Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Crossing

This is the only adventure that I have felt that I could blog about that was exciting enough to talk about.  Not that I have had a boring past four months.  It is just that everything that I have participated in has been what takes place on a daily basis here.  Or, is something that someone else has blogged about already.

The other day, Daniel took two of the young men that have just joined TI (Mark and Derrick), and me out on a tour of Shimo La Tewa, the slum area in Kitale that is just about in our backyard.  While we didn't enter the heart of Shimo, we crossed the bridge that leads you to that heart.  There is a river that runs under the bridge.  From that river, people gather the water they need for drinking, they will gather water to do laundry, or bathe.  As we prepared to cross back over the bridge to follow the roads out of Shimo, we were discussing different ways that people could access the water without having to go down the ravine to fetch it.  There was talk of a pulley system, or of a windmill that could gather the water to bring it to the bridge level.

As we turned to make our way across, we heard the approaching of chanting from a circumcision party.  The four of us turned to look, and saw that the party was going to be crossing the same bridge as we were. Daniel promptly told us that we had to get across.  While we didn't run, we carried ourselves as fast as we could back to the safety of the other side.  No one looked back and a sense of panic overtook us.  The sound of what seemed like one hundred men chanting was overwhelming.

As we crossed the bridge, I started to feel dizzy.  I wanted to get across as quickly as possible.  I kept thinking, "Just get across the bridge.  Just get across the bridge."  Daniel turned to me and said, "Good thing there are no women with us!"  We could hear the group closing in on us.  Once we got to the other side, we pulled off to one side to let the group pass.

Much to our suprise, the group consisted of about twenty to thirty teen-aged kids and a few people in their early twenties.  Straggling along behind the group were two elderly ladies, who were very much intoxicated on the local brew.  As they passed us, they said in Swahili, "We are going to cut someone so that we can be healed!"  Daniel quickly assessed that there was a demonic attachment to the parade and the whole tribal tradition of circumcision.  Even Mark and Derrick said that they were experiencing something weird and demonic.

This was an eye-opening experience for me.  It is one that I am able to laugh about.  We have had discussions about the dark side of these circumcision parties.  I have seen the parades in town, and have had other parties pass me on the street.  This was the first one that had affected me in anyway.  Some of you might be wondering what my next course of action will be with this group of circumcisers (for lack of a better term).  I won't be doing anything with them.  I will be part of the process that teaches the children that we interact with on a personal level that some tribal traditions are good, and others can be met through other means.  This is a country that claims to be eighty percent Christian.  It is not up to me to interfere with traditions on a large scale.  Especially, when there are many traditions in the North American culture that are probably just as bad.

There are many activities and rituals that we participate in, and many of them are just as detrimental to our spiritual, and physical well being as what the people of Kenya participate in.  We might think about how archaic the practices and traditions of Kenya are, or other parts of Africa for that matter.  However, are we really any different?  Are the gods that we appease any less primitive?  Are our practices and traditions any less archaic?

It will be something for me to ponder as I return to Canada this week and face the rush of Christmas and New Year's Eve.

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