Sabbatical Days 24 and 25

Sabbatical Day 24 (17 August)

Better night. Hydration definitely better. The hives aren’t so bad. Some clearing up and the rate of arrival of new ones is slower. Maybe I’m over the worst of that. Nose not so bad either.

First Session this morning and I’m the speaker: they call it a ‘Seminar’ but no seminar at Queen’s was ever like this. They start with singing, led by the 200 children themselves, and some of it sounds similar to what they sang on the LR.

 

One person, usually an older girl, will take the lead for one song, and another person for another. Someone else will beat a drum to keep time. It’s not to the same chromatic scale as we use in the west. It’s quite beautiful to listen to all these children’s voices. There are no instruments in Samburu culture apart from the drum and this, and the absence of PA and/or backing track is quite haunting.

 

Not as much movement (still more than at home where we play ‘statues’ when we sing) and no ‘Pentecostal’ elements. All either in Samburu or Ki-Swahili, I can’t differentiate. One of the leaders leads in prayer. Then it’s me. I have to be translated (those at school learn English but not all go to school and some present were pre-school) and talk about Peter the fisherman. I’m not sure whether these semi-nomadic pastoral children will know what a fish is, never mind a fisherman. I ask for a definition of a fish and am given ‘An animal that lives in water.’ That’ll do. Reading in the gospel where Peter is called to follow Jesus and become a fisher of men I establish that following is not just walking behind someone but is copying their actions (the game where you slap your knees twice and then clap or touch your nose or put your arm out etc and the children have to copy). I then teach the song ‘I will make you fishers of men’ which some of them already know. The rest pick it up quickly.

We then cover the story of the stilling of the storm. After reading it I get the girls to be the wind and the boys to be the waves, get them all to make as much noise possible and then on my signal to stop. The sudden silence is quite effective especially under the tin roof.  Establishing that none of us can command the wind and waves, and that this is evidence that Jesus is more than a man, he is the Son of God, we go on to get each child to draw on a piece of paper a samaki, that is a fish, with the word JESUS written within the outline. I encourage them to keep them and take them home, but at the end one child gives me his. Don’t know whether he thinks it has to be handed in or he’s given it to me as a gift. I notice that some of the leaders have canes. No-one gets beaten, but the cane does get wielded in a threatening manner and now and again children who are talking when they should be listening are tapped on the shoulder.

Some are moved to separate them from ‘mates’ and others have to stand at the back for a while. I finish off my sharing how Peter responded to the question ‘Who do you say that I am’ with the response ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’ and establishing that Peter as a disciple had started by following Jesus but now he put his faith in Jesus in his heart as the Son of God. If we are to be disciples, Christians, then we truly are when we try to follow him (copy him by being loving, kind, true, obedient to God the Father, and not telling lies, hurting people, breaking our promises) and when we believe in our heart that he is the Son of God. I asked the children were they trying to follow Jesus. A good number answered yes. I asked if they believe in their heart that he is the Son of God. A good number answered yes. I told them that as disciples we can make mistakes, we can sin, but we are still Christians. Peter made a mistake when he denied Jesus three times but he was still a Christian and Jesus restored him. When we sin, if we repent, he will forgive us, for his love is very wonderful.

I then led in ‘Jesus’ love is very wonderful’ which again some knew, and those who didn’t joined in the actions.

That was the end of my bit. More singing led my one of the leaders, a prayer and finished for a break at 10.50.

I went to the guest house to write up the blog.

Stephen has made soda bread as part of our lunch and somehow with Jay this leads to him asking be to tell him the story of how the Republic of Ireland became independent. Hmmm. Where do you start?! He seemed very interested so I started in the 12^th century and took it from there. Must have taken the best part of an hour but he kept the interest up all the way through, asking some more questions about things since the 1920s, including about Bloody Sunday and other things to do with ‘the troubles.’ He knew virtually nothing of the history of Ireland before I started by impromptu ‘lecture’ – I hope I was able to give him a reasonably accurate account without my own biases colouring things too much.

I sat in on some of the children’s 3^rd session – the African person was speaking in English with a translation again. With three languages on the go – Samburu, Ki-Swahili and English there will be some who know all three but some who only know two and some only one (I fall into the latter category!). So generally some kind of translation is needed. The camps and presentations are organised and given by Africans – Stephen deliberately keeps out of that so that they gain experience and take responsibility. I think this is wise.

Stephen, by the way, will chat away in English, Ki-Swahili or Samburu, depending on who he is talking to. He can use all three in the one sentence. I note that words like crank-shaft, alternator, manifold, and other technical terms are invariably in English as the other languages have just adopted them rather than invent their own.

Jay leaves this afternoon, his vehicle having been fixed. It’s been good to get to know him. He might have stayed longer but his 1½ year-old son has a fever.

