Warning: Animals were harmed in the creation of this Post (days 4 and 5)

After a full night's sleep Chris and I awoke pretty late due to our previous night. Because of this instead of leaving to meet the  first thing in the morning to witness the traditional slaughter of a cow we traveled to Juma's for breakfast. We enjoyed our Chipatis and Chai maziwa then b-lined it to the Illmurran orpul “Warrior encampment” for lunch. We arrived to meet our acquaintances in the midst the disassembling of their cow into chunks of beef. Warriors actually eat these chunks of meat in a particular order which I can’t recall. After the Chunks of meat were organized, we began to roast them piece by piece. We sat in a circle around fire pits after witnessing the Masai profiency with knives and blades. After roasting, one warrior carved the beef and handed a cut to each person in the group, starting from the left in order. I found the beef much more tasteful in comparison to the goat, although, just as chewy.  After we devoured the cow we spent more time bonding with the warriors who were generally younger than us; ages 18 to 20. It turns out that the plan was to have me and Chris to stay with the Illmurran in their encampment for a few days. Shocked at the opportunity I didn’t know what to say, I was nervous, but let the record show I’d be damned if I let a opportunity like that pass me by. After spending most of our afternoon with the Illmurran we departed to hang with more masai in the market place which appeared to be in the middle of nowhere however, every we had come in contact with up until then was here, it was the equivalent a mall in the states. The rest of our day was spent wandering the marketplace and the surrounding area while Mary (Frank’s mother) grinded her corn for Ugali that night. About two hours passed until we were summoned back to the car and may our way back home to Cha Ng’ombe for dinner and a restful evening.

Lenjekka Terroizing a Turtle

The next morning we were told, due to the sighting of lions in the area of warrior encampment, we wouldn’t be allowed to stay. Instead of staying with the Illmurran we would have the chance to create our own Orpul; “warrior camp”, and hang with the elders as well as Frank and the gang. It was a bit of a letdown, I wanted to get a true experience of such a deep rooted tradition of Masai culture, however, being able to return home in one piece also sounded appealing. Without further notice Juma, Lenjekka, frank and Papaa, took us outside of Frank’s Kraal and helped Chris and I clear the area that would serve as our Orpul. We took an area about 12 yards in diameter and fit shrubbery and tree limbs around it until it was practically closed except for a small entrance on one side which you had to kneel to fit through. We finished and it was time to start dinner.


(from the left Chris, An "Elder", and I in front of our Orpul)

What’s for dinner in our Orpul you ask? Why goat of Course! And being that we are now in warrior training we won’t waste a hair on that lucky goats head! We followed Frank back to his Kraal, he pulls this massive goat from his stock of animals, ties a leash around it, gives the leash to us and we begin to lead the goat out of the Kraal.

 Interestingly enough the second we begin towards our orpul the rest of the goats begin to bleat, calmly at first, but the farther we get the more maddening it begins to sound. It was almost as if these goats knew what was about to happen next.
  By the time we were outside of Franks kraal I didn’t doubt that they did! As soon as we returned the goat was flipped on its side, I held the goat down and Chris did the dirty deed. Placing his hands over the goat’s nose and mouth he suffocated the goat. This goat's demise was significantly more humane then the latter technique I wrote on in previous posts. (My conscious is clean; I practically did nothin- just sayin’) The goat slipped from consciousness, then we turned the goat over on its back to begin skinning it; as I said earlier, nothing would be wasted.

Although , maybe that line is best exemplified by the cup of goat blood we, the elders, and fellow warriors drank during the disassembly of our dinner. After a quick cup of refreshment the elders skillfully and quickly finished preparing the goat for roasting. It was almost festive Warriors and elder hanging out-passing on knife skills and techniques. As I’ve said earlier cuts of meat, traditionally, are ate in a specific order, furthermore with the nature of our roast, certain cuts of meat were reserved for the elders to partake. We sat in two groups circled up, which is actually another tradition for orpul roasts, around fire pits roasting and joking. After we finished dinner the elders, Frank, Juma, and Mrs. Askew left me, Chris Lenjekka, and Papaa to retire in our encampment.

 It was around 9 at night, we placed the remainder our meat on a tree limb and leaf rack we made earlier. Chris and I set up our tent, lenjekka and Papaa laid our their goat skin mats, however it wasn’t bed time, it was time to  bro out; so sacred a tradition there is currently no Swahili or Maa translation . We awoke next morning around 4 or 5 A.M we had been up until about twelve the previous night, playing games and talking about our feelings in Swahili. Although, little did I know the games had just begun…