Animals Of Amboseli National Park

Maasai Women Singing For Graduation Ceremony

A friend, Muteleu Qasainne, was having a ceremony in celebration of his graduation from medical school. In this video we see him amongst the women singing as they start the ceremony. His father joins the procession. The women and father are dressed in their traditional clothes. Watch their beautiful song and dance. In Kenya nurses are sometimes called doctors and clinics are called hospitals. This is because a nurse working in the bush at a clinic sometimes has to act as doctor and the clinic has to take the place of hospitals. So my Muteleu is either called a doctor or a nurse. He works in a hospital or a clinic. It is all the same. His family is happy and proud of him. I was happy to get to see and experience their celebration of his graduation.

Lala Salama...Good night

“Lala salama" translated literally means sleep good or safe in Swahili. But in the town where I live, Merrueshi,  some people jokingly do not like to use that phrase. This is because a town, one hour away from us, is called Salama and it is not safe for drivers. The highway goes through that town and it is at the top of a hill. The highway has no divider live a freeway and is generally only two lanes in total. Coming up the hill, on this part of the highway, one side has two lanes to itself and the downhill side has one lane. Dispute this there are many auto accidents from people passing on the hill. The passing is because of all the slow moving trucks chugging uphill and fast moving cars. I have not seen anything like this since I was a child...before they put in I-5. Instead of saying lala salama, those who joke about it, use the town name in which we live. lala Merrueshi, Seattle, Olympia, etc. keeping to correct Swahili and it's general usage lala salama is the correct way to say goodnight. But if you run into variations it can be because some people know about the town of Salama and live near it.

Praying Mantis

Hi, I Love You! video

Walking a dry riverbed, in Kenya, with my friend's children; we watch Maasai cows on their way to water. The exuberant 2 year old expresses his love of cows.

Maasai Bone Healer

About a month ago I met the local Maasai bone healer. We were working on the same auto accident victim. We talked a little and got curious about what we each did. He said he'd stop by my place some day to compare notes and finally did so yesterday.

With a translator we discussed techniques and approaches. We were amazed at how simular our approaches to helping other were. He said that the difference between us was that I went to school and he did not. His skill was from intuition.

He was partially correct. I had gone to some schooling and had been taught different approaches from different people. But in fact most of my knowledge came from books and just doing it. I rely on my instincts far more than he thought.

He told me that he got started because his son was injured and he worked on him and his son got better. Then a boy in his village broke a bone and he worked on the boy and the boy got better. At that time his village elders gave him a blessing for his work. If he was meant to do the work, he would not take on the curse of the persons illness. If he was not meant to do the work, he would take on their curse.

I told him the our elders in America are not very respected and they do not give us blessings. If people have money they go to school and their teaches give then a diploma when they are done with their studies. If people do not have money but they have the calling, they have to figure things out for themselves and figure out how to not take on the other persons curse. I told him how I have gotten rid of someone’s headache and how I have woken up the next day with it. I had to figure out how to not let this happen to me.

Because I use a more energetic paradigm I do not look at their illness as a curse. Something I did not bother to explain to the bone healer. But I did explain how I keep from taking on their illness or pain.

I also explained that I had been doing this sort of thing since I was a child. I worked on our family dog. The dog would let me know if I was doing a good massage or a bad one.  He laughed at my story and so did I.

His does do more work on bones than I do and I do more energetic work than he does. But we both do a lot of work to alleviate pain and that is where the similarities of our work comes from. I explained that although I have a little bit of schooling and lots of book reading, when I actually work on people I do not use that information very much and rely more on my instincts and touch to guide me. This is what he does. Here in Kenya they respect someone who has a gift such as he does. In America they want you to have spent loots of money to go to lots of school and they want you to have diplomas. This does not make one a good healer. What makes one good is practice and results. He never went to school but his instincts give good results and many people hear about it and call on him for help. In America I have a more difficult time getting people to know about the work I do.

We will meet again. I want to find out about the cow oil he uses medicinally to work on people. What is it? how is it made? What does it do?

I am getting a reputation around here as someone who can help others with their pain. Some people think I can heal bones. That is something I have never claimed. Not sure how such rumors get started. But I am teaching the doctors, at the local clinic, how to adjust the electrical system in the body to help their clients shift toward homeostasis if they are in crises.

Maasai Tooth Care

The Maasai do not seem to have the same tooth problems we do in America. They do have tooth problems but they are not plagued with cavities like we are. This is dispite the fact that they use a lot of sugar in their tea (chai). What is the difference in their tooth care? Everyday I see them with twigs in their teeth which they brush with. I find that my teeth feel cleaner after using a twig than using  modern toothbrush.

There is a great bush off from our front porch which is great for using on the teeth. One cuts it off the bush and peels back some bark. Then one chews the end a bit so one gets some bristles.

Sometime people like to use toothpaste with their brushes. That can be gotten from a common tree sap. One such, green barked, tree can be found next to my hammick. You only need to use one of the abundant thorns found here to prick the bark. The sap comes oozing out and you just need to apply it to the end of your twig toothbrush and work your teeth.

Great for a fresh, clean, feeling mouth!