Sabbatical Day 23 (16 August)

A Grand Day Out

OR…

How many children can you fit in a Land Rover?  (the one below, minus the mattresses)

Not a great night, Hives were worse yesterday so I decided to drink more water. Drank too much before going to bed so up about 5 times in the night – what goes in must come out! Sunburn on face peeling off – I’ll probably come home looking paler than when I left.

Cockroach for breakfast anyone? (The smaller one’s a beetle)

Today the Youth Camps start. The date only became certain in the last few days. This is because the school holiday dates are only approximate and the Principal will decide a day or two beforehand when they will be. There was hope that the schools would close at the end of last week (Friday 9^th) and that the Camps could start on Monday last (12^th). However, the schools were closed earlier this term for elections, and then there was a Teachers’ Strike (it was over pay, the didn’t get ANY) so the Principals carried on for a few days and the schools locally only closed yesterday.

Tuum Primary School

 This means the Junior Camp will have to be cut from 4 to 3 days. If you are asking But what about parents arranging family holidays and teachers arranging their own holidays? then you aren’t living on the same planet. Those kinds of holidays don’t exist for these people.  

Tuum Girls’ Secondary School has gone through a difficult time. It’s a Boarding School as are all the rural Secondary Schools. The previous Principal was ‘bad news’ and a lot of the girls were mistreated. There is a new Principal who is much better. However, there are only 40 girls at the school at the moment and 9 teachers. There should be a lot more girls. Only 6 in Form 1. The equivalent school in Baragoi has 67 in Form 1. This hasn’t been helped by the fact that the school there (RC controlled) offered free uniforms. Uniforms are about the only thing the girls have to pay for. The RC Church has been in this district for some time and has built up quite a power base and they don’t like seeing this challenged. This has caused problems for Stephen. Having said that, the Irish RCs have been very cooperative and helpful, even encouraging to Stephen. They try to build up the people whereas the Italian RCs want to build up institutions.

About 80 Juniors come to the Camps from Tuum and a fleet of Land Rovers from the Mission Station go out to collect up to 120 more.

I went with Stephen, leaving at 10am. We travelled for 3 HOURS without seeing any sign of human habitation – no villages, settlements, even houses.

Only one Primary School – never finished, and one Nursery School – finished but never used. On all that journey there was just a 100m stretch where there was a Mobile Signal through a gap in the mountains. Stephen and I both checked for emails. Then we came across a group of about 200 people and even more goats, the people having gathered together grass and formed it suitable for thatch, waiting for a lorry to transport it for sale.

These people are semi-nomadic and live in a manyatta, an enclosure of branches and thorns and with low ‘buildings’ made of branches and thatch, about 6m long, 3m wide, 1.5m high.

 

We were greeted by an old man that Stephen has known for some years. He is dressed in the usual Samburu costume but is quite wealthy, if you measure wealth in goats as they do. He has two sons, one of whom is a teacher, the other tends the goats with him. A daughter has gone off the rails. He has just married his third wife (the other two are still living and with him). Reason? Wife no 2 has only been able to have one child and he feels the need for more.

There are so many cultural issues here. Take Sanitary Towels. How do women who have never worn underwear deal with them? And where to they put them when soiled (seen to be ‘soiled’ not just physically but in a spiritual sense). There won’t be a bin collection round here any time soon (like the next decade or three). Pit latrines (basically a concrete disc about 1m across with a hole in it, and a pipe under that about 25cm (10”) diameter and 3 or 4m straight down are a big issue for people who previously never relieved themselves in the same location twice and a man will not relieve himself at the same location as his daughter. They are also afraid that the ground underneath will collapse and they will fall in. Patience, little by little, is on the only way to make progress.

By the way, the same cultural issues exist in the Secondary Schools. Some girls won’t use flush toilets for those cultural reasons. What do you do? What the previous Principal in told the girls to do is too disgusting to put here. We travel on a bit further to Seren where there is a Mission Station.

This consists of a secure metal building in which items are stored and a few people can sleep. There is also building of local construction, I think again for sleeping and a mud-walled toilet. Down below in the valley I can see wooden forms in the woods, which is where worship takes place and not far away is a Form 1-4 Primary School. Stephen would like to see a house built here and a permanent presence in the area, perhaps a vet. It would take someone prepared to commit to the Samburu for the long term. PCEA tends to put Pastors in places like this which is not the most appropriate type of personnel. We break for refreshment. Chai (the works, inc. milk and sugar) and chapat and oranges. The oranges grow in Tuum and the outside is in fact green. I share some energy bars.

