Signature Experiences: 1 Day

Building Manyattas with the Maasai - 1 Day Signature Experience

Meet members of one of the most well-known surviving tribes in the world, the Maasai, and learn a quirky new skill in the process. Ever built a hut before?! Well, you will find out how to do just that on this tour, picking up tips from the Maasai masters themselves. You will spend the day in the beautiful Kenyan countryside, getting to know some of the friendly members as they teach you how to build manyattas; mud and thatched homesteads usually surrounding a cattle enclosure. Most are built by female family members and are a vital source of income for local women. A traditional lunch is included on the tour, which will offer another chance to chat to your hosts and compare life stories. This is a unique opportunity to spend a day with the Maasai, a proud semi-nomadic pastoral people who have age-old traditional cultural practices and rituals.   Build a home the Maasai way Your One Horizon guide will pick you up from your hotel for a scenic hour-long journey to a Maasai village in the hills around Kiserian, a settlement in the Great Rift Valley southwest of Nairobi. You will be introduced to the elder Maasai women who will be supervising the day’s events and will also meet the women of the family whose home you will be helping to build. Over a cup of delicious Kenyan tea, they will share with you what it's like to live in a village, Maasai tribal values and how the Maasai manage their environment. Once we’re all acquainted, it’s time to get stuck into your project for the day—building a manyatta. You’ll be shown all the skills that are required including how to replicate the intricate weave of the branches, sticks, and thatch, and make walls and ceilings out of mud. These instructions are very special as you will see and take part in traditional home-making skills that have survived for centuries and are passed down through generations. After also building up an appetite, enjoy a hearty lunch of local ugali, (a maize flour porridge), vegetables and fruit, eaten with your hosts, giving you more time to get to know them and find out more about their way of life and how it might compare to your own. The afternoon continues with the building of the manyattas, and while a home like this can take up to three weeks to build to wait for the materials to properly dry out, you helping the women can reduce this time significantly. Before returning to Nairobi, they will dress you in traditional Maasai-style in a red shuka cloth or 'African blanket' and you will be treated to an infectious display of singing and dancing.

Empowering Mothers - 1 Day Signature Experience

Empowering Mothers is a tour in the Magical Kenya Signature Experience Collection – curated, unique, authentic and exceptional once-in-a-lifetime Kenyan travel experiences accredited by the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) This immersive One Horizon tour is an uplifting day spent with an inspirational group of Kenyan single mothers who are breaking free from the cycle of poverty and forging a brighter future to be able to support their families. You’ll visit a women’s vocational and lifestyle training centre on the outskirts of Nairobi, which is a hive of activity as the women are busy sewing, making candles, beading jewellery, and studying entrepreneurial skills to start their own small businesses. As you connect with the women on a personal level they'll share their stories that will give you a deep insight into Kenyan culture, traditions and extended family relationships.   Kenyan women turning their lives around We drive you to a developing area in Ngong to the west of Nairobi, and take in sights such as the eclectic Ngong Road markets where you can buy anything and everything. Then you visit the Women's Empowerment Centre, where One Horizon supports an 18-month program to help struggling mothers undertake skills training and get access to microfinance to open small businesses. Not so long ago these marginalised women had very little hope, few resources, and no support, and many are HIV-positive and have suffered discrimination and been ostracized by their own husbands and families and were forced into homelessness. But with the support of One Horizon, and the travellers who visit them, the centre helps them get back on their feet by providing rent-free housing and vocational training, as well as lifestyle skills that focus on building confidence and rejuvenating body and soul. They become independent as small business owners — perhaps as a seamstress, or a pig or chicken farmer – and crucially, are able to feed, financially support, and keep their families together. The women’s inspirational stories will teach you about family life in Kenya, the practice of marrying multiple spouses, the dynamics of being a single parent, and the relationship between Kenyan mothers and their children. You will walk away from the experience of meeting these determined and resourceful women, with much admiration and a new perspective on how teaching empowerment skills can lift people out of poverty.

