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December 31, 2004
December 31, 2004
Last day of the year. I was blessed today. So was Rueben. One of the very old Samburu elders came by for a talk and a bit of a gift for the New Year. As Reuben was talking to the elder and a few other men, the elder decided to start chanting a blessing on Reuben and his household. The Samburu blessing is so beautiful and rhythmic to listen to. Later, I gave the elder his gift and he grabbed my hands and did another blessing over me, including the traditional spitting on my hands. Reuben sat there chuckling to himself as he knows that while I enjoy the chanting of the blessing, I don’t appreciate having my hands spit on and I have to control myself not to rip them away from the elder and run away. But I concentrated on understanding the words of the chant, saying the appropriate refrain between each verse, and endured the spitting at the end. Now we are looking forward to a very blessed New Year. Though I am not sure I really need the 8 or 9 children the elder wished for us!
December 29, 2004
December 29, 2004
The Christmas festivities are over. And what festivities. And with lots of visitors. The first day back I met the British mountain climbers that were staying at the Salato Tourist Camp that we manage. The kids and I took two of them up to the streams and waterfalls to spend the afternoon playing and relaxing in the water. They were also scouting around for more mountains to climb to explored a bit the cliffs up above the area where we were swimming. Afterwards, we all came back to my house for tea and christmas cookies and had a nice time getting to know one another. One of the climbers was a journalist and was very interested in learning all he could about Ngurunit area.
A couple days later, another journalist from the Kenyan newspaper, The Nation, arrived with her brother and his family (wife and two kids). They moved into our guesthouse on our plot and were just in time to share in a goat roast that Reuben and I had planned for the evening for our family. They had planned to stay just three days to get a feel of the place for writing some travel articles and then move on. But they fell in love with the place and stayed a whole week and just left yesterday. I showed them the natural water slides and my special ‘massage’ water fall, which they went to every other day to play and relax in. One day they went to a nearby town of Korr and another I sent them on a camel ride to the Milgas river. The camel ride proved a great challenge, what with the distance and the heat, but they enjoyed it thoroughly, even if the last few days here they could barely sit down or walk from being so sore. The journalist also went with me to see all the work I do with the women’s group and talked to some of the group members and myself about all that we have accomplished. The week has given her a lot of things to write about and I am very happy about this opportunity of publicity. It will be a great advertisement for the tourist camp and the other work in Ngurunit.
On the 24th, our friends Sue and Colin from Nairobi showed up with their son and a bunch of friends to camp for a couple days. These friends come about every three months to stay at Salato camp, they love it so much. They were here only a couple days this year, but we had a great time together over the Christmas celebrations.
During all these days of organizing visitors, I managed to get a tree and decorate it with the children, bake endless batches of Christmas cookies, get the family Christmas feast prepared for our traditional Christmas eve day dinner and present opening, get the family to Christmas day church and Christmas lunch at my niece’s, spend the evening with our friends at the camp for their Christmas dinner, prepare another goat roast for all of the visitors for the evening of the 26th and generally spread Christmas cheer and good will over the space of 3 days. Total exhaustion on my part was the result. So the last few days have been spent just reading and sleeping. But it was all worth it as we all had a wonderful time. One special treat was that one of the visitors had a satellite phone so on Christmas day I was able to call my parents in Wisconsin and let the kids wish them a Merry Christmas from Ngurunit. I even got to say hello to a sister-in-law and a niece and nephew. We’ve never been able to do that before, as normally we don’t have access to this wonderful technology. I am starting to explore the possibilities of getting it, and then I can even have e-mail access in Ngurunit. Though do I really want to be so connected all of the time?
The mountain climbers and our friends at the camp left on the 27th and everyone else yesterday so for a few days, we are left on our own. Now the New Year approaches, with a few more visitor’s planned to arrive, then to go for a seven day donkey trek in the Ndoto mountains. I will be here to welcome them and send them off on the 1st, but then the kids need to be back in Maralal to start school on the 3rd of January. We have one hitch to getting home in that my car has decided to stop working completely. We are very fortunate Reuben insisted on us coming with two cars. I tell him he must have had some sort of premonition about my car giving up as we had originally been planning to come together in one vehicle. So now the plan is that the kids and I will go in Reuben’s car to Maralal while he stays here in Ngurunit. Then I will send a mechanic back in our Susuki with some spare parts and they will see if they can get my vehicle started. We think the timing belt broke, but are hoping no major damage was done. I am hoping it is just some weird electrical problem. Oh well. Such are the problems of life here in the bush miles from regular services, like easy access to mechanics. This isn’t the first time we have had problems with vehicles in Ngurunit that sometimes forces us to even leave the vehicle for several months while we try to sort out getting people to fix it. Hopefully we will be able to sort out this problem within the first week or so of January. I need my car for all my work related travels that will start up with vengeance from the moment I get back to the ‘world’ after the New Year. Not to mention Reuben’s new job which will require lots of travel and a reliable vehicle. Yikes.
