#7 Dancing to the beat of sustainable tourism at Original Maasai Lodge, Tanzania

May 21, 24

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Episode 7. Dancing to the beat of sustainable tourism at Original Masai Lodge, Tanzania

[00:00:00] Supai!

[00:00:17] Welcome to episode 7 of the East Africa Travel Podcast, hosted by me, Charlotte Beauvoisin, author of Diary of a Muzungu and blogger in residence at Sunbird Hill here on the edge of Kibale Forest in western Uganda. Thanks for tuning in.

In today’s episode we take a trip to Tanzania.

[00:00:40] Supai! I don’t know if you’ve heard that greeting before, but we’re going to meet the Maasai in West Kilimanjaro.

[00:00:47] I’m going to introduce you to the fabulous Original Maasai Lodge, my dream destination: a beautiful African hut. What a fantastic experience. It really ticked all the boxes for me. Not only did I have my own beautiful mud hut, a rather deluxe version, I had a chance to have a one to one conversation with a couple of the Maasai community and hear and watch the most vibrant dancing, everyone totally enjoying every second of it. But before we go to the lodge, let me tell you how I ended up in Tanzania.

[00:01:28] Charlotte: Although KiliFair is a trade event, it is open to the public on the Saturday, so in case you’re in Arusha, it is worth a visit. I really enjoyed being there. It was a really well organised event. For someone like me, it’s great: I can be a total geek. I can get loads of information and make interesting contacts and daydream about new places to travel to and write about for you.

It’s a big regional, continental event for the tourism industry: three days of networking, all the safari companies and lodges and activities are there from Tanzania specifically, but friends there from Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and further afield.

I flew to Arusha with Rwanda, eventually, a day late. I should have gone with Uganda Airlines, apparently. Everyone tells me afterwards!

I spent a couple of weeks in Tanzania on a fact-finding mission, and to do a presentation to tour operators all about digital marketing. I spent most of the week in Arusha and then went to explore Moshi town; great views of Kilimanjaro there.

[00:02:40] I’ll be telling you more about Arusha, and Moshi, and Kilimanjaro in coming episodes of the podcast but today I’m going to be telling you about my experience with the Maasai, because it was exactly the kind of cultural interaction that I really wanted to explore.

[00:02:58] There’s so much about Tanzania that is the same as Uganda. It’s the little nuances that remind you that you are actually in a different country.

When I was at KiliFair, everywhere I went, I could hear the most amazing singing and dancing, a group of Maasai who were just loving everything they were doing. You really felt good to be around them, and I was just blown away by the colour and the energy and I mean, three days on your feet dancing. That’s quite something, isn’t it?

I came to learn that they weren’t just a group of dancers, that they are from a community in West Kilimanjaro and they are attached to a lodge.

[00:03:39] They were such a joy. I was quite enthralled and every time I saw them they had big smiles on their faces and a glint in their eye. This is what we’re going to talk about today: the lodge and the Maasai community and how they all work together.

[00:03:57] One of my favourite things about travelling is learning a few words of a local language and Supai! is probably the only word of Maasai that I have remembered. We were most definitely encouraged to try and interact with local staff, some of whom didn’t speak any English at all.

[00:04:18] The downside of traveling on public transport, as I often do, is that journeys can be long and a little tedious, but you know, they always make the best stories.

I traveled to the Original Maasai Lodge with my new friend David of Shujaa Tours. David and I met at the Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo in Kampala in 2023. He’s a kindred spirit, great fun, has tons of questions and we enjoyed hanging out quite a lot when I was in Arusha. He was a fantastic guide and he was quite curious to come to Original Maasai Lodge as well, so we took a matatu from Moshi, which is okay. We were on a tarmac road. As with most matatus, it was quite busy, and then we had to jump out somewhere and get on a tuk tuk. It’s a very cheap way to travel: $10-20 for a two/ three hour journey for the two of us, but by the time we arrived at the lodge, we were dusty and we were tired because the last part of the road is really best done in a 4×4 vehicle.

[00:05:25] Anyway, we were on a budget, and it was undoubtedly an adventure. I have to say a very big thank you to Lesse, who very kindly organised for me to travel back with one of the lodge’s drivers, who was picking somebody from Kilimanjaro Airport, which is very close to Arusha.

[00:05:44] The landscape of West Kilimanjaro between Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro is quite different to any landscapes that I’m familiar with in Uganda or Rwanda for example.

[00:05:56] It’s dry most of the year and you can tell that by the acacia thorns. There’s an abundance of acacia species which are very hardy species designed for very dry climates. It’s a big open landscape. You can see for many miles in each direction.