Go Granny Go - 1 Day Signature Experience

Go Granny Go! is a tour in the Magical Kenya Signature Experience Collection – curated, unique, authentic and exceptional once-in-a-lifetime Kenyan travel experiences accredited by the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) On this enlightening One Horizon day tour, you meet some endearing and entrepreneurial grandmothers who are beating their generational cycle of poverty. Many Kenyan grandmothers play a vital role in raising their grandchildren and extended families, and you’ll visit a pig farm, which is a project supported by One Horizon to improve the livelihoods of grandmothers by empowering them through small-scale farming. They invite you to assist with farming activities, help cook a traditional meal, and by sharing lots of laughter and listening to their inspirational stories, you’ll get a real insight into the strength and resilience of these remarkable Kenyan women.   Help a grandma become a pig farmer We drive you to a Kikuyu village on the outskirts of Nairobi, where Kenyan grandmas are often responsible for raising their grandchildren and others in their family when parents can no longer look after them. Sometimes up to 20 family members live in a grandmother’s one-room corrugated iron home, and the financial constraints are extremely challenging. But thanks to a pig-farming small business program supported by One Horizon and the involvement of travellers like yourself, the grandmas earn a sustainable source of income from pig-husbandry to feed their families, while the bio-gas system creates energy out of the waste to power their homes which means that the family no longer has to cut down trees for cooking and heating purposes. You meet the community’s warm and welcoming grandmothers, be shown around a pig farm and pitch in with the chores if you like, join in some joyful singing and dancing over a cup of local tea or chai, help cook lunch of beans and ugali (a maize flour dish eaten across East Africa), or learn how to make a chapati (soft layered bread). Your tour fees and visit support their training, as well as veterinary care and feed for the pigs, and this is a rare opportunity to support a grassroots social enterprise. The grandmothers narrate their powerful stories about how the program has helped them run a sustainable business that keeps their families together, and you learn how resilient people can be. The future of our grandmothers is as bright as their engaging personalities

Light on the Horizon - 1 Day Signature Experience

Light on the Horizon is a tour in the Magical Kenya Signature Experience Collection – curated, unique, authentic and exceptional once-in-a-lifetime Kenyan travel experiences accredited by the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) On this energetic One Horizon day tour, we combine visits to two of Nairobi’s best-known wildlife conservation centres with a small-scale farming program that is changing the lives of Kenyan grandmothers. You get up-close to giraffes from a raised walkway at the Giraffe Centre, which has been instrumental in saving the Rothschild giraffe from extinction, and watch adorable baby elephants and hear about the complex process of returning them to the wild at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the most successful elephant rehabilitation program in the world. We then spend an insightful afternoon as guests of endearing and entrepreneurial grandmothers at a grassroots social enterprise project supported by One Horizon in a rural Kikuyu community.   Wildlife conservation and changing lives Our first stop is the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife’s famous Giraffe Centre, which has pioneered an innovative breeding programme to grow the population of the endangered Rothschild giraffe in the wild. You’ll meet the giraffes at eye level from the centre’s raised walkway, and get a comprehensive education about how we can all play a role in the conservation of habitats and the preservation of wildlife. We then go the short distance to the elephant orphanage at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust on the edge of Nairobi National Park. The trust has hand-reared hundreds of baby elephants that have been orphaned, often due to injury and poaching, and rereleased them back into the wild in Tsavo National Park. You’ll learn more about this fascinating venture and see the baby elephants being fed by their keepers. You then spend an engaging afternoon in the rural homes of Kenyan grandmothers, who are remarkable and inspirational women that have taken on the responsibility of caring for their grandchildren and extended families. You’ll look around a pig farm where a grandmother proudly explains pig-husbandry and how her bio-gas system powers her home; an initiative supported by One Horizon and the involvement of travellers like yourselves that aims at improving the livelihoods of the grandmothers by economically empowering them through small-scale farming. Then sit down with the grandmothers while they cook traditional meals and narrate their powerful stories about how the program has helped them run a sustainable business that keeps their families together.

