Browse content similar to 15/08/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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summer. Now, it is time for Meet The Author, | :00:00. | :00:04. | |
with Nick Hyams. with Nick Hyams. | :00:04. | :00:09. | |
Mindy Budgor was a self—styled plump, white, Gucci wearing Jewish | :00:09. | :00:13. | |
princess from California when, at the age of 26, waiting to hear she | :00:13. | :00:18. | |
—— if she had a place at business school, she went to Kenya to train | :00:18. | :00:23. | |
as the world's first Maasai warrior. She tells the story in her book, | :00:23. | :00:29. | |
Warrior Princess. As one reviewer said, not your average gap year | :00:29. | :00:34. | |
memoir. We invited her to a studio in New York, where she now lives, so | :00:34. | :00:35. | |
we could meet the author. we could meet the author. | :00:35. | :00:40. | |
Mindy Budgor, for those who don't Mindy Budgor, for those who don't | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
know, very briefly, who are the Maasai? The Maasai are a tribe in | :00:43. | :00:52. | |
Kenya, in Tanzania, and they are seminomadic, they live amongst the | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
Lions and the elements and with electricity and just completely at | :00:55. | :01:02. | |
one with the land and the animals. They are herders, they keep goats | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
and cattle. But they're way of life is under threat, isn't it? It is. | :01:05. | :01:15. | |
The Kenyan Government is taking away more and more of their land and | :01:15. | :01:17. | |
to droughts, their cattle are dying, to droughts, their | :01:17. | :01:20. | |
people in the tribe dying, and if which is their main asset, | :01:20. | :01:26. | |
people in the tribe dying, and if you speak with people in the tribe, | :01:26. | :01:31. | |
they actually believe that their tribe may not exist in about 20 | :01:31. | :01:38. | |
why you came to be training with why you came to be training with | :01:38. | :01:44. | |
them to be a female warrior, or moron, but tell me first of all what | :01:44. | :01:52. | |
out into the bush and ate a lot of out into the bush and ate a lot of | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
goat. Yes, a lot of goat and a lot of cow, so in order to be a moran, | :01:56. | :02:01. | |
it is kind of like their military, you have got to be able to protect | :02:01. | :02:03. | |
your community against any type of your community against any type of | :02:03. | :02:10. | |
conflict with another tribe and any animals that might pose a threat, | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
elephants and lions and Buffalo, elephants and lions and Buffalo, | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
because they live right out in the same area as all of these animals, | :02:19. | :02:25. | |
so the rites of passage in order to become a moran is the one that I | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
went through, you have to prove that went through, you have to prove | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
you are strong and brave enough to you are strong and brave enough to | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
be a warrior, and I lived just in the forest, only eating what I could | :02:34. | :02:44. | |
kill, and improving day by day dash and proving day by day that I was | :02:44. | :02:46. | |
strong enough to protect Mike strong enough to protect Mike | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
immunity against these animals. Some of the details really stuck with me. | :02:49. | :02:56. | |
There is a detail of one of your fellow morans sitting under a branch | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
on which is hanging a lot of raw goat meat. You sleep under that and | :03:00. | :03:02. | |
there is a reason for that. Yes, we there is a reason for that. Yes, we | :03:02. | :03:04. | |
sleep under our meat because if an sleep under our meat because if an | :03:04. | :03:11. | |
animal will come, like a leopard or a hyena, we weep to be able to | :03:11. | :03:17. | |
protect our food —— we need to be able to. So we sleep directly under | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
this? I come from a pretty this? I come from a pretty | :03:20. | :03:28. | |
conservative family and my family wanted me or told me that I needed | :03:28. | :03:30. | |
to be a doctor, but that isn't what to be a doctor, but that isn't what | :03:30. | :03:37. | |
started a business, I ended up college | :03:37. | :03:42. | |
selling it and got into a position selling it and got into a position | :03:42. | :03:46. | |
where my parents came to me again and said, now it is time for you to | :03:46. | :03:49. | |
take a corporate job and settle down, put your head down and focus | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
