Beautiful Feet 365

Photo of the day: How dare he steal my chocolate chips!

And just a little aside... the chocolate chips are all Guittard. Mom used to teach the Guittard daughter, so it's a little bit of family loyalty when we buy them.

This little girl is from the Masai tribe in Kenya. I noticed that the older adults dressed in the traditional fashion, but the children seldom did. I think the Masai want their children to fit in with the modern culture. Anyway, something interesting about how they live... The Masai people are nomads and live off their animals. Their most prized possession is the cow. That's how they make their living. They use the cow for everything from food to making their houses. This house is made from a mixture of cow dung and mud. Inside, they have a sleeping room furnished with a cow hide, and a sleeping room for their goats. Yes, it REALLY stinks in there. They also have many goats, but the cow is a status symbol. The more you have the richer you are. When a man wants to get married he offers the father of the girl a certain number of cows (usually ten). The higher the number usually means the nicer the girl. Because the cow is such a big part of the Masai people's lives, it is considered beautiful to look like one. So, sometimes, when the children are small, they cut their lower teeth so that the upper teeth protrude and resemble the mouth of a cow! (I'll post a picture of that later) Another thing; as a visitor, there are certain things that you should not do unless you want to insult the people. One is swat the flies. They see flies as a good thing. Cows attract flies, so the number of flies that are buzzing around reflects the number of cows you have. If you are constantly swatting flies away it is taken as an omen of bad luck and thus insults the hosts. It was verrrry hard not to swat them away. There are many different customs that we learned about on our trips to visit the Masai people. As I go along and post more pictures, I'll tell you about them.