Credit for snapping this photo goes to Nick Merkelson of Carelton College. It was taken outside of Maralal, Kenya when our crew was on its way back to Nairobi at the end of the season. Near the area we camped lived a Masai blacksmith and spear-maker, who also made his own Samburu guitars. That morning, he played several songs while a few from our team listened. A musician myself, he and I began a conversation afterward about the instrument and some of the lyrics to his songs, at which point he offered to let me try my hand at playing it. The significance to me was how music could cross cultural bounds between two people. More importantly, his songs also engaged deeper issues of Western influences and changes among his people. Many of the lyrics, he explained, were songs about nature, but peppered throughout were references to Bob Marley, for instance, and Pan-African themes. This allowed an interesting, but narrow, window into the life of a young Masai tribesman fitting into a changing world.

Photo by Eric Castillo © 2008