He  sat with me one night after dinner and told me the story of how he lost his two front teeth.  He spoke softly, while his son Larousi sat next to him drawing pictures and Lillian was reading the newspaper.  “I can never leave this beautiful valley,” he said, “but there are so many things that must change now that we no longer can pasture our cows.”  He explained that cows were once the wealth of the Maasai and they were a nomadic people who needed land to pasture their cows.

The Maasai people believed you didn’t own land, but only cared for it and used it. When the Brit’s arrived, land was deeded through purchase.  Of course, the Maasai people were unable to pay for the land needed to pasture their cows and the loss of land was a blow to their life-style.  Fifty years ago, when Kenya gained it’s Independence from Britain, the new President of Kenya was not from the Maasai tribe and distributed land to his tribal members, causing a deeper wound to the Maasai people and their way of life.  a great deal of tribal unrest and conflict as well as the political climate that has complicated helping people in the poor villages, for the new President and his aide are being tried for killing many people during the last election.

Twelve year old boys would have their faces covered with mud and when the mud was dry they would have a tooth pulled.  If the mud on their face did not crack it meant that they did not show pain or cry and they would be given a cow.  Emmanuel had two of his teeth pulled so he could get two cows and pay for his high-school education.