Say YES: Camel Herding
- Navy Browning
- Feb 17, 2019
- 3 min read
When you get a text from an unsaved number in your phone asking "Hi, sorry will you mind if I take you to the camel farm over this weekend?" You say YES.
The weekend before last, my new friend Rachel and I visited a camel farm deep into the rural wilderness towards the small mountains past where I live in an already-rural Maasai village. The story of this place is random to say the least, but also so amazing and our experience was so heartwarming.
An 84-year old, Somalian-Tanzanian man named Dahir came to Tanzania in 1958 and started raising camels here in 1993, when he started with seven camels he caught from Kenya. Now, they have over 80 camels, with new baby camels being born all the time. There are about 18 baby camels, which are actually born white and fluffy. The one pictured in this post is only four days old.
They milk the camels trice a day at 6:00am, 9:30am and 9:00pm.
In the US camel milk is now sold for about $25 USD per liter, while at the farm they have kept the price as 3000 Tanzanian Shillings per liter, which is about $1. The high price in the US can be partially contributed to the limited amount of camels in the US, and the legalization of selling camel milk commercially, because the FDA had not yet made quality standards for it.
When we visited, we were completely awestruck at quite how tall and majestic the animals are. They were lanky, yet graceful. They sound like dinosaurs, and have mannerisms like "Thestrels" in the Harry Potter series. The camels would come smell my head and neck and were super sweet. The camels roll around on the ground and sleep similar to humans--not like cows or horses. They can drink 52 gallons of water at a time. They mate sitting down. They walk about 12 miles to graze. Dahir and his wife are Somalian and have built a life for themselves here in Tanzania and have more than 11 adult children who live as far as Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey and South Africa. He has also gotten to know his Maasai neighbors and when one of his neighbors died, he took his two young sons to take care of, who in turn, take care of the camels. So they are young Maasai boys, who usually herd cows, but instead are herding camels.
After speaking with Dahir's son, Ahmed about some many amazing facts about raising camels, he told us about the surprising benefits and the case studies and research of drinking camel milk. The benefits include:
-very high amounts of naturally occurring insulin (enough to significantly combat Diabetes!)
-enough nutrients to constitute a complete meal
-more Iron and Vitamin C than cow milk
-only 2-3% of the milk is fat
-easier for the body to digest
-packed with more than 200 different proteins
-may even aid in resolving infections
-supports immune system balance
-high amounts of GABA
-can help balance cholesterol levels
I have been graciously given a liter of camel milk, which I will be drinking with coffee for the week, and if you are interested, I can report back what I find. Now...Picture what camel milk would taste like, imagine that taste....well, that is exactly what it tastes like. I find it quite delicious and really enjoyed it. I have trouble with cow milk, so I'm curious what camel milk might do for me.
Hence the lack of any type of road, this was not a place that frequently has visitors unless they were brought there to buy a camel. We wanted to be respect their space as the founder has never thought about having tours until we were invited by our own young Maasai neighbor, Jacob. Through this experience we were enthusiastically invited back to spend more time there, herd the camels, of course sit together and have some chai tea with camel milk. I'm so grateful for being invited on such a surprising adventure. Say YES.
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