Book: Warrior Princess by Mindy Budgor

My Quest to Become the First Female Maasai Warrior.

I don't know quite what to make of this book. Like how seriously can one take a Jewish American Princess (by her own account) who decides she wants to become a Maasai warrior by going through an initiation involving sleeping on a bed of leaves for a month, drinking animal blood, learning to throw a spear well enough to kill animals, trekking through the African jungle and grasslands, learning how to kill a goat by holding its mouth shut until it dies….and more.

She convinces a group of Maasai men to give her and her friend Becca a chance. The girls / women take their nail polish and cell phones and head off.

"With the goat dead, Lanet sliced the skin and nicked the jugular. The blood gushed and formed a little pool in the nook created between the goat's insides and his skin. Magilu brought his mouth to this makeshift cup and took a gulp. Topika and Rokoine went next. When it was my turn, there wasn't much blood left in the nook, but Lanet wanted me to do exactly as the others, so I knelt down, put my face centimeters from the carcass, and dove in. My nose was pressed against the goat's warm flesh as I slurped up the remaining blood in the nook. It was only a small bit this time, so the warm, thick feeling of the liquid sliding down my throat was not nearly as intense, and I managed not to vomit."

"Becca and I dutifully followed Lanet and Topoika with the rest of the crew trailing behind us into the forest where, within one stride, complete darkness dropped like a curtain. My heart went into triple time….I had to idea if I was going to trip over a log or a lion. My teeth chattered uncontrollably. All I could think about was fleeing back to camp, or at least back to the field where there was hint of light. But it was as if I was getting mixed messages, with part of my mind and body pushing me forward and the other part holding me back. Thankfully, the parts pushing me froward made up at least 51 percent of me."

There were several pages of colored photographs, documenting some of Mindy's and Becca's involvement with the Maasai, but it seems….oh, I don't know…perhaps presumptuous and somehow insensitive to invade an indigenous peoples' culture in such a way…for a month...and then write about becoming the First Female Maasai Warrior.  I guess, if I could have suspended my judgment, it is an intriguing story, on the order of a grand adventure….like Into the Wild, for instance, where one is tested, usually as an alternative to more conventional life choices.

At the end, Mindy writes that they are "giving a percentage of every book sold to The Stillman Family Foundation, which builds clinics and schools of the Maasai. While money does not play a major role in a traditional Maasai's life, it is important in assisting in the face of drought and in the introduction of Western education and medicine."

I checked the Internet and only found rather sketchy information about The Stillman Family Foundation, but perhaps I didn't look far enough.