At the evening meal Kasoni tells me about her fasting. She fasts periodically for 3 or for 7 days at a go, during that time taking only tea (with milk and sugar). She finds that this helps remind her that the flesh and the spirit are battling each other and that it enables her to re-focus on the spiritual part of her life. It’s a salutary reminder to me that we forget this so much in the west and that the reality of a spiritual battle is missing from so much of our Christian lives. Is this why Christianity is so weak in the west?

Another 25 children or so have arrived from a Turkana region. The Samburu and Turkana often don’t get on – there is cattle rustling and sometimes violence. Often the Turkana will not want to get involved in anything in Tuum, so Stephen is encouraged by this development. Because of the extra children feeding will take a bit longer, so the Revival Meeting is a bit later. Before that we notice a bush fire about 3 miles from Tuum. It seems to cover a wide area. There is also lightning in that direction and some light rain here. The speaker at the revival meeting speaks in Ki-Swahili and is translated into Samburu. No English so I can’t follow except that I can work out it’s about David and Goliath (Stephen tells me later that it was about Internet Pornography – how wrong can you be?!! (But the Bible ref was definitely 1 Samuel 17)). He must be telling the story in a funny way because there is occasional gentle laughter from the children. There are no ‘visual aids’ or other things to keep attention, just speaking. There is a call for children to make commitments to Christ and about 6 come out to the front to do so. They are prayed for – this prayer is somewhat more fervent than the previous prayers and tending towards a more Pentecostal style, but not nearly so much as in Uganda.

We finish after 9.30pm. The children, some 4 years old, maybe even 3, have been on the go since 6am and have shown no sign of flagging, loss of interest, or childish tetchiness, and all on a diet that we would probably think inadequate.

After the meeting I notice that the fires are no longer visible. I hardly need the hurricane lamp to see my way to the guest house as there is a bright moon.

Jim

 

Sabbatical Day 25 (18 August)

6am: sound of drums. The children have started their morning devotions.

We have breakfast outdoors – the first time since I’ve been in Tuum. Stephen says it’s because it’s sunny, but as it’s always been sunny each morning I don’t quite follow the logic. Between the rough ground and a rickety chair I manage to topple off backwards from mine, much to the amusement of Stephen, Kasoni and Dan. Nothing damaged except my pride. (I was sitting at the table which is on the left, on the chair which is in the middle, on the side away from the house.)

Retire to guest house to write this blog and get ready for the Sunday Service at 10.30. Someone in the near distance is playing a CD of Silent Night sung by what sounds like Cliff Richard. Weird!

Service was a bit late starting at the children were still doing their first Session. Got going about 11. Each of the groups of children from the different areas did a ‘presentation’ which consisted of a couple of songs with dance. This took over an hour – recognised one of the songs, ‘We are marching in the light of God’ which had been taught by a group from NI. Then the local Tuum adult choir, did a piece followed by a younger and then older children’s choir. Then me. Spoke on John 6, feeding of the 5,000 again.

Then there was the offering, some notices and an end about 1.15.

Some more discussion of mission things with Stephen over lunch. Again Stephen’s opinions in Italics.

The RC’s who were here first gave people the impression that Christianity was about what you could get from the missionaries – food, housing, schools, money, and not about salvation in Christ, so an expectation was built up among many that you became a Christian to get these things rather than to trust Christ. It has been hard to counter this but there are some breakthroughs and in the Tuum area encouraging results. He questions some of the schemes which sponsor children – what are they being educated for? Also, if they get to 16 having been sponsored and not had to graft for their education, what will happen when they leave school? Those children who have come from families which have not had outside support are more likely to be in a position to apply themselves when they leave school. Then again, while out in the manyattas we had seen some bags of maize donated by World Food Aid. Stephen questions whether this is helpful. In all his time here he has never come across a case of anyone dying of hunger, and all that food donations do is encourage people not to work and a dependency mind-set. [Comment: This is not the same as emergency aid or disaster relief, because clearly without it in those cases people would die]) It’s as people take responsibility for their own development that progress is made.

I have a walk around to see the children amusing themselves before the evening meal. Football is universal! The cook-house is small, about 4 meters diameter and the fires that heat the cauldrons are fed from the outside.

 

Yes, it is that smoky inside.

 

A Fr Oliver Noonan has arrived. There is some discussion about a flight coming in on Tuesday with some of his personnel and this may mean that I fly down to Nairobi rather than go by road. It’s not certain though. As with other Irish RCs Stephen relates to him well.

Catch up with BBC World Service. Spurs begin the premier league campaign with a win! Yea! J Come on you Lilywhites!

Attend the evening Revival Meeting. The cane is used here. About 8 boys have been disruptive and put at the front behind the speaker. They continue to be disruptive and are each given a whack of the cane across the back of the legs. The other children giggle. Stephen says they expect to be beaten. Again no English so hard for me to tell but I don’t think they’re attentive. While last night some came forward for prayer no one comes forward tonight. The ‘call’ is not prolonged. They will either come forward or not. Stephen says that trying to squeeze everything into three days sometimes doesn’t work but there has been no choice with the school holidays. And it’s me who has to wrap it all up tomorrow!

Jim