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Another version of the article:

Gisele is Welcome but My Herd is More Important: Keseme

aneezshaikh Aneezshaikh,Mumbai, INDIA
Mar 25 2007, 4:36 am GMT

Also : http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/03/22/maasai.model.ap/index.html

The Red campaign ad for AIDS awareness that adorned the billboards throughout Africa did one more thing besides creating the much important awareness about AIDS, it created an anxiety about the tribesman who was lucky enough to be in close proximity with the Brazilian supermodel.

Keseme Ole Parsapaet, the 28-year-old father of two, was the lucky Maasai herdsman who featured in that ad alongwith supermodel Gisele Bundchen. But what Keseme said was more than enough to believe in the fact that every person has his own priorities.

When asked about the emotions he went through while shooting for that ad, Keseme said honestly,

"To be honest all I was thinking about when I was with this woman was my cattle and goats."

Keseme hails from a village called Oloomunyi situated near Kenya’s Ngong Hills on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi. A place where cattle is the most precious possession and is the basis of livelihood for majority of the tribesman.

Keseme’s childhood friend Jackson Siolol introduced him to the modelling agency SuraZuri that was looking for a maasai tribesman for the shoot.

The Red campaign ad might have put Gisele Bundchen in a superior leage as she earned a spot in the Guinness World Records, for a $17 million haul in a single year (hey, is it for an aids charity or to sell AMEX red cards ???? ) but Keseme was more satisfied than the supermodel with his meagre earning of $5000 for that shoot.

Keseme’s $5000 are five times the annual wages he would earn in his country. With that fortune Keseme built a three-room tin hut and bought more cattle and goats. as he says proudly:

"I now have 20 cattle and more than 150 goats. Cattles are more important than modelling",

says the herdsman who has killed a lion as part of an ancient initiation ceremony to become a Maasai warrior.

Maasai tribesman Keseme Ole Parsapaet, right, with his wife, Leay, as he holds a picture of himself and Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

Bundchen is welcome, says Keseme who has even put up two pictures of him with Bundchen in his hut but he is very clear when he says:

"She would be welcome to visit here to see how we live. We would slaughter a goat and roast it and would drink cow’s blood mixed with milk. That is the traditional Maasai welcome and she would be our guest. But she could not persuade me to give up my life here."

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