We have brought C with us (she is a girl at Tuum Girls’ Secondary School and I don’t want to reveal her identity as once this is on the Internet it’s there forever.) She is the first girl from her community to go to Secondary School and she has managed (against the trend) to reach third form without getting pregnant. Stephen is hopeful she will be able to complete 4^th form in the same condition. Sadly she has already undergone Female Genital Mutilation which is another thing that is deeply culturally entrenched. There is also male circumcision (also I think around puberty) but that doesn’t have the same awful long-term consequences. Most of the girls at the Secondary School become pregnant, often to the male teachers who invite them to their homes. If this happens at home in the UK it’s headline news and a court case, but here it’s just part of life. You might ask why parents allow their daughters to go to school if that happens. Well, if they stay at home there is 100% certainty that they will get pregnant. C arrives in her school uniform – grey patterned skirt, white shirt, red tie, and is such a contrast to her little sister who comes to greet her in Samburu dress.

When we dropped C off I wondered about the contrast between some of the Western facilities at the School and conditions in her manyatta and how she copes with that.

Both the men and women wear skirts, although to very different styles, and the women wear a series of rings round their necks. These have no spiritual significance and are simply decorative.

Some are gifts from boyfriends so the more you have, perhaps the more popular you are.

Stephen says the guys in the photo above with head-dresses are trying to impress the girls. A few of the women are bare-breasted, although their breasts are fairly well covered by their neck rings. Stephen says that the rings used to be smaller so more was exposed and more of the women are covering up now with cloth anyway. He doesn’t challenge any of these cultural things (including polygamy) until people become Christians and then they usually find the Holy Spirit challenges them anyway. I notice a lot of little boys (3 and under) running about naked, but no little girls the same. Stephen says there are such girls, we just haven’t seen any today. Wherever we stop men and women come to the LR and greet us. They put their hands forward to shake and exchange a greeting. Some will chat with Stephen, indeed Stephen never passes a group of people without stopping and greeting. Some of the children get in on the handshake act too, an opportunity to touch a mazungo and find out what white skin feels like.

One of the places we stop has a borehole and pump operated by hand.

Stephen says this is better than solar power as the physical effort of pumping means that people value it more. Stephen has been asked at another manyatta to fill up some jerry cans with water which he does – or at least Samuel who is travelling with us does. Doing favours like this is very important. At another point he used the LR’s tyre inflator to pump up 2 footballs for them. Unfortunately the footballs wouldn’t hold the air.

A lot of the ‘road’ we are travelling now is elephant track and is in fact the smoothest to drive on – a reasonably firm sand.

 Back in Tuum the indoor thermometer says about 26° in the afternoon although Stephen says that outside, in the shade it is more likely 28°. Here he estimates it to be between 30 and 40, probably nearer 40. Thankfully it doesn’t feel that oppressive, humidity must be low.

We reached the furthest point and began to load the children. Word about the Camps starting was sent a few days ago but doesn’t seem to have got through (by human messenger – there is no other way). 3 children get in and a young lad (‘helper’). One older man admired my white beard and said I must be very old and very wise. I think he was half right but you may disagree about which half!

We’ve covered 62 miles and it’s 3.50pm.

We re-trace our route and the children are now ready for us at each manyatta. Some carry a plastic bag which may contain a change of clothes or a book, some food, even in some cases a Bible, others are only in the clothes they stand up in. Soon we are complete. Stephen, myself, Samuel, the young lad and how many children do you think? Take a guess. The answer is twenty-five! So, 23 kids in the back, one sitting behind the gear lever between Stephen and me, and one sitting on the passenger seat between my legs. No parental consent forms, no registration forms, no details about allergies or medication. How many PCI guidelines on transporting children does that break? Oh, and these numbers are not unusual. Sometimes some children have to sit on the roof!

As soon as we begin to move the children break into singing. One will sing a line and the others repeat, or sing a verse and the others the chorus.

They keep this up for a while but tire and stop. On the way back we can see it has been raining and the road is slippery. There is a flash of lightning in the distance which, considering previous experience, is ominous. But we don’t see any actual rain. Darkness falls at 7, the children pick up the singing again, and we are in Tuum by 8. A bucket-shower by the light of a hurricane lamp. As the grime from the journey washes off I feel it’s the best shower I’ve ever had in my life.

After another good veggie meal. Stephen assisted by Kasoni, does pretty well.

   

 I ring home on the satellite phone and speak to Lynda. 18 minutes 18 seconds – you have to log them all.

Although the journey was another boneshaker I began to feel better physically as the day went on. I think the water input (little and often) is at a better rate and the throat isn’t so sore. Still a runny nose. But enough about me – tell me about you!

Jim