Help on a traditional farm and explore the unique Maasai culture in Narok, Kenya

Infos

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  Description

  Our Maasai village is a place where indigenous people can still live in a traditional way, honoring their spiritual practices, ceremonies and simple way of life as pastoralists. Families are provided land on 200 acres of property owned by a Maasai community chief who also operates a cultural camp on the premises to share the rich and beautiful culture of the Maasai people with travelers from around the world.
  
  In earlier days, the Maasai were semi nomadic and relied only on their livestock and food gathered from the environment. Today’s land demarcation has reduced the amount of shared land, limiting their ability to move freely as needed. This requires that they learn new ways of supporting their food security, nutrition, and income earning to pay for school fees and health services. Our community leaders have established projects for farming, beekeeping, poultry and milk production to offer opportunities for sustainable living while honoring traditional beliefs, in addition to projects for health, education and conservation. Many of these programs focus on empowering women and supporting girl education instead of early marriage.
  
  Volunteers are needed to bolster the success of these projects, with hands-on help such as planting and building and animal care, as well as technical help, such as developing web and social media presence to generate donations and resources to keep the projects going.
  
  We have a small local staff onsite who will work alongside the volunteers, and all will share staff housing and meals to provide a true collaboration across cultures and ideas to be most successful in supporting local Maasai families. We also will offer walking and driving safari and other cultural activities during some of the days off, through our onsite Cultural Camp that hosts visitors from around the world.
  
  Maji Moto is an amazingly peaceful and beautiful location that captures the heart of everyone who visits. And the contributions of volunteers to preserve, protect and enhance the livelihoods of the Maasai people who live here will be forever appreciated.

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  S’occuper des animaux

  Aide dans une ferme

  Accueil / tourisme

  Entretien général

  Aide informatique/internet
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  Objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU que cet hôte essaie d'atteindre

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  Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  Living among the Maasai people offers the opportunity to understand their heritage, traditions and unique lifestyle, along with a look into the changes they are facing as a culture today and how they are trying to preserve their culture while integrating into the world.
  
  Situated on 200 pristine acres where livestock herds and local wildlife live in harmony, there are endless opportunities for learning from local friends while hiking and observing nature or sitting in solitude among the trees and stone outcroppings for observation and reflection.
  
  • Maasai warriors will teach their essential skills for fire making, spear throwing, use of local herbs, songs, dances etc.
  • Mamas will teach construction of mud huts, cooking on open fire, milking cows and goats and other activities of daily living as indigenous people
  • Young friends will teach about cow and goat herding, how they blend education and tradition, and dreams for the future of their cherished culture
  • Elders will teach about medicinal and holy trees and plants, the old traditions and ceremonies, and the role of leaders in the Maasai culture

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  Aide

  General Tasks and Experience Needed:
  
  FARM
  • Experience with small farming (5 acres) for a variety of crops (beans, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, corn, onions, fruit trees etc.) either at home or commercially
  • Physical ability to do manual labor (e.g. digging, weeding, manure spreading, fence mending, harvesting) with stamina for laboring in the sun or slogging through the mud
  • Assist with planning sales channels through brokers and local markets by organizing the ideas generated by the local farm workers
  
  BEES
  • Experience with personal or professional apiary, using Langstroth hives and catcher boxes
  • Physical ability to do manual labor (e.g. transferring bees from catcher boxes to hives, inspecting and cleaning hives, harvesting honey)
  • Planning the labeling, bottling and distribution of honey to local markets and neighboring camps
  
  CHICKENS
  • Experience great or we can train you!
  • Physical ability to do manual labor (e.g. feeding chickens, collecting eggs, transferring chicken manure to farm
  • Project management abilities to assist community women (e.g. recording production, sales and expenses for common site as well as satellite “home” sites as reported in weekly meeting; run the meeting to collect money contributions to the group and address issues, concerns and successes)
  • Interact with Community advisor to solve health and production issues,(e.g. plan for purchases of supplies or additional birds, adjust planning for usage of feed and immunizations
  