[00:06:17] Esra the Maasai guide: When you see the yellow-barked acacia in a certain place, you just get to know that the groundwater is not that much far from the ground. It’s an indicator of a high water table.

[00:06:30] Charlotte: How far would the water be from here then?

[00:06:33] Esra the Maasi guide: I just can’t tell, but it’s not far.

[00:06:35] Charlotte: Okay. And it’s actually a beautiful tree. It looks very healthy.

We weren’t in a national park, but we could, if we look carefully, see zebra, little groups of zebra in the distance

[00:06:48] I’m going to tell you more about the lodge, specifically my beautiful hut, which combines the best of traditional with a few mod cons.

[00:06:56] Good morning from Original Maasai Lodge. Slept very well, a bit chilly. There’s a duvet and Maasai blankets, of course, on the bed. And that’s super cozy. Extremely quiet. I could just hear a few birds this morning.

[00:07:26] It’s a lovely day, quite cloudy, but I can see the peak Kilimanjaro. And it’s just gone, it’s just 6.15. I’ve had a cup of coffee brought to my room, and the Maasai girl and I were trying to communicate with each other, and she woke me up so I couldn’t remember my good morning Masai greeting or anything. And anyway, it was very sweet, and just a quick cup of coffee and I’m going to be going for a walk.

[00:08:07] I’m at the top of my little hillock, so it is a bit blowy. You can probably hear the sound of the wind in the thatch.

[00:08:18] Mambo!

[00:08:22] Oh dear, I really should have reminded myself of the Maasai word for good morning before I left my house. My bad. I’ve just left my really lovely cottage. I don’t know if it’s a hut. But it’s just too smart to call it a hut. You think of a hut as a small, very basic construction. I suppose this is; but I just feel so cosy there. It’s got lovely fittings. It’s got electricity, flushing toilet. It’s got all mod cons, but deeply traditional at the same time. And it has a little hanging on the wall with some basic Maasai greetings in so I’m going to have a quick look, look it up on my phone. Here it is.

[00:09:11] Supai! Hello! Right, let me remember that one as I walk down to reception to start my morning’s activity.

Oh, it’s a bit windy here. Don’t know if you can hear me. I think those are more starlings. Supai?

Everyone’s super friendly. Big smiles. Sometimes you go places and people, well, they don’t smile, or the smile seems a bit forced. I don’t sense that here. I feel it’s genuine, or is that my excitement about everything?

[00:09:57] Supai, how are you?

[00:09:59] A new Kenyan friend: How are you? Good morning.

[00:10:01] Good morning.

A new Kenyan friend: Good morning. Habari za asubuhi.

Asante. Missouri. Nzuri!

A new Kenyan friend: It seems like you’re going to know Maasai better than Swahili!

[00:10:14] Charlotte: I’m not awake yet. That’s my excuse!

A new Kenyan friend: Alright, I like that.

Charlotte: I’m trying!

(Is he being rude about my Swahili? I only know three phrases and I got them in the wrong order!)

[00:10:28] Charlotte: As I stayed longer and I dug deeper, I came to understand how Original Maasai Lodge really embodies what we think of when we talk about sustainable tourism.

[00:10:44] And it just shows you how it can work and how everyone can benefit. The staff feel wanted and respected, the environment is protected, the customers have a fantastic time, everything seems to pull together in a really fantastic way. In this particular case, not only have the community got jobs, but they’re getting an education, they’re getting quality health care, they’re getting access to clean water. And it’s all done without having to compromise their culture or to worry about the negative environmental impacts of tourism. And as I came to learn in my conversation with Lesse, the general manager, they have big aims. And it’s not just about good customer service and developing the Maasai community; but it’s also about influencing the tourism industry in Tanzania as a whole. And that’s why they were at KiliFair. And that’s why they’ve made such big efforts for people to notice them and their work.

[00:11:44] Charlotte: I was so happy to meet you at KiliFair. You really made KiliFair perfect for me. I’m always looking for something a bit creative and authentic and I really enjoyed hearing the music and the dancing. But sometimes when you hear people singing, they’re just paid for the day.

Lesse Laizer: Correct.

Charlotte: And so it’s like casual labour. They’re not invested.

[00:12:08] Lesse Laizer: For us, you know, we have our own people. We invest into them. We try very much to also educate on what is sustainable tourism and what our goals are so they know our missions and visions and at the end that is what creates the experience to people and someone guides you who knows the tomorrow of the place, you know.

