Today, Basili (one of the catechists) and I went to two nearby communities named Mabati and Raraity. They are located 20 and 30 minutes away from Barsaloi by motorcycle.
In Mabati, we went to the primary school. The children were still in class so we had the chance to go to the village. On the way to the village we found a woman who was gathering water from an underground rainwater collection well. Last night it rained, which is a blessing in the area, so for this reason there is water at the well. As you can see in the picture, she has 7 water containers with her. That means she is getting water not just for herself, but also for her neighbors. Women are the ones who carry the water… they put it on their back and carry it (See the picture). But they can only carry one container at a time so doing this takes time and effort!! Barsaloi doesn’t have sewage or plumbing. There are just 2 water tanks. One is public and the other is owned by the Yarumal Missionaries. But these just serve Barsaloi and since Mabati is far the people of Mabati have to carry water from this well.
After visiting the village, we went to the school. The kids were already waiting for us. We went to a small room where there were around 10 girls and 30 boys between the ages of 7 and 12. The catechist prayed in Samburu (of course) and he introduced me. I said hello and introduced myself in Samburu “Eserian (Hi) Kaaji nkara Claudia (I’m Claudia)” I had Basili translate my speech about human rights to the children. My purpose is to motivate them to be leaders and advocates for human rights and to remind them that they are the perfect creation of God. After that they sang a song and raised their arms to send me blessings. It was a very emotional moment for me.
After Mabati, we went to Raraity. The meeting was under a tree (good for me to protect me for the sun). There were 8 women: One was really young (in my opinion around 18) with a boy around 2 years old. The Samburu don’t count the time so they don’t know (and they don’t care) how old they are. Another woman looks old because of the wrinkles on her face. The remaining 6 women were between 30 and 50 years old. As usual with these meetings, there were also a lot of children, probably around 15 of them. This meeting was a little different than my meetings with other communities because there were two men there. They were between 40 to 50 years old. The catechist talked about being grateful all the time (he told me that). I talked about self-esteem. Basili gave them chewing gum, which they really love. After this, we left.
In the afternoon I went to have my 1-hour workshop with the female high school students. Today there were 8 students. Our topic today was leadership. At the beginning they were shy, but little but little they began trusting me and speaking more. At the end of the workshop I had a short meditation with a lavender essence. I think the girls really enjoyed this. After the workshop 5 of them were very kind and offered to walk with me to the mission’s house (first time I ever walked with them. This was a really good opportunity to talk about their dreams. All of them want to keep studying. 2 girls want to be teachers, one wants to become an accountant, another one wants to become a tour guide and 1 wants to be a policewoman. They told me that they are looking for sponsors to keep studying. Does anyone want to help? Leave me a comment to let me know and I will contact you.
I have already been in Barsaloi for ONE WEEK!