After that initial meeting and conversation we were ushered back to the vans to head off for the Maasai lunch. We gave Tom the option of travelling with his father or going with me, and to my surprise he went with me. We got in the van and I showed him the bag of gifts I had, then gave him the soccer ball to pump up. He attacked it with gusto and for the first time he seemed to relax a bit.
It was a long drive out to the Maasai, on some roads, dirt roads, and eventually what seemed like animal trails. There were four of us in the can, with three children, so it was pretty cosy. Paul had pointed out that many of the children might not have ridden in a vehicle before, and we were told a similar thing at the school earlier, that many of the children had not travelled as far as Emali.
We finally arrived and were greeted by the Maasai. This involved some line dancing (for want of a better word) and the whole tribe filing past us and everybody shaking hands with everybody. We are learning new words all the time: ���karibu��� in Swahili and ���sopa��� in Maasai is ���welcome���. I even experienced the ���African handshake��� which was quite touching as it is only used among close friends. After this we climbed up the hill a little way to where they had a marquee and seats set out, and food cooking. The food was simple and good ��� stew, rice, meat, some vegetables like spinach and cabbage. By this stage Tom and I had been reunited with his father and our interpreter, so we continued the conversation about African culture.
After everybody had eaten we went to the top of the rock on the hill, which Tom���s father told me is called Kimpas. We took some photos ��� the view was spectacular ��� and I gave Tom my camera to take some snaps for himself. His smile was getting bigger all the time.
Then we were treated to some tribal dancing and Paul was made an honorary elder of the tribe, much to everyone���s amusement.
Paul being made an honorary elder of the Maasai tribe
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