The orpul (also spelled olpul) is a Maasai traditional ceremony where morans (warriors) basically just eat meat. I have been to three orpuls and they have all been very different. My first orpul took place during the wedding, another on the mountain and my third was at the circumcision ceremony. The orpul is carried out by morans with a few layonis (boys not yet circumcised) present to do most of the work. An orpul can be with 2 men or 30 depending on how long the orpul will be and how many cows (Traditionally the Maasai always use cows to orpul but as the Maasai culture is changing, so are the ceremonies. Goats are sometimes substituted for cows in an orpul today.) are slaughtered. The reason for an orpul traditionally is to prepare the morans for raiding other tribes for their cattle or therapeutic reasons. The Maasai soup that is drank at an orpul is a a mixture of water, honey, and different combinations of 45 various herbs and roots grown in the area. I tried some at the big orpul on the mountain and it tasted aweful. The Maasai believe eating meat and drinking the Maasai soup with cure any illness. I have been told by my fellow teachers that the orpul can cure gonorrhea, syphilis, malaria and many other illnesses. These are men that have been to school and are considered educated telling me this. I was dumbfounded and tried to logically explain this could not be true but they just laughed at me. I asked them about aids and they conceded that it does not cure aids. They did believe it cured aids originally, but they admitted people continued to die so it was not a cure.
The big orpul that I visited was with 6 morans and 2 layonis, The morans each took one cow so there was one cow for each of them to eat. When I visited, the morans had already been in Orpul for a month and were eating their last cow. They tried to get money out of me to eat meat and to go into the orpul. I was so fed up with everyone asking me for money that I repeatedly said no. I then told them that I had cattle in America. They were amazed but I was even more amazed at theri next question. One moran replied, “Do you know 50 cent (the rapper).” I said, “Yes, I have met him.” I then started singing a 50 cent song and he was so happy and excited that he let me go in for free.(50 cent is HUGE in Africa. So big that some children are just called 50) I was trying not to laugh but it was very hard.
To break the orpul I visited down to a basic explanation: 6 men take 6 cows and 2 boys to a random point on the mountain, kill the cows, find the herbs and roots to put in water, and just eat meat. When I ask, “What do you do here for month?” They just look at me confused and say “We eat meat!” The men will stay there and not leave until they have finished eating all of the meat from all 6 cows. It is believed to make them strong in order to carry out their duties as a moran. Today, the morans no longer raid other tribes or take care of the cattle. As with most Maasai traditions, the orpul is mostly ceremonial.
August 29, 2007
Orpul (Olpul)
1 Month
It has been over a month now living in Longido. I have learned to appreciate simple pleasures in the absence of the amenities we take for granted in America. There is no running water so a shower is cold bucket of water once a week and toilets are out-houses or wherever you are at the time. It is amazing how good a warm Coke can taste after a long day and if was a bad day then a warm beer. These are a few of the many daily activities that keep me going.
I have been teaching 2nd grade Maasai children mathematics. Teaching children math is hard enough but when you combine the other variables; English is their second language, I am one of the only Mzungus (white people) they have ever seen, I refuse to hit them which is how every other teacher maintains discipline, and the education system itself is backwards, it is a very long morning in the classroom.
The first day the children were trying to add something like 155+270 and after grading their papers, I took a survey of who could add 2+2. Only about 10% knew that 2+2=4. We started all over again and am proud to say that after a month they are much improved in addition and subtraction.
I have good days and bad days. Whenever I think I understand something or have seen everything, I am brought back down to reality very quickly. I was handling the extreme culture shock reasonably well until I had a serious reality check this weekend. I slept in a temporary boma and went to a two-day circumcision ceremony and finally began to understand what was happening around me. I had to leave the boma multiple times to try to hold back tears.
Summation of the month: I have felt my first 7 earthquakes, descended 140m into ruby mines, watched countless African sunsets that are breathtaking, successfully stopped two attempted thefts, fell victim to robbery (from my room and I have since moved), dealt with my first corrupt government immigration official, seen giraffes, zebras, Thompson gazelle, gerenuk, greater kudu, monkeys, ostriches and baboons, seen the night sky in the southern hemisphere where the Milky Way is dominant and shooting stars are very frequent with some so big they end in giant balls of fire, been constantly depressed but quickly bounce back with my amazement and wonder of Africa I have seen and done a lot in a month. I will try to make separate posts for different topics in an attempt to explain everything the best I can. I can’t upload many pictures because the internet is very bad. There are hundreds just waiting on my camera so they will be posted in a couple months.
Everything and I mean everything revolves around COWS!!!
Every aspect of Maassai culture is influenced by cattle. The entire social structure is based on the herding, milking, protection and management of cattle. A Maasai man will have cattle, goats and donkeys. Donkeys are viewed as a "car" as they carry water and sick people, goats are just viewed as meat, and cows are the currency. They do not invest in land, houses, banks, any kind of exchange market or even businesses. If they need money they sell a cow and any extra money goes back into buying more cows. The number of cows represents the man's status within society and his wealth. If a man has 50 cows but a very nice house he is considered poorer than a man with a 100 cows and no house. This is based solely on the number of cattle he owns.
To be considered successful in Maasai culture you must own as many cows as possible. The more cows you have then the more wives you can afford and need. The Maasai are polygamists have usually as many wives as they can afford. The man needs more wives in order to milk all of the cows that he owns because that is a “woman’s job”. A major problem arises because each wife must have many children as it is custom. Most wives will have between 6 to 10 children. The “richest” man in Longido that I have heard of has about 1,000 cows, ??? goats, 10 wives and 80 children. The “richest” man I have heard of in Maasailand has 6,000 cows, 10,000 goats, 15 wives and over a 1,000 children. They are both living the “Maasai Dream.”
