Where in the World is Larissa!?: Massai Market and Cows Blood (warning, slightly graphic)...

On day two of arriving into Morogoro I met an innovator volunteer with YCI who had just finished his placement and decided to stay a bit longer in Morogoro. He was also a YCI volunteer two years ago now and came back to Morogoro to do more work, so he knows a lot of Swahili and a lot of people in town! Needless to say, he invited me to go to the ‘largest’ (I’m not sure if it actually was the largest) Massai Market in Tanzania just outside of Morogoro on last Saturday so he could drink blood. So I decided to take him up on the offer and met him and my new Massai friend, Ole, in town to go to the market early Saturday morning.

For those unaware of some of the culture of the Massai people, they are most commonly known as semi-nomadic people who most commonly herd cattle and goats. They are located in Kenya and northern Tanzania, however through my friend Ole I have heard of some groups of people extending quite far south in Tanzania. To avoid repeating things about them that I am sure could easily be read about online, I will stop describing their culture.

After eating my first bit of street food, a deep friend donut type thing filled with many stones (there are stones in a lot of the food using rice or flour here, I figure if birds use them to digest food it can’t be that bad for me.. right!? haha) we were off to the market. To get to the market we took a Dala Dala where I learned my first rule in Tanzania..

RULE #1: “Dala Dala in NEVER full!”

And nothing from my continued experiences on them could be truer! I often find myself in a contorted yoga ish position, often standing but sometimes while I am sitting, that has me hoping that a group of people will just get off soon! Haha! Needless to say, according to the former YCI Innovator, this was one of the fullest Dala Dalas he had seen yet however thankfully, we had seats near the back, which is great because people can’t stand near them so you can sit relatively comfortably (so long as you actually have space on the seat.. which doesn’t always happen). Because people were going to the market to buy and sell things, those in the Dala Dala came with more than full hands. Carrying boxes of goods, a few with more than one baby each, we headed out on our what was supposed to be one hour but turned out to be almost two hour drive to the market site.

The market is held in a pasture/flatland type area with acacia trees scattered about. One of the primary purposes of the market is to buy and sell cattle and goats, so there were Massai everywhere holding onto ropes tied to a goat or cow, or chasing several goats or cows to round them up. With the selling of these animals came a large slaughter. To save those with weak stomachs from most of the details, lets just say that I was very VERY happy to have been born and raised on a farm and to have attended things like pig roasts and things like that in the past (and to have travelled through markets in South-East Asian, most notably Tomohon) because with those experiences combined I was faintly affected by observing the entire process.

This being said, the primary purpose of our visit was for the innovator to drink fresh cows blood and here is where I will use a bit of detail. In order to get fresh cows blood we had to get it while they were slaughtering a cow. So thankfully this is where Ole came in handy (because this I could not do) and he took a water bottle we had just finished and held it out in front of the cows neck to collect the blood.. Sorry if this is gory but for some here this is daily life! Ole said that most of the time if they want to drink the cows blood they just cup their hands and drink it straight away! Anyways, after this the process wasn’t over. Although both Ole and the innovator had drank some of the blood Ole said that there was an ingredient that they needed to add to make it taste better. So Ole went and collect I believe it was a goat’s (although could have been a cow’s) testicle and cut it open and added it. After shaking it a lot it got a lot thicker, then I tasted it. Don’t get me wrong, I only dipped my finger in to taste it, I don’t need to drink it to say I tried it (and don’t think I could because like the innovator said, it was sooo warm it made it difficult for him to drink it).

So the day procession at the market seems to go as follows for most people:

1) Get there early and purchase your goats/cows at the auction

2) If you want, slaughter them there (some people looked as though they were professional butchers) for the sale of the meat while it is fresh.. or cut and cook the meat over a fire to sell to those hanging around the market (their were several fires set up cooking meat when we had arrived at around 10:30 Western time (yes, they have their own clock here)

3) Then people tend to look at the other goods in the market, including fabrics used for Massai clothing (they are distinct colors from others, a burgundy like color and a dark blue colors with patterns are the most common) and then other more common fabrics, flashlights, flip flop sandals, Massai knives with nice knife sheaths, Massai sticks (of which I don’t know the proper name, but they have a big round wooden knot on one and are designed to hit hard.. so I have heard from someone who was hit with one recently sadly), and odds and ends that include some of the most random articles I have ever seen for such a specific type of market.

4) Then around noon (western time) people start to crowd under long grass huts to eat and drink. This is where most people start to buy the freshly cooked meat and enjoy it with a coke/pepsi/or other pop or some of the local beers.

After this, I don’t know when this process officially ends, but I feel that people continue to shop and eat meat for most of the rest of the day. It is a huge social event for them where they all get together and talk to one another and catch up. Their is quite a large sense of community there and a large sense of respect towards elders, something I always miss whenever I return to Canada.

After we tasted the cow’s blood we continued to look through the market and the goods, being sure to take a long break under a beautiful acacia tree to learn more about the Massai culture from Ole. After eating a bit of food, whereby the boys ate a meal that had beef cooked with banana (an interesting combo I think!?) and I got the pleasure of eating chipsi (the same as chips or French fries, one of the only vegetarian foods that I have found to be common here so far), we quickly shopped around again and then returned back to Morogoro. Thankfully on the ride home I got a backseat in the Dala Dala.. Yay!