Depe – Masai Mara, Kenya
Depe. A 22 year old Masai Warrior
Julius Depe – a 22-year-old Masai warrior I met in Masai Mara, Kenya. He has invited me to come stay with him for a time. I am seriously considering it. Not only has Depe invited me to stay with him, but he has given me a gift – a small copper bracelet which I cherish greatly.
The Masai are a beautiful people, completely without guile. They are a paleolithic people that eat only cow and cow’s blood. They live in polygamist villages where the chief is the father of the village and all of the women are the mothers to the children. The homes are built by the women and consist of two rooms. The first room is for the baby cows; the second room is for the people of village. Each wife has her own house.
Depe’s first wife will be chosen for him by his father, the chief of the village. He will get married next year. Once married he will shave his head. Both married men and women have shaven heads.
They sell trinkets such as jewelry and cloth to raise money for lean times when they can’t eat the cows, such as during a drought. The money is also used to purchase educational materials for some of the children so that they can earn English and help attract tourist dollars. Depe speaks excellent English and has successfully completed 8th grade.
You can help support these wonderful people by purchasing a digital copy or a hand signed print. All proceeds from any of the Masai prints will be sent to Depe’s village to help pay for education. If you’d like you can even join me and visit Depe on my next visit to Masai Mara. It will be an experience of a lifetime.
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I have been receiving eMail from Depe. He is using eMail at a local school near his village. He has granted e permission to share his conversations with you.
This a fine example of the type of cultural immersion that I am promoted while Adventuring with a Purpose and helping children around the world. Enjoy.
Hi Ed dean
This julius depe the Masai worrier in the Masai village.Hope you still remember me though i haven’t written an email to you.I just knew this way of communication recently and am so happy that i can reach my friends easily.
Hope you are doing good and well together with your family. Is your daughter coming for photographing next month.I also like photographing though i have nothing to use!!!
Anyway good for me to hear from such friends like you.Hope this find you healthy and doing well there.
Hello Depe!
It is very good to hear from you. I will be returning to Africa in mid July with my daughter. We will be traveling through parts of South Africa on mountain bikes to raise money for a program called “Children in the Wilderness”. I won’t be able to come visit you on this trip. I am hoping that I will be able to return in the near future. I cherish the bracelet that you gave me and I wear it proudly. I want to thank you again for that wonderful gift. It means a lot to me.
I am currently working the photos from my visit to your village. The special panorama of your village looks like it came out. I still have some more editing to do. I will be sending several printed copies that I hope you can sell for your village. I will let you know when I am able to send them. Is there a way you can download and print images? I have a very nice picture of you that I would like to share with you. I am currently re-working my web site and hope to have it ready in about another week or so. I will send the picture of you along with the panorama image.
We are healthy over here and I hope you and your family and friends are healthy as well.
We won’t be able to come over next month, but I hope that we can come soon. I think of you often.
I am so glad that we will be able to communicate through email.
Your friend,
-ed
Hi!!!
I am very glad o hear as well from you and thanks that you still remember me and have the bracelet i gave you.Well sound good that you are having a project for children in the wilderness.So what is about? who is this children in the wild?
I am also having a small project which we started with some community menbers to support the less opportune and the poor needy in my community.I do hope you know that we pastrolist we had a terrible drought that has finish our animals last year.We have a high drop out of children since many parents cannot afford to pay school fees for them.In my village almost all are at home.Actually i feel pity for my community because its a small tribe that does no have support in the government to get benefits.The maasai came to realize education importance recently hence many cant afford it.Anyway we give God to be our supporter.
About the pictures i can download if you may send through my email. so do not worry will get them nicely.Its good that you think to come back again and i am sure your warmly welcome and your daughter as well.
Hope this still get you healthy and happy.All good of luck in everything you do.
DEPE JULIUS
Hi Depe,
Children in the Wilderness is a program that was started in 2001 to help bring education to children that live near game parks. They teach them how to take care of the land and the importance of saving and protecting our natural resources.
Your program to help the Massai sounds wonderful. I am looking into ways that I can help your people with education as well. I have been asking people if there are any programs or charities that might be able to help. I will let you know how that goes. I will ship the panorama photos and prints to you soon. I hope that the photos can help generate some money for your village.
I have attached the photo of you. I entered the photo in a contest and it won a blue ribbon. People are very impressed with the photo. I hope you like it. If you have any trouble downloading the photo I have attached I can setup another way to download it. If you can view the web I have placed a small story about you up on my web site at http://photoadventureswithed.com/portfolio/images/depe/ If I can sell copies of the photo I will send your village the net profits from the sales.
It was very good to hear from you, please keep in contact. I have been very busy with a local charity called the AngelRide to raise money for sick children in the hospitals.
I am wishing you and your people all the best.
