Window on Cherry Pie Lane

This group of Masai teenage boys were along the highway dressed in their finery hoping to get a handout of some kind; money or candy preferred. They wanted us to think they were involved in the Masai circumcision ritual. The boys dress like this and head out in the desert to survive on their own for awhile as men. This was all fake though, but they looked pretty spectacular. If you click on the picture to enlarge you will notice that one of the boys who is showing his bottom teeth is missing a tooth. That is another ritual that is preformed on the children, boys and girls, when they are 7. An elder lady of the village ritualistically pulls out that bottom tooth. It used to be considered a necessary thing for the children to get nourishment through that gap when they were sick, often with malaria and TB.  It has continued on as a ritual now. Our guide told us that they used a grass straw to pour nourishment into the sick one’s mouth. I guess I understand how that would work, actually. Our guide was a Masai and sure enough, he had his bottom tooth missing.

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