Full Training (11 Days)
Our most comprehensive Training programme teaches you everything involved in the Introductory and Survivor packages, and then branches out to teach you about the most important aspect of our culture: our livestock. We believe that Enkai – our god – gave every cow on earth to us the Maasai. It is therefore a holy honour to treat them as well as we can; and in turn they become our symbols of wealth, material and spiritual.
We’ll explain to you the importance of our livestock in our culture, we’ll teach you how to milk a cow and a goat, and then together we will herd them out to grazing, just as we normally do. As we walk through the bush, you will learn to be alert to the bird-calls and signals warning of predators. We will show you how to judge which cows are the most healthy, which have hides covered in the markings and patterns we prize the most – and, so, which are the most valuable. You’ll learn how we protect them from disease and from predators (your fighting techniques might come in handy). Once you understand the value of cows to our culture, only now will you truly start to see what it means to be a Maasai.
To understand that, though, you will also be given a much broader insight into our culture, especially our jewellery and dancing, including our famous high-jump rituals, and their respective meanings. You’ll learn about how our mothers, wives and sisters live, and how that is different from our lives as Warriors. And we will spend time with the elders: they will tell you about their life, how they fought lions and enemies, and we'll talk with them about the challenges that modernity is posing to our community. At the finale of this, our Full Training, we will prepare a celebration party to show that you have ‘come of age’, decorating your skin and hair, and seeing if, now, you really can jump higher than the rest.