The goat meat being stored during the orpul.
I took a 2-day safari with an organization called MEDA giving out vouchers for malaria nets. We covered about 250km in two days on dirt roads and sometimes no road at all. It was eye-opening and I soon realized that Longido was a very large town rather than a tiny town which was my first impression. We visited six Maasai villages in the Longido district and many were extremely poor. Most of the have never seen a Mzungu (white person) or many cars so we drew a crowd. I was very happy to be back in Longido to start my orpul.
As you can see by my previous posts, I have been fascinated by orpul. I decided that I wanted to participate. I went to three different morans and they all laughed at me when I asked if I could orpul with them. I then asked an elder named Noonjuma. He agreed after many hours of discussion with his son as a translator. I agreed to buy a goat (a cow was too expensive) and he agreed to take me. I knew it was either a really good idea or a really bad one but I was excited.
I arrived in Longido at 5PM from the safari and headed straight for the mountain. I knew which valley my orpul was in but that was all. I wandered around and finally found them. Noonjuma and two morans, Kilusu and Daniel, had already constructed the kraal (a circular structure made of cut branches and bushes to serve as protection from wild animals) around a tree that provided protection from above. They started cooking the meat upon my arrival. It was dark soon after my arrival. I knew that I did not want to drink or eat many of the things they gave me so I strategically placed myself in the darkest corner in the kraal. Good decision. I quickly learned my goat was a male as they cook the testicles for me to eat. I discarded quietly. Then came a cup of goat blood and again, I discarded quietly. They were amazed that I would eat and drink these things but I was soon worried about the morning when my gig would be up.
Four layonis joined up during the night. I slept on a cow-hide with two morans and a layoni. I did not get much sleep. A hyena came in the middle of the night to scavenge the bones left outside. I awoke with Noonjuma already tending to the fire to scare off the hyena. I really didn’t get much sleep after that.
The day was spend eating, sleeping, eating some more and then sleeping again. They made a soup called Mtori many times. It was dreadful. I did not have the cover of darkness to discard so I had to refuse after taking a small sip. Mtori is made from water, olvera root, juices from a boiled piece of meat, blood and lots of goat fat (The used pieces of the stomach like a balloon to store the fat and to cook it) Mtori was basically boiled fat, blood and water. They each drank gallons throughout the day. I stuck to my bottled water.
News quickly spread throughout the ridges that there was a Mzungu at an orpul and all of the young layonis herding goats came to see for themselves. At one time, there were over 5 layonis with over 300 goats around our orpul. We gave all of them meat and Mtori which they devoured. We finished the goat by the end of the day. I had never eaten so much meat in all of my life. Goat meat is very bland and chewy. I learned to like it after eating it for 24 hours straight.
Living on the mountain for a day gave me a new perspective of the Maasai and their culture. I have been constantly thinking of how backwards these people are and how they can’t survive in modern society. I thought I was getting the hang of things by the end of the second day. I was using a sharpened stick to eat the meat and was getting along pretty well. Noonjuma was constantly laughing at me as I would occasionally drop a piece of meat on the ground. I drop two pieces of meat in a row and he finally took the stick from me. He sat down with his machete and a piece of firewood. In five minutes, he carved a wooden spoon for me to eat with. I learned very fast that in the bush I am the one that cannot survive. I can’t build or make anything without detailed instructions from the industrial manufacturer. The Maasai live in an arid, unfriendly environment with some of the biggest predators on the planet. I grew to respect the culture during my orpul.
