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This story is based on Sylvie's experience with us when she experienced the Maasai way of life in Tanzania in June 2019. What attracted her to travel with Visit Natives and to explore Maasai culture deeper? What impressions and experiences she gained on the way and after she returned her home in France? We asked Sylvie a few questions about her trip with us in Tanzania. Read what she shared with us and get inspired!
1. How was your experience with the Maasai in Tanzania?
I loved to be in touch with these people. The Maasai people are welcoming people who like to be able to offer us what they have, their simplicity their kindness their humanity. With them, I felt confident, they are attentive, respectful, and caring. They like to involve us in their daily lives. I was able to share with them about our respective experiences with ease. I loved being able to help them in their activities dancing with them and participating in rites of passage. They like to laugh with us, to invite us to their homes, to offer us tea, and to live their lives with pleasure. I received a lot from these people, I felt enriched by their contact and happy
2. Did you experience something unexpected?
This experience was unexpected because of Anniina who lived a long time with them and our Maasai guide, Olopiro, who made it possible for me to create a close link with Maasai. I felt that we had waited with a lot of joy, and it allowed me to live strong emotions and intense moments with them. We were able to communicate easily with the Maasai, because Anniina and our Maasai guide translated all. This made me feel comfortable with them and I could honestly share every moment with them. I liked this closeness and mutual understanding. I was able to get into their lives and be able to fill them with their contact and presence.
3. What was the best thing on your trip?
The most beautiful thing was to attend a rite of passage for a whole day with the Maasai people. To have had the chance to live this particular moment of their culture from morning till night having participated in each ritual was incredible. To share with them this joy, the dances, the celebrations, the songs made me feel connected with them. It was inexpressible happiness! I felt privileged and energized by this day.
4. How were your accommodation and food?
There was no problem for the food because we had a Maasai cook who knew how to prepare us with various healthy meals with love! I liked these morning pancakes so much! Everything was excellent and plentiful enough! I also wanted to be able to taste the Maasai food and especially to share with them the chai tea
5. What is your best memory from the trip?
My best memory is when I was able to help Maasai women cover their cow dung houses !! it was hilarious and unusual compared to my habits. I loved being able to laugh with them while we put this natural preparation on the walls. I loved not taking myself seriously during this activity and thus feel connected with nature, the mother earth and with these women so different from me but so similar in our feelings
6. Did you feel connected to your Maasai hosts?
I felt connected with this Maasai people during my stay. They love to create contact through their eyes and smile. Maasai love to share their culture and welcome guests to participate in it. They know how to reconnect with nature. They have great values and they love joy and simplicity! They have an open heart to give and receive, and to offer us what they are.
7. Would you recommend this trip to others and why?
I recommend this trip for the unforgettable experience that it is in a lifetime. To come to meet the Maasai people is to open up more humanity to more awareness and above all to forget our usual worries. It is giving way to a more excellent vision of what brings us enriching these exchanges with these primitive tribes. And in this journey, everything is done so that the magic of the unknown is at the rendezvous
8. How would you rank this experience on 1-10?
10
9. Where are you planning to go next?
I don't know but I m sure I will come back to Tanzania! Africa is the origin of my humanity.
Thank you Sylvie! During the time Sylvie visited Maasai in June, she was invited to observe and participate in a rite of passage associated with puberty. Maasai have still many ceremonies and traditions which are prominent part of their life and culture. We inspire people to take up adventures they never thought they could be part of. If you want to book this same stay with the Maasai in Tanzania, see more details here. We run this experience only a few times per year as want to keep it sustainable and unique. The Maasai boma (village) is in a very remote location in Savanna far away from any touristic routes where you can feel and experience authenticity and very welcomed atmosphere. This is a village where Anniina, the founder of Visit Natives, conducted her fieldwork while she lived among the Maasai in Tanzania. You are welcomed to stay with her Maasai family that will become your Maasai family too, when visiting this place. One more good reason to travel with us. We are more than a travel agency. With every trip booked with us we give back to the indigenous hosts and communities. Our aim is to maximize the positive impact of our trips, for example, when you book a stay like Sylvia did in a Maasai boma, we buy health insurance for all the families living in that village. Sustainable travel has the potential to support local communities and help indigenous peoples to maintain their traditional lifestyles to the next generations. Make a positive impact and travel for good with us! Read more about Visit Natives's business concept.