December 19, 2004
December 19, 2004
Just arrived in Ngurunit again about 1 hour ago. This means I will get to stop doing my imitation of a yoyo for a bit. I left Maralal yesterday but instead of coming straight to Ngurunit, I stopped at a place called Tuum to visit a friend, Alison and her husband Mark, and stay over night. I hadn’t seen Alison since June so we had a lot to catch up on. She is from Britain but also married to a Samburu. They are expecting their first child and as she is far from any real medical facilities, I thought I would stop by to check up on Alison’s progress. I had met Mark in Maralal last week and realized I had a lot of advice to give her from my experience of bearing two children in Kenya and being pregnant living in the bush far away from any assistance. Alison and Mark run a lab so they are fortunate to be able to at least do some of the basic regular lab work that is important. But Mark said some guidance was welcome on what exactly was important. It was really great seeing Alison. She is about 7 months along and we stayed up talking and looking at pregnancy books till all hours. Amazing how much fun that can be. Never would have thought it. I think being in the bush far from any technical help other than a poorly trained midwife makes one more keen to know everything you could possibly know about the whole subject so one can be ready for anything. Alison plans to fly out about a month early in February and wait in Nairobi for the great day. But I was concerned that she be aware of critical symptoms of some complications that can develop fairly rapidly and also some of the diet, exercises and other measures, like blood pressure checks and weight monitoring, that can help her avoid these problems.
I hung out this morning chatting about pregnancy and just about everything else under the sun till around midday and then came to Ngurunit. Good to arrive and have the kids and dogs so happy to see me. The kids were just coming from splashing in the river and so vibrant with so much excitement and energy. A thorn that I had acquired in my foot just before leaving Ngurunit for Maralal last week was still in my foot and really starting to fester and hurt. I asked the kids to take it out, as they are experts at it from running around barefoot and getting so many thorns in their own feet that they take turns taking out of each other. They ran outside and came back with thorns from the acacia trees. Very useful that the same tree that sheds so many thorns on the ground for one to step on can have the best and hardest fresh thorns for removing the ones in the foot. After quite a bit of time and quite a bit of pain, Loiweti proudly produced a very long, wicked looking black tip of an old acacia thorn. He gave it to me and said “Put it in your hair and then the thorn will not bother you again”. Sorry to say I did not follow his advice but I was amused by the local folklore that my children are picking up living and growing as samburu children.
Reuben ended up having to stay in Maralal a couple more days. I discovered another social engagement that Reuben had to be involved with on Saturday morning. Some clan members asked him on Friday to become the cultural father of their son by holding his back during his circumcision in the current warrior age set. That involved us waking up at 5:30 in the morning Saturday to pick the doctor and be to the people’s house before the sun rose to perform the ceremony. The real traditional way of boy circumcision often involves a large group of boys and one man with a knife going down the line. Awareness has been gradually spreading that this is a good way to loose your son to things like HIV/Aids so more and more parents are allowing some changes to be introduced. One of these is that when it is just one, often the local doctor is made the one to circumcise the boy with modern sterile equipment. That was how this boy was done on Saturday. Though all the other activities, like the dress, the way of holding the boy, the timing, the gathering of elders and the traditional foods all remain the same. I have heard that when some of the big circumcision camps happen this next year, where hundreds of boys can be done at one time, that each boy will have a separate sterile knife to be used on him alone. This is a very important change from the traditional one knife for all, which is blamed for many cases of spreading HIV/Aids when large groups of boys are done together. I have not heard though if it will be doctors doing it or the local elders as usual. Though I think even the elders are getting training on the whole issue of hygiene not mixing blood. Anyway, in the Samburu tradition, there is one man that holds the boy’s back and one the legs. These men become important to the boy and have certain responsibilities, immediately after the ceremony and for different periods throughout life. The one holding the back, like Reuben did for this boy, is especially important and becomes like a father. That means that Reuben had to stay for some other function within the ceremony today. He also has a few things to finish up in the office tomorrow and then he will be free to come and spend Christmas and New Year here with us all in Ngurunit. The kids were upset their father hadn’t arrived with me but got happy again when I said we can get the tree tomorrow and decorate it before Reuben arrives, as a surprise. We also have a lot of Christmas cookies to bake and more presents to wrap that I brought from Maralal. Reuben’s job will be to find the Christmas goat. We always have a fun mix of Kenyan and Wisconsin (Scandinavian heritage) Christmas traditions. Merry Christmas.
