Maasai
During our 2008 trip, two Maasai guides joined our group for several days while tent camping in the Salai Plain. The lived in a nearby Maasai village with which our tour company had established a special relationship. In exchange for monetary contributions to their area school and village, we had the opportunity to visit their village for a couple of hours one afternoon. We had taken school supplies and toys for the children who seemed genuinely happy about our visit, and they and the adults were welcoming to our curiosities and cameras. The Maasai village visit during our 2010 trip was a somewhat different experience. The village had been set up primarily for visiting tourists and, although the indigenous dancing and photography opportunities were fine, the welcome seemed more for commercial purposes. Images from both villages, as well as a few from elsewhere in the Serengeti, are included in this gallery. The first large image is from 2008 and the view from the village of the active volcano, Oldinyo Lengai. A major eruption had occurred a few months before our visit and ash still spewed periodically during our stay.
