Parasites, Crocs, Kenya, and Jumping

I will start with our Saturday excursion to Lake Chala, where I clumsily had a pretty good tumble down a very steep hill…cliff really…on our trek to the water. The lake is a good 1.5 hour drive from Moshi, and 12 of us rented a Dala Dala (kind of like a van but functions as a bus), for the trip. Lake Chala is a crater filled with dark blue water that is surrounded by Tanzania on one side, and Kenya on the other. Our plans to circle the entire lake were genuine in the beginning, but 90 degrees and several falls later, we decided to hang out by the water instead. Oh! This reminds me; African summer weather, definitely NOT Missouri in July. Yeah, joke was on us that day. Anyhow, apparently the water is swimmable, but the possibility of parasites and crocodiles kept us on the shore, where we just waded a wee bit and watched some local boys fish with sticks and a bit of string.
Sunday, a group of us went to a Masai village 45 minutes west of Moshi. We are sooo lucky to have had the experience today, because unlike most villages that people visit, this was an actual village of an authentic tribe, and we were invited by one of the guards at the hostel, Seneti. Most of the time, the villages are tourist traps costing 80,000 TSH, and not counting the extra for pictures. This was actually just Senati visiting his family, as he works in Moshi at the hostel and had not been home in one month and one day. Mud huts, donkeys, very thin cows, a few chickens, goats, and the nicest people are what we encountered upon arrival. I found from one of the teenagers in tribe that they are a Christian tribe, though of course, the men had many wives, giving an abundance of children…the cutest kids in the entire world might I add.
We “visited” with the family for a good while, which consisted of porcupines thrown at me by the kids, helping them blow up balloons that a girl in our group had brought, shaking hands with all the elders, and drinking Maasai tea: cows milk, sugar cane, tea leaves and hot water. For fear of being rude, I drank all of it, which wasn’t hard seeing as how it was DELICIOUS. I am hoping I don’t regret that decision later…
After our mingling, we walked about 100 yards away from the village, and the jumping began. I am attaching a video hoping that it will work, but if it does not, just know that it is a lot of singing/chanting and high jumping by the men of the tribe. The kids all watched with us, then joined in with songs of their own that seemed to accompany the men.
Sorry…another long one. I’ll leave you now hopefully with photos and a happy late Valentine’s day to you!