December 16, 2004
December 16, 2004
Photo by Nancy Stills - Gutoyia weaving baskets
Maralal again. Uggh! Made it safe with no problems on the road. Except I drove a bit fast over the bumps and wore out the shock bushes. By the time I reached Maralal we were rattling. I have been on the road too much and I begin to not be careful enough on the rocks. I just want to get to where I am going. Every trip is around 7 hours of ‘wasted’ time sitting in a car. Oh well, such is life here in Northern Kenya. I will have to focus more on the beauty of the road on the way back to Ngurunit and appreciate it instead of being irritated at the time spent on it. It is all about attitude in life. I can choose to enjoy and be at peace, instead of complaining and getting upset.
We have been working hard and almost done with the proposal. Last changes in process and then delivery on Monday. We are hoping for this great opportunity of development to come to reality. Though I am looking forward to getting back to Ngurunit. Before we leave on Saturday, Reuben and I will engage in some social events. One is a graduation of the Ngurunit nursery school from his in-service training. This is good. The nursery school is soon to be done and then he will be able to move the kids from under the tree.
The other social activity is a friend’s church wedding. When Reuben told me he wanted to attend this friend’s wedding, I was surprised and said I thought he was already married. The answer is that he was married years ago in the traditional ceremony but now they are doing the church ceremony as a confirmation of their beliefs. This is quite common in the Samburu these days with the church not feeling the traditions are not adequate for believers in Christ. It is usually just a quick thing on Sunday morning but because this friend is the Mayor of Maralal, people are making a big to do about it. Reuben and I did both a ‘Christian’ wedding and a ‘traditional’ wedding for different reasons. We did the western style wedding because we got married in Wisconsin at my parent’s house so the Samburu tradition would have been a bit strange there. We returned to Kenya and did a sort of blessing ceremony with the elders of Ngurunit but hadn’t really planned to do the whole Samburu wedding. But then 6 years later, some experiences of ours and people we met made us think that maybe it would be a good idea to follow the traditions. This way his family and the community would be really sure to accept me as a Samburu wife with my full rights as such in case anything happened to him. So, my parents came over to give me away again and we did the ceremony. It was fun and afterwards, people I had known for years were coming to me and saying that now I was a woman. And what was I before? I would ask. Oh now, you are a real Samburu woman, one of us. So I really saw that tradition is important. But when I hear of the church insisting on a basically western type christian wedding even between couples married for years in the Samburu tradition I sometimes wonder why. In their own environment, isn’t their tradition best? I suppose that the church is trying to assert that if people confess something different from their traditional believes, they should show that in all aspects of their lives. But is that necessary? Or beneficial? Does it really make their faith deeper or more real? Is their cultural unions invalid just because it is different? From my experience I saw that our church wedding really meant very little to the community. They did not take it into their heart. Their traditional ceremony is what held the weight. Why is it necessary to try to make them change what they already see as binding? Lots of questions in this world concerned about faith, belief, traditions, culture. And as many answers. I guess that is why there is so much trouble in so many parts of the world and on a global level. People don’t want to accept others for who they are and recognize each other’s traditions as just as valid as their own. Must move on to other issues in life. I can only try to accept what is around me and live in peace, even if I don’t understand always the why of it.
One last exciting thing. The basket order I had received for the States before going to Ngurunit last week has been increased to 216 baskets of various sizes. Very wonderful for the women. They were so happy to hear and I have already collected so many beautiful baskets. This business is really coming up more than I ever hoped for. Looking forward to what the new year will bring.
