This week Russell goes to Tanzania with Nick from the Cafod charity. They go to see a project in Loliondo. Russell and Nick have to travel nine hours to get to Loliondo. They travel through an area where there are many volcanoes.
One of the volcanoes Russell sees is Ol Doinyo Lengai or The Mountain of God. Near the volcano there are footprints. The Maasai saw these footprints in 2007 and they’re around 117,000 years old.
Russell stays in a camp. Tourism is very important in this area. For every person that stays here, money goes to the local people for schools and local projects.
Russell goes to see the Maasai tribe to learn more about the Maasai. Russell goes in to one of the Maasai houses. The houses give shade to the Maasai from the hot sun.
Tourism brings money to the Maasai. The women make and sell jewellery. They use the money to buy school clothes for the children.
Cattle are very important to the Maasai tribe. The children learn to look after the cattle very young. The teenage boys learn to be warriors or ‘Moran’. They then go away for 3 to 4 months with the cows to look for food for them.
After they come back to the tribe, they sing and dance with each other and tell stories to the children. They dance in front of the girls and choose a wife. They have to have cattle before marrying.
The Maasai used to move from place to place but now they stay in one area. They’ve been in this area since 1959. The government want to move them from the area.
The Maasai also used to fight with another tribe – The Sonjo. But in 1995 after speaking with the Sonjo the two tribes have agreed not to fight again.
Russell and Nick go to see the Sonjo tribe. They visit William who runs the Cafod project in the area. They receive a big welcome from the tribe. They sing and dance for them.
This is Evelyn. She had training on how to look after chickens. Today she has 30 chickens. She can buy cooking oil and sugar with the money.
