Interviewer(s): F002
Interviewee(s): R

F002: My name is Zahara Majili, and my fellow here is Mariana Kinabo. Today we are at Kambala village having a group discussion with male youth on 4th October 2017, We are from the Sokoine University of agriculture we are working with IRI which is an International organisation deals with livestock ., IRI is based in Nairobi and also it has his offices in Dar es Salaam. Some few years ago IRI had its project known as More Milk (Maziwa Zaidi) and Kambala was also part of that project. We are also working with Emory University which is found in USA. We are in the research we want understand the changes in food intake to a community and house hold also to study what are the causes of these changes. We came here in February this year we talked with some of the people (though I see non from you who was in the last discussion) and we discovered that there are new things which we don’t understand and hence we want to know more about that is why we come to do more discussion on those issues that raised questions and understand how we can assist the community and house hold to improve the nutrition and food issues. We will be using recorders as well as we will be writing some of the things in our discussion so as to make sure that we a getting all the important things from our discussion so as we can go through the records after and write a report that we can present the report were it concerned, also our discussion is voluntary so if u don’t wish to participate you are free to go. It will take as one hour up to one hour and thirty minutes it depends on how you answer the questions, and we want you all to participate fully all answers are correct there is no wrong or right. So, before we start our discussion do we have everyone consent

R: Yes

F002: Our discussion will be divided into different sections and we are going to have almost 5 section and those sections are; On the first section we are going to discuss about different reasons for the food change intake in our community, Second section we are going to discuss issues concern milk, On the third section we are going to discuss on the issue concern the drinking /eating of animal blood, Forth section will be about selection of food, Last section is going to be on how education/school has influence youth involvement in controversial issues in the community and last we a going to discuss about training, education and information concerning nutrition and health and what types of food can be used for the good health.

let’s start with our first section; we know that in our society (maasai) different changes have been occurring ,at the moment those food that we used to eat before now you’re not consuming them as much, because there are a lot of different food that we are eating and also the way those foods were prepared it is far way different from how they are being prepared now, so can you tell me in your society what kind of food that are available and used now that before you were not eating them?

R: yes, it’s true that there is a very big change on the kind of food that we used to eat before and now, example before we Maasai we were eating meat and milk only but now we are eating all kind of food that other tribes are eating

F002: what are those new foods that you’re eating now besides meat and milk?

R: Now we are eating banana, rice, cassava, potato, fish and so many foods like vegetables

F002: comparing the past and now does the preparation of food the same e.g. How you used to cook meat is it the same as how you cook now?

R: No, in the past we used to eat raw meat without cooking, but now we boil, we roast with tomato and carrots and onion.

F002: What other ways of cooking meat?

R: Now we sometimes grill the meat or we fry in the oil.

F002: so now all kind of food that Swahili are eating you Maasai also eat like fish even though very few of you are eating fish but food like beans, cassava, rice, potato you also consumes them and even the way of preparing those food is different from the past now I see you boil, roast using onion, tomato, oil and so many other things.

R: Yes.

F002: so what brings those changes?

R: Education,

F002: why and how education can u explain more please?

R: When kids/youth go to school they associate with different people from different other tribes and who have different ways of life (e.g. cooking) so the kids learn and adopt those ways and once they went back home they practice those new ways.

F002: what else bring those changes besides education?

R: Mixed up with different people from different tribes contributes to those changes, in the past Maasai we were living in the forest all by ourselves without mixed up with other tribes but now we are living in town with different people, so this causes to adopt other people’s way of living including what they eat.

Another factor for a change is Marriage, now even masai marries people from different tribes not like in the past, this helps to bring those changes as if you marry a woman from Chagga land then she will cook banana and other food that they are eating from their tribe.

F002: Anything else?

R: weather change is also affecting the way people eat, this is because it depends with the season when it is spring we have lots of milk and meat because there is a lot of grasses so cow food is not a problem, but during summer it is dry so even the availability of milk is very low so we find other type of food to eat.

Also health wise, when we go to see doctors we a being advised to eat health food like fish, vegetables , fruits and other food rather than only meat and milk.

F002: What about changes in a way of living does this also make you eat different kind of food from the past?

R: Yes also that because in the past we were doing livestock keeping only, but now we a mixing livestock and crop cultivation. Therefore we sell our cows to get other food and cultivate for our home use.

another effect or reason is a change in economy, now a days we don’t have many cow as before due to this reason we have to find other ways of finding food by growing crops and sell some and some we use as food at home, and once we get money we buy other kind of food that are not available at home like sugar, tomato, vegetable, rice and others

F002: Is there any change of responsibilities between men and women?

R: Not realy, just like in the past women have the duty of taking care of kids and house and they just do small growing of crops at home and move around to sell eggs, and sweet bananas. But men are the main people who taking care of the cow and find money and food for their families. So there are just some few adjustments to women.

F002: what about the change in food price does this affect the change in consumption of a certain type of food?

R: yes this goes back to the issue of weather change there are time that a certain food is available in a very high amount which causes even the price of that food to be low and so the consumption becomes higher and for other seasons some foods are very expensive because of its availability there for even its consumption becomes very minimal.

F002: what kind of food that most people in your community don’t eat them and when some do other members of your community dislike that?

R: Food like fish most of Masai we don’t eat fish and even when one eat fish we usually laugh and asks why a they are eating fish.

And also most of us we don’t use cooking oil because we know oil is not good for health.

