik 

The biggest problem our planet faces, is human overpopulation.

I see it here on a daily basis, here in the Masai Steppe of Tanzania where I live with a tribe that tries to hold to the way they used to live hundreds of years ago.
And the struggle they face doing so mirrors everything that is going wrong with mother earth.

They used to live off the land of which there used to be so much in Africa, only a century ago. They depend on it for pasture lands for their cattle. Nowadays, there is no land left for them to herd their cattle, because the Masai themselves have become so many, as have their neighbouring tribe, the Zigua.

Here in rural Africa, people live as subsistence farmers and any one soul being born in this place wants to have a farm, a shamba on which to grow his corn which is the staple diet of most Africans. To establish farmland trees are being felled.

Huge areas of the Masai Steppe have already been deforested to make room for farmland and this deforestation is ongoing and uncontrolled. My guess is that in ten years time, there will not be any woodlands left.

The Masai Steppe - deforested farmland up close with views of untouched wilderness in the distance 

The Masai struggle to keep their cattle alive who have become so abundant that they do not even get enough grass in the rainy season. In the dry season there are repeated conflicts over grazing and farmland between the Masai and the Zigua, one wanting to graze their cattle, the other reluctant to tolerate livestock that eats their crops.
Nature is being destroyed, wild animals becoming extinct and conflicts over land becoming more frequent. And it all has one common cause: there are too many people for the land to support.

In 2017 I have finally understood how all this is connected and in 2018 I aim to do something about it.
On 21st December 2017 I launched a campaign to educate four Masai from our villge in conservation and land management to put a stop to the environmental destruction of their lands. For this, we need to travel to Kenya, to a centre for holistic management that offers courses to local community stakeholders and pastoralists.

I hope this education will encourage our community to once again care for their land and to prosecute people who fell woodlands and poach animals. I also believe it will give them the tools needed to manage their land more sustainably, introduce grazing rotas and reduce cattle numbers.

This education is meant to be an eye-opener for the Masai of the Masai Steppe. To make them see that the health of the ecosystem they live in and depend on, is in their hands, that they have the power to save it and guard it.

I believe that if we are successful in provoking change in our community,  others will follow suit.

A kudu that had died in our arms on Christmas Day, having been shot in the jaw and starved to death.

If you believe in fate and destiny then this is mine. I have never been more passionate about anything other than our planet and conservation and I know that with this project, I can finally act on what I believe in.

It is a new year, but the state of our planet is just the same as ever. It needs our help.

You might think, this has nothing to do with me, but IT DOES! We are all in this together and it is everyone's responsibility. Maybe many of you do not have the means to do something for the planet, so I am giving you the chance to DO GOOD THROUGH MY PROJECT! If you care about ours and our children's future and if you have even 5 $ to spare, donate it to my cause.

I promise you these will be 5$ well spent. I am running this project for no personal gain, but for the sake of our wildlife and wild spaces. If you care even a little bit, show it to the world - support us!

My dear readers and followers, I hope you do not mind me being so straight and honest with you - I am desperate to provoke positive change in our community but I cannot do it alone. I am relying on you to help me and my husband Sokoine to start changing the way Africans see their role in conservation.

Follow this link to see my campaign.

Watch my campaign video here.

Thank you!