and just that is what you're going to do, that is your trajectory. And | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
had a lot of anxiety, and the at that point, | :03:56. | :04:10. | |
had a lot of anxiety, and the anxiety came from the feeling | :04:10. | :04:16. | |
position, I was going to be stuck waking up every day not wanting to | :04:16. | :04:22. | |
conquer it, and so I decided to quit. Lots of people quit, though, | :04:22. | :04:28. | |
because they are unhappy in jobs like that. Not many go to Kenya, out | :04:28. | :04:34. | |
into the bush and spend weeks with these guys are learning to live as | :04:34. | :04:36. | |
they do. Right. Well, I was they do. Right. Well, I was | :04:36. | :04:42. | |
volunteering. I ended up going on a volunteer trip to help build a | :04:42. | :04:47. | |
clinic at that and became very close with one of the cheeks. His name was | :04:47. | :04:52. | |
Winston —— one of the chiefs. This was my first exposure to the | :04:52. | :04:57. | |
Warriors. The second I landed, I saw these very strong African men, | :04:57. | :05:00. | |
walking into a forest with a spear and a sword and I thought, gosh, | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
there are lions and elephants in there and yet they are walking with | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
complete and utter confidence. And I felt that if I could even have 1% of | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
that warrior perspective, I would be in a more authentic place in my | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
life. And over the next two weeks when I was building the clinic, I | :05:17. | :05:20. | |
became very close with Winston and randomly one day I asked how many | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
women were Warriors and he said non—, women are not strong enough or | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
brave enough to become warriors, and I said, excuse me? And he said, it | :05:26. | :05:33. | |
is true, women are not strong or brave enough to do what we do and he | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
told me the rites of passage and I said that is something a woman can | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
without Trail mix and Chaucer the OK, fine, if you are able to live | :05:41. | :05:48. | |
without Trail mix and Chaucer the letters —— your stilettos, I will | :05:48. | :05:48. | |
take you through the rites of letters —— your stilettos, I will | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
passage. Later that day, a woman passage. Later that day, a woman | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
named Faith came up to me and said, I hear you want to become a warrior, | :05:55. | :05:57. | |
and I said I did, and she said, I hear you want to become a warrior, | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
hope you are serious because women in my tribe have wanted to do this | :06:01. | :06:06. | |
for generations and if for some reason you have the ability to get | :06:06. | :06:07. | |
this done, I hope you take it reason you have the ability to get | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
this done, I hope you take it seriously. What do you say to those | :06:10. | :06:13. | |
extreme case a rich western going on extreme case a rich western going | :06:13. | :06:20. | |
a bit of adventure to resume? —— westerner. Well, I would say that | :06:20. | :06:28. | |
wanted this, and they asked me to take a chance and to do this, and so | :06:28. | :06:40. | |
it is coming from the tribe, it is not coming from me. And since I was | :06:40. | :06:47. | |
inducted into their tribe and became the first female warrior, the tribe | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
has decided to take it upon has decided to take it upon | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
themselves to work to change a law to allow girls to become warriors, | :06:54. | :07:00. | |
so that is not me putting my spear in the ground and saying, this is | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
something that you need to do, this is something that is coming directly | :07:03. | :07:04. | |
from the tribe. So I think that from the tribe. So I think that is | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
probably what my response would probably what my response would be. | :07:08. | :07:14. | |
Would you go back? I am going back, I am going back in January to climb | :07:14. | :07:21. | |
Kilimanjaro, with at least 5—10 girls, who are going to become part | :07:21. | :07:28. | |
of the first warrior class, Maasai girls, and I am extremely excited to | :07:28. | :07:30. | |
go back and see my tribe and it will go back and see my tribe and it will | :07:30. | :07:34. | |
just be very | :07:34. | :07:35. |