Serengeti Plain, Tanzania / April 2012

We came upon these Maasai teenagers while driving from the Ngorongoro Crater to the Serengeti Plain and the Great Rift Valley. Our driver spoke swahili with them, and relayed to us that these 8 boys had recently been circumcised as part of a ‘coming of age’ ritual. They were then sent out into the wilderness with nothing more than their traditional clubs, tending sticks and the odd token knife. They are supposed to fend for themselves and live off the land for two weeks before they return to their village, family and friends. And kids in North America think they have it tough!

We cheated and gave them some coins so they could buy something from more oncoming tourists or others willing to part with food or something they needed. To me, roaming around in that area with serious predators, cold evenings, no obvious food, raw penis wounds, and feeling rejected, isn’t exactly a great self-esteem builder. Not a lot of parental sympathy. There’s a world out there that is far less compassionate and far more brutal than we, in the more civilized world, will ever experience. Many of us are more blessed than we realize.

As for the circumcision rituals of the Maasai, they’re very primitive and they are capable of using partially rusty knives and certainly without any anesthetic. Good luck for any sanitary concerns. If you look at the faces of the boy on the far left and the one third from the right, you can feel their pain and discomfort.