After the camel exercise, I had to prepare for a basket weavers association meeting. The women arrived about 10:00 am and the meeting went until after 2:00. The talking part of the meeting wasn’t so long, but the payment session can get rather drawn out. This time, I had money for about 70 of the over 200 members. I had taken the time before to sort out small groups of women to give money to in bunches with a paper detailing each persons specific amount. This has to be done before of the problem of having enough change. When I can, I try to bring as much small denominations possible from the bank in Maralal, but they never have enough 5, 10 and 20 shilling coins. This brings difficulties because of the illiteracy of the women. Most of them can’t read and many of them have problems in sorting out money counting problems. So I have to be patient, especially when there it a large number of women who sold baskets, like today, and carefully explain to them who gets what and help them by sorting them into the payment groups. Very time consuming. But worth it to see the happiness of the women who received money. During this time of the dry season money is essential for people to buy food as the livestock aren’t producing milk and people have to work hard to find pasture for their animals to keep them alive until the rains. The long rains were not enough this last rainy season so times are very tough. Many people are starting to get thin from too much hard labor digging out a special root for the goats and cows and too little food for themselves. I wish I could have sold at least one basket for every woman in the group. Every little bit helps so much.

After the basket meeting, I had to do the monthly accounting with the Salato economic groups. They had the same motivation of the hard times of the dry season to get their pay as soon as possible. And as any meeting day, I had the extras who have no means of income at all and no, or very little, livestock, coming to ask for assistance. After finishing all this, I tried to take a bit of a nap but no luck with that. My mother-in-law was by with the same story of difficulty with the dry season and having too much credit at the shop. Could I please help with a bit of a loan until I sold her baskets? Then the kids arrived and wanted a movie so we watched Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Beautiful animated movie. I love it. Though my daughter finds parts of it overwhelming in terms of being too sad or too scary so I have to watch those parts with her or she starts to cry. She started to cry anyway when the horses were being swept away by the fast river and the ‘girl horse’ was dying and the ‘boy horse’ got captured again. The deep emotions of a five year old. Even I had tears coming into my eyes.

In the evening I was sitting outside when my brother-in-law came back from taking our camels to graze. One of the camels that had come from Maralal aborted her calf during the day. He said it was very small. Only about 3 months along. The camel hadn’t been very healthy. I had given her an extra antibiotic in the morning. It is okay she lost the calf. It will help her to get strong and adapted to the climate here before conceiving again. I will inject some antibiotic in her tomorrow and the next day and then she should recover well. I hadn’t been very sure she was pregnant. The one I was sure about it the one we had to leave behind because of not being able to drive her anywhere. Camels are usually easy to tell when they are pregnant because from just 2 or 3 weeks after conception, they tend to wave their tail in the air anytime anyone come near them. But this one that aborted today didn’t do that. Which shows me it wasn’t very well established anyway. Better to lose it in the early months than close to term after waiting 10 or 11 months and then having to start all over again waiting for 12 full months which is the gestation time of a camel.

My brother-in-law, Polisan’s father, also informed me that it was Sorio today. This is a Rendille ceremony with the camels. It involves various rituals and the slaughter of a goat. The blood is then spread on the camels. Very much the idea of a Passover festival. It is done to help prevent ill health to enter into the homestead and hurt the valuable livestock. Each brother in a family who has their own home traditionally does the Sorio with their oldest sons playing the biggest role. Even though Reuben isn’t here, Loiweti wanted to do it for our home. So I went over to my mother-in-law’s to ask her about it and she thought it was a great idea that we do it. She said Polisan’s father and our neighbor could help with the goat. She then gave me some special leaves to put on my house and some special aromatic wood to burn on the fire of my stove. Later, after doing their own Sorio ceremonies, Polisan’s father and two of my other brother-in-laws and the neighbor brought a goat from my herd and did the ceremony with Loiweti and Polisan, along with Polisan’s brothers. It was fun watching all the little things they did. They asked for some milk to pour on the house in blessing and then poured some on the goat. Then all the boys took their staffs and held them over the goat saying “Sorio, sorio, sorio”. After that they slaughtered the goat and caught the blood in a bowl. They then had to pour some more milk over the knife. After that the boys and men took turns drinking the blood. Loiweti and Polisan love doing that. Loiweti is a true Samburu. The rest was the normal procedure of preparing a dead goat into the different usable and edible parts. In Samburu/Rendille culture, each animal’s parts are earmarked for a different group within the society. I had to make sure I divided up the different parts to the right people so I didn’t offend anyone. One brother-in-law got a hind leg. My mother-in-law needed the neck, intestines, stomach and skin. I kept the sternum for the boys and the back for the girls. The head went to one of the elder brother-in-laws and a front leg to the other. I gave the heart and a bit of rib to the neighbor who helped slaughter. And then I had to roast the kidney’s and spleen for the children. I got to keep a couple legs, some ribs and the liver for myself to cook for the family meals.

Finally, after all this was accomplished, everyone drifted off to their separate homes and the kids, after eating so much meat, started to get sleepy. Loiweti, Polisan and their friend Ntilaiyon asked to sleep in the guesthouse as a special treat. I told them they could as a special Sorio Party. I took them down and put them to bed and now I am back getting ready for a bath. It is even later than it was before and the water has gotten hot and probably cold again while I have had this very long contemplation of the day. Very full. Very satisfying. It is time for my bath now and then I know I will sleep deeply for all the activity and exercise I had today. Good night.

August 12, 2005