Hellen Nkuraiya in the doorway to one of the village houses. Photo / Melissa Findley for Intrepid Travel
A women-only experience sees Frances Cook get under the skin of the real Kenya
As we step through the village gates on to compacted red soil, we are met by a wall of noise.
We're in rural Kenya, visiting Maasai women and as we arrive, they burst into song to welcome us.
They grab me and the other women I'm travelling with by the hand, pulling us into a singing and dancing circle. Bead necklaces are placed around our necks, scarves around our shoulders.
The gifts take me by surprise, and I glance uncertainly at our tour leader, Darlene, not sure I should accept gifts from women who have so much less than me.
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Darlene leans over. "They heard you were a group of all women travelling together, and were very excited to meet you. So they made you these gifts."
I'm travelling on the first Intrepid Travel women's expedition through Kenya. It's a women-only group, and focuses on female issues and supporting women's businesses in the country.
As a group of women, you get access to spaces usually off-limits to foreigners.
This village is proof of that idea. Tepesua Manyatta is a village for Maasai widows who have found a place to live and work together, selling their beadwork and crafts to tourists.
They're part of a community of women forging their own way in a country where life for women is not easy.
Hellen Nkuraiya is a leader in their community, having dedicated her life to rescuing young girls from female genital mutilation (FGM), and arranging education for them instead.
She says women are often subjected to FGM between 8 and 12, then exchanged for a dowry of three cows.
The girls Hellen rescues are sent to a school she created, Enkiteng Lepa. The name translates to "our cow school". She wants them to milk knowledge instead, she says, their education becoming an everlasting cow. Even better, education won't die from drought or disease.
Within her own community, Hellen is seen as a trouble-maker, challenging long-held traditions.
But she stays because she has leverage, in the form of a borehole for clean water on her property. She tells locals their livestock can drink from it, but only if they send their daughters to her boarding school to receive an education.
Hellen tells us she doesn't want to change the culture; just let the girls hold culture in one hand, and education in the other.
She's even created a new ceremony to celebrate them becoming women. Almost everything is the same, but instead of genital mutilation, lines of red ochre are drawn on their thighs to symbolise it.
Red ochre is important in their culture, their warriors often painting themselves head to toe, for important occasions.
Our tour leader Darlene and driver Becky are from Nairobi, and they help to navigate difficult conversations - nobody wants to wade into a debate about the place of such a tradition, or deny these girls the chance to see there's another way.
Darlene is a single mother who has carved out a successful life for herself in a country where unemployment is estimated at 50 per cent.
Becky is the first female overland truck driver in Kenya. When she started driving she was an oddity, with many male drivers looking sideways at her.
Now she's a familiar sight along her routes, with children regularly running up to Aunt Becky; some saying they want to become a driver like her.
Darlene and Becky show these young girls the independence that can be theirs if they stick with their studies. These women contradict what is expected of them, but then, Kenya is a land of contradictions and variety.
One moment you're driving through a red, dusty landscape. The next you're in lush, green farmland.
There are 44 tribes within Kenya, with their own traditions and language. Of those tribes, seven practice FGM.
In order to keep the peace between different tribes, it's the law that different traditions must be respected. That's in direct conflict with the law that makes FGM illegal.
We're told the government handles this by mostly turning a blind eye, while helping those like Hellen who are willing to push for change within their own communities.
Community-led initiatives for education and employment are picking up steam across Kenya. On the outskirts of Nairobi we meet the women who work at the Kazuri bead shop. The shop started in 1975, employing two local single mothers, and has since expanded to 340 women.
Their high-quality work is exported to Australia, Italy and the US. The women rotate between jobs, so they have a broad range of skills to fall back on.
Later, on one of our game drives, we meet two female rangers. Joyce and Helen handle their AK47s with ease.
I ask Helen how her husband feels about being married to a powerful woman who carries a gun at work.
She smiles and shrugs. "He knows this is how it is."
Back in Hellen's Maasai village, she points to a range of dog collars, decorated with beadwork.
"I told the ladies, you mzungu [white people] love your dogs like we love our cows. So we made dog collars for you. Do you like them?"
After decades of fighting for change, Hellen is now being joined by the next generation.
One of her students is studying law at university in Nairobi, and plans to come back and act as Hellen's lawyer.
Another girl is studying social work and community development at university. She tells us she learned about running projects from watching Hellen, and now wants to help her create even more programmes for women.
The girls are coming full circle, showing the grassroots movement for change is gathering strength in numbers.
● Travelling with only women gets you access to places you can't go in a mixed group.
● Travelling with women provides a unique bonding experience. I've never shared so many smutty jokes and frank discussion of bodily functions with people I've just met.
● The trip takes important issues seriously, but isn't all heavy going. You meet locals, go on safari tours, and eat local food. Highlights include staying in an eco-lodge providing direct employment to 145 local families; meeting Hellen, who has championed Maasai women's rights for more than 20 years; and safari game drives through the Maasai Mara and Samburu National Reserve.
● The accommodation is a mix of hotels and permanent campsites. The permanent campsites are a wonderful way to experience the Kenyan evenings, without feeling in danger from wildlife.
● There's a lot of driving. You need to be able to handle long, sometimes rough drives.
● Some accommodation is off-grid, relying on solar for power and hot water. If you're only interested in luxury hotels, this may not be the trip for you.
Checklist:
Intrepid Travel's 10-day Kenya women's expedition supports local women's enterprise and empowerment throughout the destination.
Priced from $4035 per person twin share, the trip includes transport, accommodation, a local female leader and driver, some meals and most activities.
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