Maasai Magic - 1 Day Signature Experience

Maasai Magic is a tour in the Magical Kenya Signature Experience Collection – curated, unique, authentic and exceptional once-in-a-lifetime Kenyan travel experiences accredited by the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) This One Horizon day tour is a magical opportunity to connect with Kenya’s proud Maasai people in an authentic and interactive way by becoming part of the hustle and bustle of Maasai village life. Having maintained a semi-nomadic way of life on their communal lands for centuries, the Maasai are well-known for their distinctive dress, valued customs and unique social and family structures, which include rites of passage and revered respect for elders. On this fun and insightful day, you'll take part in the rituals of the warriors, perform daily tasks with the women, and share much laughter and many ideas as you listen to fascinating stories and folklore. Live one day the Maasai way From Nairobi, drive into the rural Maasai heartland where one of the elders will take you on a tour to explain how the Maasai manage these precious lands. You learn about their tribal values, native herbs and plants that are used for medicinal remedies, the importance the Maasai place on their natural resources like land and water, and help herd the cattle, which is their most sacred and treasured possession. A warm song and dance welcome awaits you at the village, and the wife of a village elder will offer to dress you in traditional Maasai shuka cloth or ‘African blanket’. You’ll also be invited to help out the women and learn their skills of constructing a new manyatta – a traditional Maasai homestead. Time for lunch when you join the Maasai mothers to cook up a traditional Kenyan meal over an open-fire, and they'll share stories as they show you how to create your own piece of highly-decorative Maasai beaded jewellery. Then meet the young Maasai warriors, or morans, who explain their rites of passage as they become warriors, the defenders of the tribe. They teach you how to throw a traditional spear, climb speedily up an acacia tree in the event there are predators in the bush, or even the extraordinary jumping dance, or ‘adumu’ which is how they demonstrate their prowess. Your hosts impart the knowledge of their ancient ways and are just as interested in your life as you are in theirs. This is why we call it Maasai Magic because we're constantly astonished by the magical moments that unfold as our guests and the villagers connect throughout the day.

The Future Leaders - 1 Day Signature Experience

Future Leaders of Kenya is a tour in the Magical Kenya Signature Experience Collection – curated, unique, authentic and exceptional once-in-a-lifetime Kenyan travel experiences accredited by the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) Getting involved in helping disadvantaged communities is both an opportunity to engage with local people and a rewarding way for socially responsible travellers to ‘give something back’. On this One Horizon tour you visit a community centre on the outskirts of Nairobi supported by One Horizon. You lend a hand by helping to prepare and distribute nutritious food, and witness firsthand how communities work together to help people.   A sustainable program for Kenyan families While there are many wealthy areas in Nairobi, other districts have very high unemployment levels where challenges for the population are based around getting enough to eat. One Horizon initiates sustainable development programs in conjunction with local community leaders in needy communities, and today you will help to prepare and serve a hearty and nutritious Kenyan lunch for the community. We work alongside Kenyans who take ownership of these programs and you'll stand shoulder to shoulder with Kenyans who warmly welcome you into their community. And as part of this day, you will get to meet the local community leaders who are helping to change the future for their fellow citizens and helping to create future leaders. You will have a energetic day pitching in with the chores like peeling and chopping fresh fruit and vegetables and cooking lunch of beans and ugali (a maize flour dish eaten across East Africa). You can share lunch with the community and have the opportunity interact with them and you’ll discover that they are just interested about you as you are about them. This is a uniquely personal hands-on experience and travellers meet a grassroots community that they would never typically interact with on a Kenyan holiday. And it is immensely satisfying to know that by donating your tour fees and precious time, you are part of helping the community.

The Resilient Women of Kenya - 1 Day Signature Experience

In Kenya women play an important role in society and are not only care-givers and protectors but are often responsible for key events in a family's life. In Maasai communities women build the homes and ensure their young sons and daughters make the transition into adulthood in the traditional way. Other resilient Kenyan women include Kikuyu grandmothers who play a vital role in raising their grandchildren and extended families, and One Horizon supports a pig farm initiative to improve the livelihoods of grandmothers by empowering them through small-scale farming. By the end of this One Horizon day tour, you’ll have visited two local communities most travellers never get to see. Not only that, but you'll get to hear their stories, see how they live, and gain a greater understanding of the strength of Kenyan women.   Meeting Maasai Women The Maasai are proud semi-nomadic pastoral people who have age-old traditional cultural practices and rituals. Every member of the family takes on certain roles and responsibilities and it is the women that build the manyattas (homesteads), care for the children, ensure their young sons successfully make the transition from a young boy to a moran, or warrior, and their daughters are prepared for their weddings. Your One Horizon guide will pick you up from your Nairobi hotel in the morning and we go to an area known as Kiserian, the traditional homeland of the Maasai and you might catch a glimpse of herds of cows and goats being herded by the tribesmen. Here you will be invited to visit a village and meet some amazing Maasai women, and in one of the manyattas your host, partly through traditional verse and song will give insight into what being a Maasai woman means, with all its rituals and obligations. You’ll also get the opportunity to try some traditional food, join in the infectious singing and dancing, and the women will show you how to make a traditional Maasai beaded wristband to take home with you as a memory of your day.