15/08/2013 Meet the Author


15/08/2013

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summer. Now, it is time for Meet The Author,

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with Nick Hyams. with Nick Hyams.

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Mindy Budgor was a self—styled plump, white, Gucci wearing Jewish

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princess from California when, at the age of 26, waiting to hear she

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—— if she had a place at business school, she went to Kenya to train

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as the world's first Maasai warrior. She tells the story in her book,

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Warrior Princess. As one reviewer said, not your average gap year

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memoir. We invited her to a studio in New York, where she now lives, so

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we could meet the author. we could meet the author.

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Mindy Budgor, for those who don't Mindy Budgor, for those who don't

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know, very briefly, who are the Maasai? The Maasai are a tribe in

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Kenya, in Tanzania, and they are seminomadic, they live amongst the

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Lions and the elements and with electricity and just completely at

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one with the land and the animals. They are herders, they keep goats

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and cattle. But they're way of life is under threat, isn't it? It is.

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The Kenyan Government is taking away more and more of their land and

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to droughts, their cattle are dying, to droughts, their

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people in the tribe dying, and if which is their main asset,

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people in the tribe dying, and if you speak with people in the tribe,

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they actually believe that their tribe may not exist in about 20

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why you came to be training with why you came to be training with

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them to be a female warrior, or moron, but tell me first of all what

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out into the bush and ate a lot of out into the bush and ate a lot of

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goat. Yes, a lot of goat and a lot of cow, so in order to be a moran,

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it is kind of like their military, you have got to be able to protect

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your community against any type of your community against any type of

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conflict with another tribe and any animals that might pose a threat,

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elephants and lions and Buffalo, elephants and lions and Buffalo,

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because they live right out in the same area as all of these animals,

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so the rites of passage in order to become a moran is the one that I

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went through, you have to prove that went through, you have to prove

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you are strong and brave enough to you are strong and brave enough to

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be a warrior, and I lived just in the forest, only eating what I could

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kill, and improving day by day dash and proving day by day that I was

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strong enough to protect Mike strong enough to protect Mike

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immunity against these animals. Some of the details really stuck with me.

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There is a detail of one of your fellow morans sitting under a branch

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on which is hanging a lot of raw goat meat. You sleep under that and

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there is a reason for that. Yes, we there is a reason for that. Yes, we

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sleep under our meat because if an sleep under our meat because if an

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animal will come, like a leopard or a hyena, we weep to be able to

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protect our food —— we need to be able to. So we sleep directly under

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this? I come from a pretty this? I come from a pretty

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conservative family and my family wanted me or told me that I needed

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to be a doctor, but that isn't what to be a doctor, but that isn't what

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started a business, I ended up college

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selling it and got into a position selling it and got into a position

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where my parents came to me again and said, now it is time for you to

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take a corporate job and settle down, put your head down and focus

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and just that is what you're going to do, that is your trajectory. And

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had a lot of anxiety, and the at that point,

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had a lot of anxiety, and the anxiety came from the feeling

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position, I was going to be stuck waking up every day not wanting to

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conquer it, and so I decided to quit. Lots of people quit, though,

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because they are unhappy in jobs like that. Not many go to Kenya, out

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into the bush and spend weeks with these guys are learning to live as

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they do. Right. Well, I was they do. Right. Well, I was

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volunteering. I ended up going on a volunteer trip to help build a

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clinic at that and became very close with one of the cheeks. His name was

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Winston —— one of the chiefs. This was my first exposure to the

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Warriors. The second I landed, I saw these very strong African men,

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walking into a forest with a spear and a sword and I thought, gosh,

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there are lions and elephants in there and yet they are walking with

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complete and utter confidence. And I felt that if I could even have 1% of

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that warrior perspective, I would be in a more authentic place in my

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life. And over the next two weeks when I was building the clinic, I

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became very close with Winston and randomly one day I asked how many

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women were Warriors and he said non—, women are not strong enough or

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brave enough to become warriors, and I said, excuse me? And he said, it

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is true, women are not strong or brave enough to do what we do and he

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told me the rites of passage and I said that is something a woman can

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without Trail mix and Chaucer the OK, fine, if you are able to live

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without Trail mix and Chaucer the letters —— your stilettos, I will

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take you through the rites of letters —— your stilettos, I will

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passage. Later that day, a woman passage. Later that day, a woman

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named Faith came up to me and said, I hear you want to become a warrior,

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and I said I did, and she said, I hear you want to become a warrior,

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hope you are serious because women in my tribe have wanted to do this

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for generations and if for some reason you have the ability to get

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this done, I hope you take it reason you have the ability to get

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this done, I hope you take it seriously. What do you say to those

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extreme case a rich western going on extreme case a rich western going

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a bit of adventure to resume? —— westerner. Well, I would say that

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wanted this, and they asked me to take a chance and to do this, and so

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it is coming from the tribe, it is not coming from me. And since I was

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inducted into their tribe and became the first female warrior, the tribe

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has decided to take it upon has decided to take it upon

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themselves to work to change a law to allow girls to become warriors,

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so that is not me putting my spear in the ground and saying, this is

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something that you need to do, this is something that is coming directly

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from the tribe. So I think that from the tribe. So I think that is

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probably what my response would probably what my response would be.

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Would you go back? I am going back, I am going back in January to climb

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Kilimanjaro, with at least 5—10 girls, who are going to become part

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of the first warrior class, Maasai girls, and I am extremely excited to

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go back and see my tribe and it will go back and see my tribe and it will

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just be very

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