Welcome to the land of the Maasai. Doldol (pronounced
dôr-
dôr) lies in the raw, exposed highlands of the Rift
Valley. The Maasai live in the uninhabitable: biting dust-infused winds,
scorching sun, and dry, brilliant red, cracking earth mark their daily lives.
While the Kikuyu, the predominant tribe of Nyeri town (where I reside), are
quite modernized and greatly value education and wealth, the Maasai cling so
tightly to tradition that the modern world eludes them.
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| Maasai woman in her brilliant cape! |
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| interesting rock formations |
In contrast to the dry, barren landscape, every Maasai woman dresses in an abundance of bright, beaded jewelry and vibrant wrap-around skirts and scarfs, each carrying a child on her back. And the men, cheeks sunken, sun-battered skin dancing over lean muscle, also adorn themselves (a bit more subtly) in beaded bracelets, and short skirts!
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| Maasai women |
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| Maasi men |
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| support group |
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| my buddy |
We ventured to Doldol to meet with eight mental health
support groups that Caritas initiated and continues to support, in partnership
with BasicNeeds UK-Kenya. At each gathering, the women congregated together on
the ground, sometimes at quite a distance from the meeting, despite our
encouragement to come closer, while the men filled the benches.
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| a baby for every woman! |
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| traditional healers |
We held a meeting of traditional healers, hoping to work
toward integrating traditional and faith healers into the mental health
program. In rural regions, where resources and medical services are sparse,
faith healers are frequently consulted in cases of mental illnesses and are frequently
beneficial.
Yet, such practices can interfere with conventional medications and treatments,
if they do become available. However, patients fear disclosing such
consultation to medical doctors. With
such a meeting, we hope to begin to facilitate open communication between faith
healers and modern physicians, thereby gaining a better understanding of how
traditional healers diagnose and treat mental illnesses, breaking down the
divide between the disciplines, and educating healers on conventional medical
practices.
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| the few female traditional healers |
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| men in skirts |
On the rump-bruising ride out, we were lucky to see zebras, camels, elephants, giraffes, and baboons!
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| retreat! |
African culture, I think these people are the 1st ones to wear bead bracelets. The person who created this blog knows how keep readers connected.
ReplyDeleteMens bracelets
Thanks Mehtab, very encouraging!
DeleteI am from Malaysia, I was doing one of the assignments on cross-cultural comparison, and I came across your blog. This is truly different from the culture here, and as I kept reading, it makes me want to explore Africa one day. Thank you for the informative blog. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Tim! I hope that you'll keep reading :)
ReplyDeleteHi Helen!
ReplyDeleteYou will soon be home. I look forward with keen anticipation for more news of your adventures. I'm sure there were many more photos you could have shown us on this beautiful blog! I am most intrigued by more of your observations of the interface between the traditional faith healers and modern medicine. Why do the Maasai cling to their traditional ways despite forays of modernism into their culture--especially in this area of healing? It would be neat to see how both ways inform each other. I saw this happening in Ecuador and was grateful to have a 'doctora' who respected the healers we met. It was enlightening to see how they compared notes with each other about this or that women's health issue!
Well dear traveler, thanks for this joyful and artistic blog and all your striking images and descriptive text! We hope to give you a platform to share more.
See you soon! Wendy