All marriages are arranged traditionally with a dowry being paid by the groom-to–be to the bride’s father, of course, in cows. There is no set number of cows paid as the amount is negotiated. Let us say for now the men negotiate 10 cows to be paid as a dowry. There will be a down payment of the negotiated amount of cows. In this case, let use say 5 cows as a down payment. After the bride produces the agreed number of children, the remaining portion of the dowry will be paid. If she does not produce the set number of children, then the remaining cows are not paid or it is again negotiated. The system perpetuates itself with there always being too many children that cannot be supported. So, they run around with a single piece of cloth wrapped around their bodies.
Things are changing slowly with the next generation moving away from some of the traditional beliefs and customs but many still want to be the grandest cattle herder of all with the most wives and children to go along with it.
Journal Entry
This is an excerpt from August 6 in my journal. It is when everything became overwhelming.
It is amazing how one 15-minute walk can summarize my two week stint in Africa. I leave the mission with 100 screaming children all yelling “Bye Mzungu Bye Mzungu” (Mzungu means white tribe). They swarm me as I walk all wanting to grab my hand or just simply touch my skin. The very young children still cry when they see me, but not today. I make it out alive and start my hike. There is a Maasai women staring at me along the path. I am used to it by now because everyone stares at me.
There are 6 or so men building the district commissioner’s house along the way. They all stop what they are doing to stare at me. One yells, “Hello,” and I reply, “Habari.” (Hello is Kiswahili) They all laugh and continue to stare until I am out of site. I think I am in the clear when I see two young Maasai boys running on a path the intersect mine just ahead. I know what is getting ready to happen and I know what they want, money. They put their hand out and start saying, “give me money, give me pen, give me, give me, give me.” I say no many times but they proceed to follow me picking up rocks along the way. I know what is going through their minds… “We can take this Mzungu”. Keeping in mind these boys look about 5 or 6 years old but they look about 10 because almost all of the children here are anemic. I stiop walking and tell them to put down the rocks and to go back to their ingishu (cattle) they are herding up the mountain. About that time, their little brother comes running up the path. He couldn’t have been older than 4 years old. He is wearing a tattered piece of cloth that is wrapped around his body with no shoes, under garmets, just one piece of cloth. He has snot pouring from his nose pooling between his lips which is quite common with most children his age. When I see the young boys coming, one of the original two says, “Look, good picture, very sad right, give me money.” There is no shame in any of this.
This weekend I took the Dolla Dolla (bus) from Kimokouwa to Namanga with my friend Luka. I had slept about 4 hours the previous two nights in a boma with 2 morans (warriors) on the same bed of sticks covered with goats hides. I had went on a 12-hour hike up the mountain to orpul the day before and needless to say was is a terrible mood before I even got on the bus. I crammed into the bus with people being packed on top of other people. We manage to squeeze 22 people into a van the size of a Volkswagen van. The Maasai lady to my right and the two in front of me had very small babies on their lap. They all smile and start begging. Two of the three stop after I repeatedly say no about ten times but one continued. She then took her baby from her lap and put her on my lap. The baby was maybe 1 year old with snot pouring from his nose and water running from his eyes which could be the early signs of river blindness. I was filled with guilt, sadness and anger. Guilt that I have been so very fortunate, sadness at the very dim future that lie ahead for the child, and anger at the l;ady for having no shame in using her suffering child for a handout.
Back to my walk, I made the boys drop the rocks and go back to their cattle. I continue to hike with many foreign sounds of nature causing me great fear and wonder. Lizards are everywhere ranging from an inch to a foot long. Baboons are calling to each other ahead signaling my arrival. Many birds are chirping melodies I have never heard before. The ridges are filled with cattle and goats and their bells give a constant background tune to blend in well with the wild birds. The cow-bells give a slow and steady ring while the goat-bells have a much quicker pace. Combined, they transform the red dirt, acacia trees, huge volcanic boulders and brown grass into my retreat from the constant depression I feel below.
Hiking is my retreat from constant depression and eyes constantly fixed on me. No matter where I am at, people just stare at me. Here on the mountain, upon a volcanic boulder about 50 ft. high suspended in air, I am happy and at peace. I can hear the sounds of Maasai boys above me singing songs as they tend to their cattle. The sounds of the bells still fill the air and a warm breaze is blowing up the valley. I am tired, sick, depressed, homesick and scared most of the time but moments like this make all my troubles disappear…
August 28, 2007
Maasai Wedding
I later found out that Moses originally promised a coke for the bride and groom from me, but then changed it to a case of coke for the whole village. We had not discussed this beforehand and I was just as surprised to be giving a case of coke as everyone else. The elders seemed to be impressed by this and made me sit next to them. They brought out a 5-gallon bucket or honey beer. I really did not want to be drinking the Maasai local brew but there was no getting away because I was surrounded. They poured about a liter of the honey beer in a rather large cup and gave it to me. I looked like urine, smelled even worse and there were pieces of leaves and roots floating in it. I tried to refuse but the drunken men got very mad. So, I closed my eyes and took it down with one big gulp.
Ten minutes later, my head was spinning and I was very drunk. This is usually how horror movies begin and I was uneasy. Finally we left the smoky boma t o head toward Longido. Only we were not going home. About 1km from the boma, we came upon 30 morans eating meat. Of course, we had to eat meat with them. After eating Moses went back to dance some more and I walked home with two other morans. I was drunk off Maasai local brew and wandering through the bush after being in Tanzania for five days. It was a great beginning to the trip.
The dancing went until 4Am and then we arrived the next morning at 10AM to continue dancing all day. I tried my dancing jumping skills and ventured into the middle of the circle the jump. I almost fell the first time but then I got the hang of it. It was a great day and I stayed until dark.
