African Adventure: Tanzania's Next Top Maasai
Saturday July 15, 2017 We may have seen them at the museum, the market and herding cattle but for today, a real Maasai warrior came to talk to us about how way of life. Silas is a twenty something year old who speaks English pretty well and wears the traditional red checkered cloth that shows he's a warrior. The Maasai are from Sudan but now reside in Kenya and Tanzania; they're nomadic and follow wherever the cattle go by many choose to stay in one place for schools. To become a warrior, a male of the tribe has to kill the predator of the cattle; Silas killed a lion. His father has five wives and he has 28 siblings yet he thought it was funny when we told him you could only have one partner at a time. The Maasai aren't religious but many are Christian and most pray to nature. They also drink milk and cow blood; it's supposed to be really sweet. I'll pass. Lunch was something that reminded me of home and my grandma; Chipsi mayai. It's an omelette of eggs and chips (really, fries). Abuela's is still better.
Moshi is much prettier than Arusha. More flowers and beautiful houses. Same kind of dirt roads though.
After a stop at the food market and a Bajaji home (a three wheeled little car), all of us started drinking wine and beer to pregame going out. My roommates and I finished about two bottles of wine and it was really making me feel some type of way. Silas even joined us and started drinking to go out all together. Winnie and Tony, who work at the hostel, came out with us and helped us navigate a night out in Moshi. The first little bar had a live band that kept shouting out our Maasai warrior; let me tell you, it's super weird to be dancing and drinking with a tribe member but when in Africa...
The others ordered Konyagi, Tanzanian gin, and tonic. The bartender literally gives you a whole bottle and a ton of bottles of tonic. Serve it yourself. Efficient. We started to dance around in an otherwise empty bar. A few of the locals joined us and one lady even danced over to our table when we took a break. I got up to dance alongside her and basically copied all her moves; they really work their knees the lower to the ground they go. After a round of applause and a hug, Winnie turns to me and goes, "You know she's a prostitute, right?" W. H. A T. Apparently the women here go to bars and dance and go home with a guy instead of being on the streets. But I swear you'd never know unless you know, she was wearing jeans and a blouse! Not at all what you'd think when you think of a prostitute. When in Africa, right? Our next stop for the night was the Red Stone Night Club and it was much more what I'd expect at a night club. Silas had to check in his sword because he couldn't bring it in... because Africa. The night consisted of a lot of Spanish music, which didn't surprise me but made me happy because it means I win the bet I made with my mom about how I'd hear Despacito even in East Africa. $20, all mine.
The only downfall was that the men are incredibly aggressive. You'd dance and they'd grab your arm to dance with them or just start grinding on you. It took away some of the fun because 60% of our dancing meant we were defending our backsides. Lauren danced the night away with this one guy and 20% of the night meant making sure she was still in the building. Zoe kept saying no thank you at the guys who'd come up with her but the more she said no, the more they'd come to her. At one point, this one guy kept dancing on me and Winnie started yelling at him something in Swahili. "I told him he had to dance with you but WITH RESPECT," and I thought it was the funniest way to fend off from a guy. Will also bring that all the way home. We left around 1:30 a.m. and a few interesting things happened. 1) my stomach felt weird 2) Lauren kept on telling her guy to go back inside, that he couldn't go with us 3) Lindsey had to ask him his name because Lauren didn't know 4) Frankie still wouldn't leave Lauren alone and even tried to get in our Dali dali 5) Silas almost missed his ride home because he had to go pick up his knife. Because Africa. Ended up chucking up dinner but still a 10/10 night. Because Africa.
