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Honorary Maasai Programs in Engaruka, Northern Tanzania I first met Abby Matthew when he was seventeen. I turned up in Engaruka and camped at his father's campsite called the Engaruka Ruins. Abby offered to act as my guide. Abby is currently a student at MWEKA, Northern Tanzania 's school of wildlife and conservation management.
Abby is offering to escort guests around the Engaruka area. We have decided to call his tours the "Honorary Maasai". They are for travelers who are truly interested in immersion in Maasai culture, nature and walking. They run from three days and two nights to five days and four nights and involve camping at the Engaruka Ruins campsite. There are no guesthouses in Engaruka. Between December and March you will find zebra, ostrich and buffalo sharing new grasses with Maasai cattle in the Engaruka area. The Rift Valley scenery is superb. Engaruka can be included with a longer wildlife safari as its cultural component, especially if Lake Natron is on your itinerary. Engaruka is located half way to Lake Natron on a track which runs north from the town of Mtu wa Mbu (at Lake Manyara National Park ). The options Abby has chosen for you are meant only as a guide to show how you can spend time with him in the Engaruka area. It all depends on what works best for you in the time you have available. It isn't necessary that your operator's vehicle collects you from Engaruka, although this would be the least painful way to return to Arusha, if for example you tacked your Engaruka visit on to the end of your wildlife safari. For hardy travelers, accustomed to local transport, it is possible to travel by bus back to Arusha. Patience is required in the event of possible long waits and breakdown. Market day in Engaruka is Thursday. It's a good idea to plan your stay to include Thursday. About Engaruka Engaruka Basin on the Rift Valley floor is fed by streams which flow down the rift escarpment from Empakai Crater. Because of this life-giving sustenance, Engaruka town has been settled for centuries. Today it is a small, shady, village where a cross section of Tanzanian people grows corn, papaya and bananas. This includes some settled Maasai, who have adopted the concrete box homes of their Bantu neighbors. Many more of them live in traditional kraal in the surrounding areas. Three to five hundred years ago, Engaruka was a thriving city of 30,000 people, who built a complex irrigation system with dams of 30 meters in length, and who lived in terraced stone housing. This old city lies toppled, its stones scattered by grazing animals. Whoever lived here and why they departed remains a mystery. The Maasai say that their arrival into the area in the eighteenth century displaced the Irawq people, whose descendants now live around Lake Manyara , but they were probably not Engaruka's accomplished engineers. The Sonjo people, who still practice stone terracing and irrigation where they live near Lake Natron , are possible candidates, but archeologists agree that the sophistication that is evident in Engaruka's ruins is lacking in modern Sonjo handiwork. The Maasai say that the word Engaruka is their corruption of the Sukuma word for "Good morning." If the Sukuma were some of Engaruka's earliest residents, then they were a long way from their homeland of the Lake Victoria region. Option One Day One: Arrival in Engaruka. Set up your tents at the Engaruka Ruins campsite. Tents should be lighter ones used for fly camping and not of heavy canvas used for camping in the national parks. There is a covered kitchen area at the campsite where the cook, if one accompanies you, will prepare your meals. You don't have to bring a cook. You can live like a real Maasai and subsist on meat, only meat, but if you want a varied menu with fruits and vegetables these need to come with you. Bottled water is better to bring with you as well. There are communal toilets and shower at the campsite. Depending upon what time you arrive, activities for day one include:
Day Two: Leave the campsite early with picnic lunch and water and spend the day hiking the Rift Valley escarpment from where you will have spectacular views of Engaruka on the Rift Valley floor. Return to campsite for dinner and overnight. Day Three: Leave after breakfast on foot to spend the day at a Maasai kraal. During the day you will have the opportunity to engage the women, elders and children. At dusk, the warriors or moran return to the kraal with the herds of cattle and goats. Enjoy a traditional meat barbecue with them. After dark they dance and sing about their bravery aimed to impress the Maasai maidens. Overnight at the kraal in your tent, or you try sleeping inside a Maasai house. (Camping equipment is transported to Maasai kraal by Engaruka Ruins' vehicle.) Day Four: After breakfast, drive to nearby Lake Magadi where you pitch camp and walk around the lake with a Maasai warrior escort. There are different species of birds and animals to be seen around the lake. Overnight at Lake Magadi . Enjoy a campfire with your Maasai escorts. Day Five: After an early breakfast, return to Engaruka Ruins and prepare for departure. Option Two Day One: Arrival in Engaruka. Rest at Engaruka Ruins campsite. See the small town. Afterwards leave for a Maasai kraal. Spend the rest of the day walking in the bush in the vicinity of the kraal and interacting with elders, women and children. At night enjoy a meat barbecue with the moran who have returned at dusk with the herds. Watch the moran dance and sing to impress their women. Overnight at the kraal. Sleep in tents or in a Maasai hut. Day Two: After breakfast, walk to Lake Magadi from kraal with Maasai escort. A vehicle will transport tents and supplies. Walk around the lake to see birds and other animals. Camp overnight at Lake Magadi . Enjoy a camp fire with your Maasai escorts. Day Three: After an early breakfast, depart for Engaruka by vehicle. Leave luggage and tents at Engaruka Ruins Campsite. In the afternoon, hike the Rift Valley escarpment for a view of Engaruka on the Rift Valley floor. Day Four: In the morning walk to nearby craters which Maasai believe are the footprints of God. Return to Engaruka Ruins campsite for lunch. Prepare for early afternoon departure. Option Three Day One: Arrival in Engaruka and meet at Engaruka Ruins campsite. Walk five to six hours to Ngoisuk village. Donkeys will transport camping equipment. Overnight at village. Sleep in tents or in a Maasai hut. Day Two: Spend the day hiking 2624 meter high Mt Kerimas. Return to Ngoisuk village for meat barbecue with warriors, campfire and overnight. Day Three: Get picked up at Ngoisuk by vehicles. Return to Engaruka and prepare for departure.
