Africa Day 5, part 1

Today we spent most of the day driving from Ngorongoro Crater to Serengeti National park, a long dusty drive over dirt roads. The drive helps bring home the vastness of East Africa. The landscape changed from dry forest to scrub forest to the vast grasslands of the serengeti, which means endless grass. To break up the drive we made several stops, and not just for birds. We stopped at a Masai village and were hosted by one of the chief's son on a tour, the chief has 42 children by is 10 wives. All the houses in a village are made by the women, a 2 day project in which sticks 1 to 3 inches in dimeter arewoven into a wall with flexible small braances. The 20 foot diameter house walls and roof are covered with cow dung to seal them. Inside is a central cooking area surrounded by 4 sleeping chambers: one for the mother, one for the father if he visits, on for the children, and one for any small goats or calfs.
The Masai have well defined roles, women make houses, cook, and tend to young children. Young boys tend livestock, and young men become warriors to defend the village and lifestock. Previously, young boys became warriors by killing a lion, earning them the right to wear red blankets. Because the population of lions has declined and the population of Masai has increased, now they become warriers by chasing off a lion. Their culture revolves around livestock, a bride's family must be compensated with cows, a man's riches are defined by the number of cattle, goats, or donkeys he owns. Except for some millet, they eat meat, milk, and blood.
We also made a stop at Oldupia Gorge, (it was miss translated as Olduvia Gorge by a german researcher) a 25 mile grorge where the Leaky's did research and helped define the hominid evolutionary tree from .5 to 4.0 million years ago. Although now a dry scrub river valley, the area was once wet and lush. 10,000's of stone tools and fossil remains have been found, including two stunning fossil tracks showing that early hominids walked upright over 1.5 million years ago.