-ed
Hi ed dean,
It’s an amazing idea that i can download my photo on the computer and also intresting you have won the ribbon with the photo.Really Masai are people who can attract other people!!!!!!!!!!. Wow, interesting that you can still remember everything i told you about me and that is exactly what our life is.I tell you, you do good things.I am like attracted by everything you are doing.keep it up and may God give you more effort to do more.
About your program children in the wilderness we would like to share the same knowledge of protection and conservation of natural resources for the better future of the coming generation and our country Kenya.Masai Mara game reserve is natural beauty that would need everybody to undrestand its importance.We will be grate if you can put us into consideration this poor needy children of the maasai community.
So good to hear from you and hope this find you happy and healthy there. Thanks again for the good work that you are doing.
KIND REGARD, OLE DEPE
Dear Old Depe,
You bring a smile to my face. I only help raise money for the Children in the Wilderness program. I do not control where they run their programs. But I can ask and see if they can get a program in your area. I am happy to ask and can only try to help.
Masai are very beautiful people. I hope that we can see each other again. I am hoping to come and stay with you sometime and learn more about your people. I think many people would like to learn about the Masai. Perhaps you can even come to visit me here someday. I would like that very much. I think the Masai have much to teach and share with the world.
Can you visit my web site as well as read email? It so fun to think of the great distances between us, yet we are of like minds and can communicate. I am very happy to call you my friend.
May I share some of your email with my friends through my web site? I think many people would like to know and talk to the Masai and to you.
Your friend,
-ed
Dear friend.
Glad that i can hear you as quick as possible, thanks you so much and also feel grate as a maasai to have a friend like you who communicate like somebody who sat next to me.Ok, It will be important if you introduce us to your program, may be if they would like to come Kenya they might consider the maasai children as well.About visiting us in Kenya, your welcome.
About my emails? Do not hesitate to put on your web just feel free to use. We are on the world of sharing and i believe that is why you are devoting your time for the sake of the poor in the society.So i appreciate our friendship and i look forward to seeing you again..
Kind regard
Depe
Dear Depe,
Thank you. I will do my best for the Massai. I am very glad we can communicate so easily as well. So many people are amazed that we can talk via email so easily. I am very glad hat we can. I look forward to seeing you again as well.
I will send you some more photos by email soon. I still have to finished editing them.
All the best,
-ed
Hello Ed dean,
Hope you are doing well with your family in the states.Here we are fine with the people of the village.I have mange to pint the photo that attracted attention of all village people that day.It look very,very nice that made the chief to wish me to marry the third wife!!!!!.
I introduce you to my people again and a good number remembers you very well while others are wishing to see the grate photographer. You have make a picture that keep everyone in the village a wish to see you.Also i shared with them more information about what you are doing and told them your not coming this months.
My village members love the work that you are doing and wish you all the best.
kind regards
Depe the Masai worrier
Hi Depe,
I have some more photos ready of your village. I have included one of your brothers photos in this eMail. The picture is from when you were showing me the jumping ceremony. I remember that so well. It was a very nice time we had.
My family thinks of you and your village often. I have put our eMail conversions up on our web site so that I can share your village with more people. Thank you for allowing me to share our thoughts with our friends and family. I will send you any comments that others may post.
Next weekend my youngest daughter and I will ride the Trans New Hampshire Bike Ride for Muscular Dystrophy. Muscular Dystrophy is a terrible disease that kills the muscles in people, leaving them unable to walk. Sometime the disease kills people. I have some very good friends that are suffering from the disease. There is no cure yet. Tara and I, along with a lot of other people, are trying to raise money to help cure this disease. I have been doing this bike ride for over 10 years now. Tara and I will ride 250 miles (420 kilometers) in three days. So far we have raised $1500 dollars to help the people.
I will send you a picture of us on the ride.
Wishing you and your people all the best,
-ed
Hello ed- dean
Absolutely, I am so pleased to share with you all things you are doing there in the states.Indeed i feel grate to thank you for the support, the willing heart you have toward those who need help.Ed dean, You are such a wonderful man the society looking as a caregiver.
I tell you, what you dream or admire to do in the world you will achieve automatically through efforts and determination.So the ride you are going with your loving daughter tara will be successfully for you to help those with muscular dystrophy disease. We put them in our prayers so they get back to normal.Wish i can join to be among the volunteer. Thanks again.
Also am sharing all this information with my people in the village especially those members of the small project i told you and many of them are touched to hear the work you are doing.All of them are fine and wishing you and your family as well as those you are together in this fund rising project a success.
All the best from
ole depe the worrier
Hi!Ed!
The story of Julius is an interesting one as it gives out a clear picture of how the Masai live in their respective communities,and for his ability to send e-mails to you is a true meaning of living in a global village!Education is power,knowledge is the greatest gift of all!I want to interact with Julius as I believe I will be able to understand his cultural practices as I believe they are different from mine,though we are both Africans!”Cultural Diversification”!
Bye for now
Boyson BoipeLO Mokone {The friend whom you met at Ghanzi Trail blazers}