Our Cultural Safari offers a rare opportunity to those how can appreciate it. Cultural Exchange Sarari Essential to our cultural safaris is inter-cultural awareness and respect. These trips are intended to increase your knowledge of remote cultures, cross the barriers of language and lifestyle, and promote intercultural respect, no matter how remote or how different the lifestyles and beliefs of others may be. Our guides have a special relationship with many elders of the villages, and as a result has gained access that is not available to many guides. Thus, a rare opportunity is available to those how can appreciate it. All visitors must approach these villages with appropriate honor and respect for the people being visited. Maasai The Maasai are perhaps the most well known of Tanzania’s tribes and inhabit the northern regions of the country. Pastoralists, who fiercely guard their culture and traditions, the Maasaii tribal life revolves around the protection and daily care of their herds of cattle and finding sufficient grazing. Family groups live in circular enclosures called manyattas, where small mud huts surround a secure circle where their cattle and other herd animals sleep for protection each night. Woven thorn bushes form a thick fence around the enclosure to protect the herds from attacks by lions and other predators. Because good grazing land fluctuates according to the yearly rains, Maasai settlements are temporary and easily relocated to where ever grazing and water access is most plentiful. Tribal tradition separates men into separate age groups: the youngest herd sheep and goats while the young male warriors, or moran’s, job is to protect and care for their family’s cattle. Male elders hold a position of respect in Maasai society. A visit with the Maasai is a special occasion for any visitor to Tanzania. Hadzabe Bushmen Small groups of Hadzabe Bushmen live around Lake Eyasi. Small in stature and speaking an ancient click dialect, the Bushmen survive by their ability to blend into their surroundings and live off the land. Even today most of their children have never seen a doctor or school. The bush provides for all their needs and is a classroom for the Hadzabe children. Visitors are welcome to visit their simple bush homes where the tree canopy or a cave provides shelter.       They live entirely off the bush and from hunting, generally small antelopes and baboons, although in rainy seasons gazelles and antelopes come down from the Ngorongoro or Serengeti to their then lush bush lands offering them richer pickings. In the recent past their hunting activities were resented by trophy hunters who tried to stop their "illegal" hunting - ironical to say the least.       The string on their lethal bows is made from giraffe tendons and the arrows are coated with a strong poison made from a local tree. The commiphora tree povides excellent firewood which they kindle by rubbing wood, a green commiphora provides a mosquito-repelling sap, juice squeezed out of the sansaveria provides a cure for snake bites while aloe is used to heal cuts. Roots provide a wide range of medicines and the mighty baobab fruits as a source of drink. A few hours spent with the bushmen makes the apparently unhospitable bush country come to life. To watch them hunt is a unique experience, as they stealthily spot then creep up on their prey skillfully killing it with a well-placed arrow. Datooga The Datoga people live at Lake Eyasi. The most general name for this widely-dispersed ethnic group is Datooga, though it is sometimes spelled Tatooga. The Datooga are proud people, with a reputation as fierce warriors. Traditionally, young men had to prove themselves by killing an "enemy of the people," defined as any human being not a Datoga, or one of the dangerous wild animals, such as elephant, lion or buffalo. Other Tanzanians and outsiders consider the Datoga primitive, because they resist education and development. They live in low standards of hygiene, and have high infant mortality.       The Datooga keep goats, sheep, donkeys and a few chickens, but cattle are by far the most important domestic animal. They were formerly nomadic, depending largely on milk products for their diet, and moving whenever the needs of their cattle dictated. Now, however, many farm a plot of maize and sometimes beans and millet. They live a very difficult life, in semi-arid areas, where water is hard to obtain and often unclean. The ideal family situation is polygamous, with wives ranked in order of marriage. Marriage must be outside the clan. Datooga men are respected for the clever way they recycle scrap metal in useful objects using primatimve forges and molds. African Adventure Now is a registered and accredited member of the Tanzanian Association of Tour Operators and is licensed by the Tanzania Tourist Licensing Authority.