  COMPUTERS / INTERNET
  • Professional level experience to produce high quality designs and functionality. Work samples would be requested to be sure we are a good fit together.
  • Develop and establish management of several websites, based on an outdated Wordpress sites (can be on another platform, but domain and hosting is in place)
  o 2 community organization sites, 2 Hospitality/Tourism sites
  o Artistic design using our photos, logo, and style guide
  o Single page for organizations, multi pages for tourism site to include photos, you tube links, projects, cultural programs, contact forms
  • Fine tune the organization’s email addresses to forward to Gmail accounts for easy monitoring
  • Fine tune social media presence for easy Instagram and Facebook sharing
  
  CULTURUAL CAMP
  • Maintenance and basic construction projects, as needed (painting, plumbing, construction, furniture carpentry, etc.)
  • Grounds keeping for grass clearing, gravel spreading, tree trimming

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  Langues parlées

  Anglais: Courant
  Maasai: Courant
  Swahili (Kiswahili): Courant

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  Hébergement

  Accommodation is very basic, living among our farm and camp staff in simple housing comprised of shared bedrooms in a tin (mabati) house, with pit latrines and bucket showers onsite. Rooms are shared with 2-3 volunteers of the same gender (if there are others here at your time).
  
  Meals are simple African food served that is the same as what is eaten by our local staff. It is prepared by the staff taking turns on the cooking and cleaning for the group. Meals include a variety of traditional items such as rice, beans, lentils, potatoes, cabbage, squash, spinach and ugali (like a thick corn meal polenta). We have an onsite farm that provides fresh vegetables and fruit, such as banana, passion fruit, watermelon and a chicken farm that provides eggs and occasionally meat. In general, meat is not offered frequently, and can always be left out for vegetarians.
  
  A nearby market center offers soft drinks and snacks, and a trip into town on days off can provide additional meal options for purchase, including traditional stews and even fish, pizza, hamburgers etc.

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  Autres infos...

  Time off can be spent enjoying a wide range of activities that can be accessed with just a walk from the property, or by hiring transport from our onsite cultural camp. There’s lots to do at no cost, as well as adventures that can be arranged at additional cost from our travel team.
  
  Highlights include:
  - Driving Safari in Maasai Mara is a great way to see the amazing array of African wildlife, such as elephant, lion, zebra, giraffe, hyena, and so much more. After 30 days of volunteer service, we will offer one free day of driving safari in our camp vehicle, though you will pay park entrance fee of $80USD per person at the gate. We can also arrange game drives at a fee for stays shorter than 30 days, as well as travels throughout Africa to all of the parks and experiences through our tour office, giving the best possible pricing for adventures while volunteering.
  - Walks on the Loita Hills and Plains: Our 200 acres are just a start for the opportunities for trekking up tall hills and vast plains. There’s no cost to set out from your home compound, bringing along a local friend as a guide, or you can choose to pay for an overnight trek with bush camping for one or more nights.
  - Weekly Local Markets where people come to sell everything from vegetables and livestock to housewares, clothes….everything needed by people without means to travel to a big towns for shopping….are free or low cost fun. One is adjacent to our property so easily walkable, the others require a shared taxi ride for around $5 per person each way.
  - Ceremonies and Celebrations, such as weddings, graduations of warriors, child naming, etc. happen without a lot of advance notice so we can’t promise what might be taking place, but if there is something going on, we will bring you along to experience it.
  - Teach and Play with Local Kids, either in our school if you have a particular skill to share, or just in the village for a game of football, beadworks, board games, reading English etc.

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  We have ample camping ground for people traveling in their own vehicles or tents, and can provide water and kitchen space for meal preparation though you will need to bring your own gas or other heat source and all cooking/dining gear. Limited power is available in our dining room, but not for full RV hookup and generators are only allowed when we do not have other guests enjoying the peaceful quiet of our cultural camp. Toilets and showers are available for all campers at no charge.

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  Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

  Well behaved pets are allowed, if they are under the control of the owner to not disturb other residents or guests or livestock. However, keep in mind that we are an unfenced rural location situated among wildlife, so the safety of a pet is the responsibility of the owner and we cannot be held responsible for any incidents or injuries that occur with surrounding wildlife or domestic animals.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Plus de 2

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  Nombre d'heures attendues

  5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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