Once in town we met out local guide, Catherine, and she took on a walking tour through town explaining the flora, fauna, and agriculture and arts in the area. The flamboyant tree (or flame tree) was really beautiful and has long pods hanging from it.
Next we learned about the rice production in the area. It was a little tricky walking through the paddies!
They use scarecrows to keep the birds from stripping the rice from the fields.
On we went to the wood carvers. It was interesting to see the different types of woods and hear how the artists learn their craft. The skills are inherited from their fathers and brothers. Before they "graduate" they have to produce a very complicated design. Only men do the carving. They use teak, mahogany, rosewood, and ebony. The wood this young man is holding is ebony and makes some beautiful pieces!
We also went on to see the painters.
We walked through the village and saw lots of different types of houses and happy children.
We had lunch at a "local mama's house". The food was delicious!!
My favorite was the dark rice, which was really white rice cooked with onions, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger and the beef stew with vegetables. Yes, we went back for seconds!!
We also walked through some of the banana plantation areas.
Inside the banana flower are tiny bananas!
The banana beer has lots of the millet that floated at the top. It was pretty gritty - and neither Tobey or I drink beer, so we didn't like it! The wine was very strong (10% alcohol!)and we didn't care for that either. I guess we are lightweights!
From there we were picked up in tuk-tuks and taken to a Masaii village. We did cruise down the highway in these things!
Once at the village, we were greeted by Masaii dancers and had a tour of their village and learned about their lifestyle. We were dressed in the Masaii wraps - the women in blue for good luck, the men in red for courage.
We got to to go inside their houses. The women build the houses. They work together and it takes about three days. This house has three rooms (small) - a small sitting/kitchen cooking area and two small bedrooms. The men sleep during the day and guard the animals at night.
Dancing and welcome
We danced with the men and women - it is very tiring!
We watched as the men showed us how they start fire without matches.
The children in the kindergarten sang a couple songs for us before we left.
We saw the beautiful beaded arts made by the women.
After our tour, we got back in our Jenman Safari vehicle (not a tuk tuk) and headed back into town where we stopped at the Tanzanite Experience and learned about mining tanzanite and then had a little shopping trip before returning back to our lodge.
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