Bee Suits and Magnificent Beasts

The last leg of my journey took us to the Maasai Mara. As always, my dear friend Issac was in change of the safari magic. I made a little stop off in Narok, the last city before it becomes nothing but the great and wild game reserve. His lovely wife, Leah, cooked for us. Oh. My. Goodness. She can do wonders with goat meat.

(My friend Isaac and his doll baby girl, Tatiana).

My last stop on the way out of the park was to the village of my good friend, John. John got into beekeeping several years ago and I have been visiting him every since to see how his honey-raising efforts are going. He currently has two Kenyan top bar hives that seem to be thriving. In Kenya it is neither a possibility or a necessity to purchase bees, the way we do in the states. Bees are much too plentiful (and scary) for anyone to pay for them. John told me when he put out his new hive a few months ago, it was colonized with wild bees within 24 hours. Crazy :). Even crazier still, was the fact that John harvested his honey without a bee suit. He said he tightly wraps himself in a shuka (the red Masaai blankets) and does it as fast as he can. For those of who have experienced the wrath of the Africanized bee, you are also probably wondering how he is still alive.

Notice John had to hang his hives because elephants have a way of stomping anything close to the ground that happens to be under a tree that they would like to eat from :). A beekeeping challenge that is quite unique to the Maasai villages.....
Before I left, I received a very generous donation of three fantastic, full-body bee suits from Bailey Bee Supply in Hillsborough, NC. I had already given one to Thomas, and now got to give John the other two. Needless to say he was delighted. Thank you, thank you, thank you David Bailey!

I were soon surrounded by a group of curious Masaai warriors who wanted to see the intricate functions of the many zippers the suit contained :). From the bottomless Adidas bag of goodies I also presented him with 2 pairs of gum boots (rubber boots) and 2 pairs of the thickest leather gloves I could find. I advised him to sew the gloves to the sleeves of the suit since those wiley little buggers have discovered the only way to breach the fortress of these suit is via the wrinkle-crevasses the gloves make. He understood all too well :)

John gave me an educational tour of their new village, and showed me all his other projects, that include raising goats, planting a tree nursery, and helping construct the new village. He explained how the Maasai people are historically nomadic people, but that has all changed since their children started attending stationary schools. The traditional Maasai houses, made of timbers and mud/cow dung, typically last about 10 yrs, which is what used to prompt them to move along. Now that they have been in this location for about 10 yrs it was time to start building new houses. Instead of moving far away and essentially emptying out the entire school, they are relocating the village about 50 yards away. Very clever. In the pic below I am learning about house construction (done entirely by the women). Who knew there were so many uses for cow dung ?!

I realized the blue stuff in the pic above are strips of mosquito nets. Hopefully they were old, worn out ones. Not much goes to waste here :)
Below are just a few of the amazing moments from my time in Maasai land.

Yup.....they get pretty close......

I think my favorite part of seeing these breath-taking beasts in the wild is getting to see their fierce, beautiful eyes. Still gives me scared-thrilled chills if they look right at me:)

I swear, as long as I live, I will never get tired of seeing these magnificent animals in this amazing land.....
Until next time,
Jessie

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