Safari (complete with Safari hat) #1

This past weekend, Lauren and I went on a trip to Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater a few hours away.....truely an amazing experience. Never in my life have I felt so small and in awe of the world around me.

On Friday, we loaded our huge, tank-like Land Cruisers and left for Lake Manyara. We stopped at a Massai village on our way, where they did a traditional song/ dance for us. I was fortunate enough to be one of the "chosen ones" from the crowd to dance with the Massai women (basically jump around and wear this big necklace that you have to bounce around with your shoulders...don't worry, we have pictures).

The Massai people are an African tribe that functions basically as it has for hundreds of years. They are a tall, thin group of people with narrow features and really dark skin. They all wear traditional blue and red woven clothing (depending on age/marital status), large white beaded collar necklaces, and the men have droopy stretched-out holes in their ears. Oh and their small hut-like houses are made out of dried cow poop. They are polygomists (have as many as 20 wives) and their level of wealth depends on the number of cows that each man owns (the use the poop, meat, milk, and even drink cow blood). They still practice outdated cruel things like female circumcision and the girls are married around age 10-12. At one point, I was able to visit with one of the male leaders of the tribe by using one of our guides for translation. He kept asking about cows in America and even asked "if i moved to America, would I be able to get a job?". It is so strange to think that the most important person in the tribe, would simply be an uneducated foreigner at home.....