[00:12:31] Lesse Laizer: And starting our sustainable secondary school, it was because we’ve been struggling to have the right people to work with.

[00:12:42] Let me tell you a bit of a bit of the two. We have two companies. One is Africa Minyalama, which runs all the sustainable and also the charity projects. We talk of the schools, we talk of the healing center, we talk of the vocational training school. This is all Africa Minyalama. It has about over 2,170 kids. That’s what we have now.

[00:13:11] Charlotte: All from the Masai community?

[00:13:12] Lesse Laizer: All from the Masai in Meru community and the surrounding other small tribes that are coming in with the Africa Amini Life, which is a sister company, that runs sustainable tourism. So having the Original Masai Lodge, having the Hillside Retreat, and also having Amini Homes, which is a very small aiming for training of our secondary schools in sustainable tourism. This is in Momela, 21 kilometers away.

It means we want to have the right people. People is the resource that you cannot find easily, so we always keep educating people, those who are incoming new, but we are happy, we’re looking forward for another three years, then we have our own product.

[00:14:09] And we believe that we will change tourism of Tanzania to different visions because we have the sustainable tourism. We have the kids who knows what is sustainable and what is giving back to the people. There is our big aim.

[00:14:27] Charlotte: I’ve been very impressed, apart from the group of Maasai that I saw singing and dancing and really entertaining everyone for three days in a row, which was, you know, they had energy. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. I really loved that. But I was also so impressed by the schoolgirls with that beautiful kitenge uniform. They’re so smart, so polite. They came to me and other people saying, would I like to buy lunch from the stands at KiliFair? And they explained what they’re doing. I just think it’s really lovely model: everything that you’re doing is so complimentary and thank you so much for hosting me. It’s been really eye opening.

[00:15:05] Lesse Laizer: It’s our first time actually, when you talk of KiliFair,  going with the school, because we wanted to show the tourism specialist: those who want to give us a hand and come together, be a partner in sustainable tourism and sustainability in our country, these are the people that we were looking for.

[00:15:26] Lesse Laizer: And, nevertheless, we knew that it would be a broad agency, you know, including East Africa, like yourself, so we want more people to join and we want to change this tourism, to take it in a way that we can also protect our homes. You know, nature is our home. If we destroy our nature and tourism as you can understand, and you’ve been also traveling, tourism in so many areas has been one of the sectors that really trying to ruin the nature.

[00:16:01] Charlotte: It’s ruining nature.

[00:16:03] Lesse Laizer: It’s ruining nature, because of the movement and that movement bringing people who are only looking for money and these guys are not caring. They throw bottles, they throw waste everywhere where they want, they don’t care. But we want to tell people, we can also do tourism in a good way, protecting our home, nature, mother nature, and enjoying ourself and our clients. We live and enjoy better having a sustainable tourism.

And the warriors and the people that we had there, these are not daily casual. These are our staff so the energy that they had is the same energy that they have here, because they know by them working so hard and by them dedicating their time and energy to entertain the people, it is for our community. It is for the people surrounding. And they know already tourism. They know our tomorrow. That it is also their tomorrow, including their kids. And that is why you have seen the motivation to be so high up. Yeah? Because of that aspect.

[00:17:16] Charlotte: And I really sensed that last night as well when we had the dance. And I loved it. The setting is incredible. I had Mount Meru on one side and I had Kilimanjaro on the other side, and the sunset, and the dancing. I really enjoyed the dancing because the whole community seemed to be really enjoying themselves.

[00:17:48] Lesse Laizer: They do. They do.

Charlotte: And there was a real sense of brotherhood.

[00:17:48] Lesse Laizer: You know, we have some people from the village, non-employed, they will walk only for singing.

They will walk all the way to the lodge, join the group of Maasai dancing, and thereafter they go back. That is their pleasure. And I will tell you, Maasai, coming together is one of the daily routine that you should not be invited. Invite yourself to what you like. It is there, invite yourself. If people are eating, go there, invite yourself. People are dancing, invite yourself. Don’t wait to be invited, because we don’t have cards.

[00:18:20] Charlotte: I need to come back because next time I’m going to be dancing with everyone right from the start. Is that okay?

Lesse Laizer: Yes. Very okay.

My name is Lesse. Lesse Laizer. I am the general manager of Afrika Amini Life and we are here at Original Masai Lodge.

And how do we call this region?

Lesse Laizer: The region we call, Ntoto, West Kilimanjaro, but we are in a village called Ngabobo.

Wonderful. Thank you so much for your time.

Lesse Laizer: Thank you. And Ashe Oleng.

Ashe Oleng. Thank you very much.

