The day started off with a visit to the Emori Joi community where we were told the history of local traditions (growing up, marriage etc) in the most entertaining way. Daniel, our facilitator, was translating for this lovely, lovely man who clearly enjoyed the art of story telling (and check out his t-shirt!).
Story-telling with the help of Sahil
Just like when the Mamas earn an "alternative income" by selling their beautiful beaded jewelry, the locals participate in another FTC alternative income program called rungu carving. A rungu is a wooden club traditionally worn by the Maasai Warriors - used for killing lions and such. We saw how these weapons were made and even got to try our hand at it. Impressively, it takes 14 days to go from a log of wood to this beautifully carved and polished souvenir, using local techniques and materials.
In one of the upcoming posts you'll see how we all did with our rungu throwing!
Step 1 - start rough carving a log
Step 2 - more refined carving and filing
Me giving the filing a try
Step 3 - removing any bumps or imperfections with broken glass
Step 4 - smoothing with the "sandpaper" tree
Step 5 - polishing (with udder cream!)
Step 6 - QA inspection (and a bunch of finished rungus)
This sign just says it all - how every villager treated us the whole time we were there. But really, it was us who were thankful, for getting the opportunity to meet such wonderful, genuine, kind hearted, welcoming people.
Next post safari! Get ready to see some cool animals :)
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