Lolpatai is an elder who lead us in prayer each night. I’d say he’s around 60 years old, I was fascinated by the changes he must have seen in Samburu life in his lifetime. I don’t speak Mar and he doesn’t speak English so we communicated through jokes, signs and laughter. He is the only person I’ve ever seen successfully start a fire by rubbing two sticks together I was beyond impressed. As we sat round the fire and he gave the nightly blessing and prayer of appreciation to Ngai (God/Nature} as the sun went down I felt healed by the intention behind his words. It was in this moment I understood the power of the oral tradition.