F002: what type of food that Maasai are proudly when they eat them?

R: we maasai we usually feel proud when we eat Meat, Milk and animal Blood

F002: Let us do a small activities, we have mentioned many reasons on the things that causes the change in food intake, so among them, lets differentiate three things that have high effect on the change and three that have low effect on the change of food intake in our society

R: Three things or reasons that bring a huge effect on change are, Education, Weather change and Decline of Economy.

Three things that contribute less on a change are: marriage-because few are married outside our tribe and even when our sisters are married to another tribe are not allowed to come back home or even other members of the family to go visit them.

Doctors advice-because we Maasai we still using our traditional medicine very few go the hospital

Mixed up with others –still most of maasai are living in the forest so this contribute less.

F002: Section two on our discussion concern the importance of Milk to Maasai, why milk? What is the importance of milk to your tribe?

R: since past to us the only thing that we were doing is livestock keeping, that is why we usually eat meat and drink milk

so, from birth after few months a child is being introduced to cow milk.

milk is very important to reduce fat in the body, building health body, remove poison milk is also health with lots of vitamins

also milk is business we sell milk we get money and use to buy other things, also in our cultural believes we use milk mixed with natural medicine and sprite or drink, and this is done when a person needs a blessing or when something bad had happened by doing so it remove those bad curse so milk is used in some ritual activities.

F002: How important is milk to you now? Can you compare the importance of milk from the past and now?

R: in the past milk was very important and this is because there were no any other food than milk and meat. But now we eat different variety of foods.

so now even elders are used to eat other type of food rather than meat and milk only.

F002: section three concerned about drinking animal Blood, why do you drink animal blood?

R: We drink animal blood because it has lots of benefits to the body. Animal blood helps to reduce heart beats when you run fast, also drinking animal blood is in our culture.

also blood is given to pregnancy women so as it helps to increase the volume of blood so it can help them during delivery

F002: So do people now drink blood as in the past?

R: No most people now they don’t drink blood only pregnancy women are given.

F002: why suddenly a change of not drinking animal blood?

R: there are some reasons that lead to that change, education-people are getting education on the effects of drinking animal blood e.g. bacteria that a available in un cooked blood

Also religious believes stopped us from drinking blood.

F002: We talked a lot about food changes in your community so what are the effects of those changes to youth?

R: Some of the effects of the food change to our community are most youth loses their ability to run in a long distance because they no longer drink blood like in the past.

Also now there a lot of different diseases that affects many because of the kind of food that people are eating .e.g. heart diseases due to the use of oil in food.

Also, sugar is bad to the health

F002: Do this change affect the inter relationship between the Maasai?

R: Yes because before there were different food for a certain tribe but now we a eating different food and ignore or forget the roots of our culture/tribe and follow/adopt other culture. And this means we break our own rules n believes.

F002: Another issue we are going to discuss is about Food choices, what might be the reason for choosing a certain type of food and not the other?

R: There are some reasons for this Might be the food that you see more often attracts you more e.g. chips

Also you get tired of eating same kind of food everyday thus why you change and eat something else. Sickness can make you have appetite for different kind of food you are used too

Sometimes it’s just a craving for a certain food. Friends influence

Money (when you have money you can buy anything you want)

The smell of the food can make you want to eat that food.

The look of the food.

F002: what are the main three reasons from those above contributes more on choosing food?

R: The main reasons that contribute more are the appearance of the food (when you see it is attractive you buy)

The food that your used to eat

Money

F002: What are the things that contribute less on food choices

R: Some things/reason contribute less to the food choices some are tired of eating same food for long at home-this contribute less because it depends with what your parents condition poor or can afford change of food

Sickness –this contribute low because not every time people get sick

Friends influence- you can be influenced but it depends with your pocket (money)

F002: Other part of discussion is about, how does school contributes to the youth participation in the community activities?

R: To us the maasai the majority participants of home activities are youth, activities like taking care of livestock and other a done by youth so when they went to school they leave a very big gap.

and also for those who reaches from A level to high learning, they become less to the participation of home activities once they done with school, because most of them are looking for other things to do like job, but if you fail and stay at home you will have to work had so as you can compensate all the expenses that were used when you went to school.

F002: On our last part of discussion we want to know; where do youth get education or information concerning health food and nutrition and all kind of good food that will improve their health?

R: We have a dispensary here at our village where we a going and get education (only once we a sick)

At home our parents teaches us some of the importance of good food

F002: how does the education from dispensary helps to eat health meal?

R: It does help because when u get advice from a doctor you will start eating health so as you can get better

F002: How will education/ information about food and health will have positive effect in your society?

R: It will help a lot because we all know that when someone is in good health he /she can work very hard and have a better life.

F002: How can we make that information to be of a good effect in the society?

R: There are different ways to do so, education for all

F002: How can that education be provided

R: Education can be provided through; Advertisement (it can be done through those advertising cars may be after every 3 months)

Meetings (can be done into small groups either at school or in the village)

Billboards (they should contain words and pictures for those who can’t read then they can understand through pictures)

Encouragement between villagers and also that education can be provided by Doctors, village leaders, tribe leaders

F002: Do you have any question or suggestion?

R: What is the aim of this research?

F002: Just like I said in the opening of our discussion the aim of this research is we want understand the food changes in community and house hold also to study what is causing these changes and understand how we can assist the community and house hold to improve the nutrition and food issues for the good health.