[00:19:17] Charlotte: One night at the Original Masai Lodge really was not enough to do the place justice. I was just getting comfortable and I had to leave and that’s completely my fault. I should have allowed more time on my trip, but I’m so glad I went. It was without a doubt the highlight of my two weeks in Tanzania recently.

[00:19:39] Charlotte: I have visited a long list of hotels and lodges and campsites and homestays and all kinds of tourism activities and I have to say this is one of the best that I have visited. I think you can just tell, you can just tell from people’s body language can’t you? You can tell by the laughter, you can tell by the look in people’s eyes that they were really getting a lot out of the visitors being there. They felt included, respected, everyone was having a good time. I mean, that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day, isn’t it?

[00:20:11] There is so much about Tanzania that’s similar to Uganda: same, same, but different as Ugandans would say.

[00:20:19] When I moved to Uganda, I had Luganda lessons, that being the most common language in Kampala, which is part of Buganda Kingdom, but there are over 50 tribes with various dialects across Uganda, and really, if I was going to learn an East African language, I wanted to learn Swahili, but people talked me out of it, and I wish I hadn’t listened, because now I travel more widely around East Africa, Swahili would have been so useful. Everyone says it’s very easy to learn.

[00:20:48] Every time I go back to a Swahili speaking country, I knock together the brain cells and remember a few words, and then you’re just getting into your, um Mambo, poa poa, Asante. You know you’re getting into your little routine and then it’s time to go home again and you forget it until your next trip, but that’s one difference straightaway in Tanzania is that everyone speaks the same language. The first language is Swahili. Quite a lot of people speak English, but nowhere near as many as do in Uganda.

[00:21:21] In Uganda you can rely on the fact that you can make yourself understood in English in most places. Tanzania has a much bigger Muslim population than Uganda does and, as a woman, that struck me because I’m aware that sometimes people might expect me to wear a headscarf. I didn’t feel I have to, but it’s one noticeable visual difference to me.

[00:21:45] Being a visitor – and being a Mzungu – so standing out and being noticeably not Tanzanian, it’s unlikely that you’ll be expected to wear a headscarf, for example, but in some more traditional areas, it might be an idea to cover your legs, you know, not go around wearing skimpy shorts.

[00:22:11] Tanzania is the biggest country in East Africa. It measures nearly one million square kilometres. We are talking big. “Big is big” as we say here.

Over the coming episodes, I’m really looking forward to exploring more of East Africa with you. I’m going to be taking you to some of my favourite places. I’m looking forward to your questions and your suggestions, and always happy to share ideas.

[00:22:31] What are my favourite things so far about Tanzania? Well, Zanzibar, of course. Zanzibar is known as the Spice Island. It’s off the mainland, but it is counted as part of Tanzania. Stonetown, of course, is famous. Each doorway is intricately carved and has a whole interesting story behind it. The seafood is phenomenal. The market is beautiful, very interesting. I really loved the spice tour. It was surprisingly fun and we’ll have dedicated episodes all about Zanzibar and different parts of Tanzania.

I haven’t been to Ngorongoro yet. Ngorongoro Crater is one of seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites found in Tanzania. I’ve flown over the Ngorongoro Crater en route to South Africa once, but if you look at pictures of it, it is just ‘chock a block’ full of animals. I mean, it’s like somebody’s plonked them into one spot. That is very high on my list of places to visit so perhaps that’s somewhere we will go together. I’d love to take you on a podcast episode exploring the Selous (Nyerere) as well. That was the first area of Tanzania in the south of the country that I visited.

It’s something like 43,000 square kilometers if I remember rightly. We did several safaris there. We saw lots of lions.

I really like Tanzanian food. I like spicy food. I like seafood. I like coconut madafu, custard apple juice.

Check out the links in my show notes for more information about Tanzania and a few of the places that I visited and a few of the tour companies that I work with.

[00:24:17] Tanzania often tops the list in African safari destinations. Where might you know? How might you have heard of it? Well, the migration, of course, the annual migration of millions of not just wildebeest, but gazelle and zebra have made the Serengeti famous. It’s a transboundary migration so you can also see and experience the migration in Kenya.

[00:24:42] To make it even more exciting, you can watch it from a hot air balloon. I’ve been lucky enough to do a hot air balloon safari in the Maasai Mara in Kenya and I have to say it was just mind-blowing. You’re up four o’clock in the morning to drive somewhere and you’re in the balloon going up in the air as the sun comes up. It is just magic. If you’re looking for a once in a lifetime experience for a special anniversary or a wedding, I highly recommend a hot air balloon.

