Camp Manager Basecamp Masai Mara
Grace started in the reception and is now the only masai women working as camp manager in Kenya. Here is her story:
My father paid school by selling cows
I was born in 1980 in Kajiado. We were 4 sisters and 2 brothers.
Neither my father or mother knew how to read and write.
Some boys were sent to school in my village.
I escaped without my parents knowing and went to school under a tree.
I didn`t have shoes. I just followed the boys every day.
The teacher saw that I was interested and went to talk to my parents.
They accepted. In my big extended family I was the first one to attend school.
My father paid school by selling cows, but after high school he would not sell anymore cows.
Then I started to work at Kekerok as a casual in housekeeping.
I came from housekeeping to Basecamp and started in the reception.
Basecamp sponsored me to take further education at Kenya Utali College – a hotel school.
The only women maasai manager
Basecamp was investing in me and today I am the only woman Masai manager in Masai Mara or in the whole of Kenya.
It’s a challenge for me to be head of 40 Maasai men. I thought I was going to have problems, but the men are good here – they accepted. From the Maasai perspective this is new. They respect me because I am a Maasai, they would not have accepted a woman manager from another tribe. Even the older men are accepting me. This shows the flexibility of traditions and cultures – nothing is static.
Its easy to change people when they come together and share a concept.
My motivation
My motivation for working here is Basecamps involvement with the community.
Its so many lodges who don`t care about the local people, but Basecamp is responsible and are supporting the community in all aspects.
The way Basecamp is taking women serious inspires me, because what men are doing women can also do !
When we started Basecamp it was no girls – Basecamp is really changing the maasai way of thinking. We have sponsored more than 70 girls to attend school. More than 100 women are working at the Basecamp Craft center earning money, socializing and learning about health and the environment.
Basecamp is different
Basecamp is totally different from other lodges. They are not only looking at profits forgetting the Maasai who owns the land.
Basecamp is for me a good place to be, it gives life a purpose.
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