Making our Beds

           Over our months here in Oloitokitok Audrey and I have had the great pleasure of visiting many local Maasai villages of friends and acquaintances.  While doing so, we have been able to ask cultural questions, practice our language, and even observe some exciting and interesting cultural practices and rituals.  We have seen everything from cows giving birth, local warrior villages, and recently got to observe the creation of a traditional Maasai bed.

            I always knew that the Maasai were creative and thrifty in using every single part of an animal they had slaughtered as they distrubute different cuts of meat and organs for different members of the family and community.  They boil the head and other left over bones with meat for soup.  They use the tails for fly swatters and such.  I knew that they use the skins for things, but I had never really observed what for.  In our recent talks we learned that often the Maasai use the smaller skins (enchoni, such as goat) for shoes, and the larger ones (olchoni, from the cow) for making their mats for beds. 

            My mother always used to tell me to me to make my bed, little did I know the cultural context this would take as we entered the village to observe and help out.  Now, I am being awfully plural in this because Fred Foy and my role in this was very minimal, but of course very important. We sat as the rest of the men did on the outside of the circle and “supervised”.  Audrey & Cecily had the opportunity to roll out the skin, cut small holes around the perimeter of the skin, then make wooden stakes and drive them through the outer holes to stretch the skin out flat along the stony dirt ground, so that it could dry for a couple of days in the sun. 

To watch a video of Audrey and her hard work on the bed click here!

            They then, along side and with the help of their Maasai tutors worked on scraping of the ruminants of meat, muscle and tissue off of the skin so that it could properly dry and cure.  After the skin sat in the hot sun a couple of days it would then be ready to use as a new bed mat.