Of course, you will have heard of Mount Kilimanjaro. Kili. We’ll be dedicating at least one episode of the podcast to Kilimanjaro and what to expect when you go hiking and what you need and how you book and how much it might cost.

[00:25:29] I have a good Tanzanian friend who is a guide and who’s summited over 200 times and he’s going to be on the podcast soon. Quite a common combination tour is to climb Kili and to go on safari or to go on a safari and then go to the coast. Tanzania has miles and miles of beautiful sandy beaches. There’s an archipelago, a series of islands.

[00:25:54] You can see whale sharks. You can go scuba diving. You can have an insane variety of seafood. There are music festivals and film festivals in Zanzibar. Seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the Serengeti, Selous (Nyerere) National Park in the south and then there’s Dar es Salaam, East Africa’s second biggest port and a melting pot of African, Arabic and Indian influences – and it’s very hot.

[00:26:22] In addition to that list of amazing, popular, tried and tested destinations and activities, I came across a few new ones that I wanted to share with you.

How about going to Nkomazi to see black rhinos? Or for a night game drive in Lake Manyara or Tarangire. Apparently those are two of the best places in Tanzania to see game at night. I also like the sound of horse riding in Arusha National Park. Apparently there are various trails there. I also had a chance to drink Tanzanian wine when I was at Kilifair. That’s something I need to really research a little bit more.

[00:26:59] One of the things that I did in Arusha was to go to the old railway station. It’s one of these little old colonial set ups and the trains don’t run very often. Unfortunately, when I got there the train office was shut and all the information was in Swahili but I did hear that there is a train once or perhaps twice a week that goes down to Dar. I have to do that.

If you like train journeys at all like I do, you might enjoy a couple of my train journeys. I’ll put the links in the show notes. One of the best adventures I’ve ever had was taking the Lunatic Express train from Nairobi down to Mombasa just before that service stopped. I won’t tell you more about it here but it was mind-blowing in all the wrong ways! It was a disaster.

I’d also love to get a ferry across Lake Victoria. When I was trying to work out how to get to KiliFair, I I really didn’t want to pay, what was it, $300 or something for the return flight, but I didn’t want to spend two whole days back to back on the bus each way, and I just couldn’t find the information I needed about crossing Lake Victoria by ferry.

[00:28:08] I know it’s possible, but the ferry is really for freight. It’s not really set up for passengers. You can talk your way onto it, I think, but there’s no publicly available information about how a passenger would cross and how you’d organise that and how long it would take and how much it would cost. But that is definitely something I’d love to do, to cross Lake Victoria by boat to Tanzania.

[00:28:29] Might have been quicker though, than flying. I had a really crap experience. I flew with RwandAir, who I rate quite highly. I’ve flown with them between Entebbe in Uganda and London Heathrow a few times and thought the experience was really, really good. Loved the food, very good customer service, new planes, but regionally, service isn’t so good. I was in departures area before they told us the flight was cancelled and we had to wait almost a whole day, and then we took a circuitous route to get to Arusha. Lost a day, which meant I didn’t have the day to acclimatise that I wanted before giving my presentation.

[00:29:12] I was not best pleased. Uganda Airlines do also fly that route from Entebbe to Arusha, Kilimanjaro but maybe it would have been quicker to take the boat across Lake Victoria.

Anyway, as you can hear, I can waffle on and on with travel ideas and get you excited about traveling to all different kinds of places in all different ways.

[00:29:34] I am an independent traveler, but sometimes I travel with friends or in groups. Sometimes I fly, but more often than not, I will be making my own way from place A to place B, but it all depends on your time, doesn’t it? Not everyone has time to do that.

Some of my most popular stories actually have been when you just make up the journey as you go along, when you catch the local bus. It’s hanging out with local people that give me some of my best stories, so I’ll share some of those in the blog notes in case you like those.

Thank you to Dr. Charles Bekoni and the staff at Maasai Land in Arusha, who put me up for five days. I’ll be talking to Dr. Bekoni in a future episode of the podcast.

[00:30:15] Arusha is the kind of town that, as a tourist, you often drive through because you’re desperate to climb Kili, or you want to get into the Serengeti and see the wildlife, but I have an interesting list of just a few places that you might want to drop into and spend just a couple of hours in when you’re on route.

Thanks for listening to episode 7 of the East Africa Travel Podcast. My name is Charlotte Beauvoisin, author of Diary of a Muzungu, and time to say goodbye and time to say thank you!

ASANTE in Swahili or in Maasai: ASHE NALENG!