December 09, 2004
December 9, 2004
Photo by Laura Lemunyete - Homestead in Ngurunit
I am back in Ngurunit again. I am beginning to feel a bit like a yoyo. In about five days I have to return to Maralal for some important work, staying about 4 days, and then back to Ngurunit again, this time with Reuben. Then we will be able to stay for Christmas and the New Year. Back and forth, up and down. A yoyo. Oh well, it is for a good reason. I arrived in Maralal last week only to find that Reuben had been contacted by a friend, Carolyn, from the states who has a possible funding opportunity for us. She is working as a professor at a University in St. Louis, but is married to a Samburu from near Maralal. She has been a friend for a long time and she and Reuben worked together in the same Kenyan/German Government cooperation development office for some years in the late 90’s before she went to the states to do her PhD. She still comes to Maralal every summer break to do research and has a great interest in helping to develop Samburu District. This new opportunity is a possibility of getting funding to continue and promote a process of participatory community development that was developed by the office that Carolyn and Reuben worked in. Since then, Reuben has continued within his non-governmental organization to promote the same viable concepts, but without major funding, the going has been slow, as working with the remote pastoralist communities in Samburu can be very resource consuming due to the distances, poor roads and lack of communication facilities.
Now, with this opportunity, we are in high gear for writing a proposal. The whole concept is to assist pastoralist communities to self-analyze their situations and to put into place action plans for improving their lives and communities. Then, there will be a component of funding some of their development initiatives, especially those revolving around strengthening the ability of the communities themselves to respond to changing conditions in the semi-arid and arid lands and to provide the resources required for these responses. This will help the communities be able to eventually be completely self-reliant, even during times of drought when in the past food is often scare and they end up depending on relief food from outside. This dependency on outside food is not sustainable, thus the importance of promoting ideas and concepts that can bring positive changes for the future. So, Reuben, Carolyn and I, as well as several other partners, are now working on trying to obtain this funding. First deadline for proposals is December 20th, meaning a rush for the finish line.
That is why I have suddenly turned into a yoyo and need to go back to Maralal yet again before the real holidays set in. My hope of getting to Ngurunit on November 24th and staying throughout the New Year in peace sort of changed. A lot. But I told Reuben, if a bit of effort and sacrifice on my part can help to get funding to assist around 10 or more different pastoralist communities throughout Samburu District, no problem. When we are done and the proposal is in, I will be able to get even more peace through the holidays knowing I have tried my best to help as much and as many as I can. Then I will rest and keep my fingers crossed that the New Year will bring with it some more exciting new funded projects.
December 04, 2004
December 4, 2004
I am in Maralal for the weekend. Came yesterday. Left the kids and dogs in Ngurunit. I had to drop my niece off at the dispensary in Arsim, about 40 Km from Ngurunit and then go to Seren to meet the community about the water project. The Seren trip had been planned for the way to Ngurunit last week but the mud and the rain caused us to be too late to stop. All these side trips yesterday made the trip to Maralal very long, but lots of good things accomplished on the way. My niece was expecting a baby around the 11th of this month, thus dropping her off a week early at a place where she can get the help of a midwife. I say “was” expecting because I just got a phone call informing me that she had the baby early this morning! Less than 24 hours after taking her there. Good thing we were early. We had discussed waiting till next week, but I am certainly glad we didn’t. My niece had her first child almost 5 years ago just in the village situation of her mother’s house in the traditional Samburu way. Since then, she has had 2 ½ years of nursing and midwife training herself and practiced in her field for almost two years. I asked her if she was planning to have this second child at home like the first, with no midwife at the moment in Ngurunit. She said no way, please take me to Arsim. She had learned first hand the risk and troubles Samburu women face in giving birth to their children and did not want to go through it that way again. Modern midwifery was the only way for her. Now, just in time, I got her to the modern midwife and she has had a healthy baby girl. I will pick her up in Arsim on the way home and take her back to Ngurunit. We will have a new addition at our family Christmas celebration this year.
My other purpose of the trip yesterday, stopping at Seren, was also successful. The community was waiting for me, which made me happy. I am never sure if messages sent get to their destination. We had to meet about the US Embassy funded water project for which I had signed the contract but the community representative was still to sign. We also needed to finalize the Community Water Committee in charge of the project and start plans moving ahead. It all went very well and I will be mailing the original contract to the US Embassy on Monday. That means that another water project for the dry lands of the North can get underway. Yeah!!! I was sometimes almost despairing if this project would ever be successful on getting funding. But now it is done. And now we need to start the implementation phase, which is another challenge in itself. We have a year to complete it, so I am sure it will be successful. Though the community and I have plans to only take 6 months at most. That is how long the other two water projects I did last year took. One step at a time and it will be completed.
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