The Blooming Maasai

Sometimes, it takes a question from a stranger to make you see your own story clearly.

Recently, I was asked how I came to live in Europe. Was there a plan? Family waiting? My answer was that I’d simply decided to leave Kenya to see what life held which felt like ordinary truth to me. But the response was, “That requires so much courage.”

In that moment, I realized we often live our boldest chapters without feeling brave. We simply do what we must, what our spirit demands, while the world watches the highlights reel. From the outside, it might look like a series of bold leaps. From the inside, it often feels like a series of necessary steps, taken in faith, sometimes in fear, with no map in hand.

I began as a village girl with a global mindset. Then, I became an eagle feeling the unbearable confines of a cage which I can describe as a restless yearning for a sky I knew existed but couldn’t yet touch. That yearning led to an Erasmus+ application, a sealed envelope holding a whispered promise to myself. Then, I was leaving Kenya. Just like that.

The Netherlands did not welcome me with ease. The challenge wasn’t logistical; it was existential. I was broken down, stripped of the familiar identity I’d carried. In that silent, stark space, I had to rebuild. I learned that with fear as my companion, I had no option but to fight. I learned to believe in myself fiercely, because life alone was there to humble me and I refused to be its accomplice in my own breakdown. I learned the radical, guilty art of rest, and the deeper art of being kind to the woman I was becoming.

It was in that crucible that my purpose found me. My studies were so beautifully, thoroughly European-centered that a quiet, persistent question began to echo: But who speaks for Africa? Where was the lived experience, the nuanced perspective, the voice from within? I waited for someone to fill that gap. And then I realized that someone was me. I stopped waiting and became the answer to my own question.

Choosing that path, carving out that specific niche, meant accepting uncertainty. “Is this worth it?” I’d whisper in the long nights of job searching. The risk felt immense. Now, I can say with every fiber of my being: Yes. It is my north star. The Netherlands (Groningen) refined me, sanded down my edges, and when the refinement was complete and the sky there felt familiar again, I stopped fighting to stay. It was time.

And Germany called. Not as a new thought, but as an old whisper. A primary school girl with a worn atlas, her finger tracing the world, had once seen the name “Bonn.” It stuck, a seed planted in a young mind. Years later, when the winds of change blew, that seed sprouted. Bonn made sense because it is a hub for international organizations, a nexus for African projects. It felt less like a random choice and more like walking into a destiny I’d glimpsed as a child.

Moving here felt like meeting the next, improved version of myself. All the stereotypes that once scared me away, making me opt for the Netherlands instead melted into irrelevance. I do not regret my Dutch chapter because it forged me. But I see now how fear and horror stories can blind us. If I could tell my younger self one thing, it would be to trust her own curiosity over the world’s whispers.

Now, Germany (Bonn) is my launchpad. And as I build my career and nurture my brand, The Blooming Maasai, I am not afraid of the future. The grueling job search taught me a priceless lesson: my career does not define me. We must ask ourselves: who are you without your job title? Without the money in your account? Without the accolades?

This truth resonates with ancient wisdom. King Solomon, who had every title, every pleasure, and all the wealth imaginable, finally declared in Ecclesiastes: “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” He saw that without a deeper anchor, nothing external could grant lasting meaning. It all felt like chasing the wind.

So if my title, my salary, and my appearance do not define me, what does?
Knowing who I am defines me.
I am Nelly Dama. I am the founder of The Blooming Maasai. I am the village girl, the eagle, the refiner, the voice, and the launchpad. I am the one who carries the treasure within.

This reminds me of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, where Santiago travels to Egypt seeking a physical treasure, only to discover it was buried where his journey began. My dream for my career led me from Kenya to the Netherlands to Germany. But unlike Santiago, I now understand: the treasure wasn’t waiting in a specific place. It was unearthed in the journey itself, in the courage I didn’t know I had, in the voice I learned to trust, in the self I had to become. The treasure is the unshakable knowing of who I am.

The Blooming Maasai is not just a brand. It is a testament to that journey. From the village to the world, from seeking to knowing, from being defined by everything outside to being grounded in the everything within. And this, I am learning, is the greatest courage of all.