Oreteti Discovery Cultural Tourism Program at Eluwai Village
The way to get the most out of an Eluwai visit is to include it on a longer safari. Because of its location in Monduli district, just 25 kilometers outside of Arusha, this is easy to do. The road north from Eluwai has been much improved so it might be a fine adventure to head north to Engaruka and Natron from Eluwai instead of driving to Mtu wa Mbu village first and taking the better known track north from there. Time this trip to catch all the once weekly markets in the Maasai towns. Saturday is market day in Monduli Juu, the nearest town to Eluwai village. Or you can choose Eluwai as a stand alone two to three day venture from Arusha.
In Eluwai, you will stay at the kraal of Leskar's father. Gemma has built a round guest hut inside the enclosure, which sleeps four on foam mattresses, although two is a better fit. A cook's services are included in the cost of your stay. He prepares good wholesome meals in this same guest hut. As a guest, you will receive a lot of visitors here as well, such as Leskar's father (delightful, handsome Maasai mzee with a taste for popcorn) and the young warriors after they return with the herds at the end of the day. For that reason, until Gemma can provide more guest huts, which is her plan, a good idea is to bring tents and camp on the compound. It will be cooler than inside the guest hut and you will have more privacy. There is a basic drop toilet near by. Another activity at Eluwai is beading at a Maasai women's co-operative a few minutes walk down the hill from the family kraal. It is interesting to watch how the women bead and to listen to the guide's explanation of the meanings of different colors and designs—they are all symbolic—or to try your own hand at beading. This is a very interesting cooperative because these women have banded together to teach Maasai women about the dangers of female circumcision and to encourage the decision not to circumcise their daughters as preparation for marriage. With the support of the British NGO Aang Serian, workshops about FGM are held in a nearby classroom. You will learn more about the Aang Serian NGO when you visit Noonkodin Secondary School in Monduli Juu, a stop which is included in your Eluwai tour. The school is one of Aang Serian's major projects. It is the only school in the district which teaches indigenous knowledge. On Fridays, much like our casual days in the workplace, the Maasai students are allowed to put aside their school uniforms and wear their shuka. Six years in operation, out of the area's nine secondary schools, Noonkodin claims to lead in performance. A limited number of boarding students are accepted. Currently, among these boarders, are young women who have run away from their homes to escape circumcision and early marriage to pursue an education.
Update June 2008: Gemma and Leskar now provide at Eluwai two guest cottages each with twin beds. |
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This is for travelers who wish to immerse themselves in Maasai culture. Oreteti founders Gemma and her Maasai husband Leskar Enolengila, invite guests to Eluwai village in Monduli district where Leskar was born. Eluwai has an unsurpassed location overlooking the Great Rift Valley. On a clear day, Mounts Oldeani, Ngorongoro, Empakai, Kerimas, Kitumbeine and Lengai are visible from Eluwai, as is Engaruka's seasonal lake on the Rift Valley floor. There is a higher view point to walk to from Eluwai which allows you the chance to see Mounts Kilimanjaro and Meru, even Mt Kenya, if you are very lucky. 
Eluwai activities include hikes to the higher view point of the Rift Valley and to several orpul, temporary camps where Maasai men, typically warriors, congregate for purifying and energy rebuilding ceremonies. Maasai women have their own versions of orpul too, after the birth of a child for instance, which you can visit on the same hike. Experience a traditional goat sacrifice at the orpul with medicinal soup preparation. Discuss with your Maasai guide over a lunch of roasted meat and medicinal soup the significance of this very sacred ritual. Leskar's father, a traditional healer, can accompany you on your hike to the orpul and lecture along the way on many plants and trees that the Maasai use medicinally. You can easily spend another entire day with this elder learning about indigenous medicine.
Back up the short hill at Leskar's family's homestead, the herds of goats and cattle return at dusk. Milking the cows is women's responsibility and visitors are welcomed to participate. (Use caution around ornery Maasai cows!) Then there is that view to enjoy at sunset. On your last night in Eluwai, the young warriors and girls hold a traditional dance called the esoto. The only light is from kerosene lantern. The young women are dressed in their heavy beaded necklaces while the young men form a circle in which they compete to see who jumps highest and wins the women's adulation. I have seen this performance many times but nowhere have I seen it so enjoyed by its participants than at Eluwai. I thought they would dance and sing all night. Leskar's brother was the evening's undeniable champion.
