Claudia’s Blog

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!

Today we were cleaning El Encanto, the priest’s guest house. The 3 ladies who help in the house are Antonella, Pinina and Mery. Because of their context, they are not accustomed to cleaning “Colombian style”… that is very well! Antonella got mad at me because I told her she had to be more thorough. But well, Father Memo supported me and we did a great job !!

After lunch we went to Baragoi to pick up Father German, the superior general of the Missionaries of Yarumal. On the way we saw Dromedaries, a kind of camel but with a single hump (photo). This small village is poor, like everything around here, but there are some stores where we bough potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, bananas for fried plantains, and some brushes to clean the house, I wanted vegetables but on the farm (I’ll tell you about this project) there grow chard (which they call spinach) and some green leaves that I forget the name. I miss all my vegetables 🙁

Returning to the town of Baragoi. In this town, two rival tribes live: the Samburu and the Turkana. Each lives on opposite sides of town. Father Memo told me that there are sometimes clashes in the middle of the town, and from time to time a member of the tribe is killed.  What happens is that it is a tradition to “steal” cattle from the other tribe… it gives the tribe prestige, but for some time now the warriors have exchanged their spears for weapons. This is a problem because now this tradition means there are more dead. Unfortunately I could not take photos (Father Memo said that it is better not to avoid problems).

Today, Father Memo was in a meeting with the warriors. The purpose is to reduce the deaths from “stealing” cattle. Women cannot attend this type of meeting. He did a very interesting exercise with them: He asked them how they imagined themselves 15 years? And some of the answers were: Having 10 dromedaries (remember that cattle gives prestige). Another said having two wives and more than 7 children, but some replied that studying and living in the capital or larger cities, others said than doing business, selling goats or cows. This is a very big change of this generation and is taking place little by little from a generation ago.

I am happy!! Father German brought some fruit from Tum, another nearby mission. They say (I have not gone yet) that it is a very fertile land. He brought lemons, soursop (I love soursop) and guavas !! What a treat! Father Memo says that we are being very blessed because the mission has an abundance of fruits, how lucky am I!

Today was a very interesting day. I had my meeting with the head priest of the congregation in Barsaloi. Father Guillermo (Memo) and the two seminarists Jorge and Steve (both Colombians). The objective of the meeting was the presentation of my Project called EMPOWERING THE SAMBURU WOMAN. At the beginning, Father Memo corrected some parts of the context, like that now it is more common for women go to school and that not all women are forced to marry and some ask to be married because in the Samburu tradition having family and children is very important for both men and women. This is true, although I disagreed that they themselves ask to marry because they wantto be married, because since they don’t have an education there really is nothing else for them to do. Father Memo also said that some women want their husbands to hit them because it is a way to show that they have command over the woman (wow I really have a hard time believing that, but I don’t know). The other clarification that he made is that now the Samburus are less polygamic: most men have gone from having 3 or more wives to only two of them (wow that good!) because now they are more conscious about how many women they can support. Little by little, love marriages are being respected. In this Samburu tradition, parents are the ones that look for a husband for their daughters, who in most cases are young women without education. The man must pay a dowry for her (usually goats) and the marriage is celebrated by sacrificing a bull. If the man does not have money, he must earn some before he can marry.

After all the clarifications of the context I presented the topics to be discussed in my workshops, among them leadership, violence and 5 other topics of importance. Father Memo liked my project very much and assigned me different groups to work with, from school girls to adult women. I will also be working on some financial concepts for a productive project that the women of the community have. What a joy!! I see how my purpose of empowering women is being carried out!!

After all this I was with a beautiful baby, a young girl called Satila. Women carry their babies on their backs all the time, but Satila’s mom let me carry her for a short time. How cute right? The language here is Samburu and those who go to school speak English. Satila’s mother speaks English so I was able to ask her to let me carry her. In Kenya, whites call us musungos and some children are scared of white people. In one of the Mayatas I went to, a 2-year-old girl was so scared that she did not stop crying until I left. But most of them take you by the hand and want to be with you all the time.

The Samburu tribe occupies extensive arid lands in the north of Kenya. They are related to the Maasai tribes of southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are a seminomadic tribe and their primary economic activity revolves around the growth and sale of cattle, sheep and goats. Samburu society is gerontocratic, meaning that the tribe’s power lies in the elderly, and they are the ones that arrange marriages, mediate conflict and take all important decisions that affect the community.

Samburu culture is strictly patriarchal. Every fifteen years, the tribe perform a mass circumcision of its male members between the ages of 8 and 25 years old. Five years after being circumcised, male members are allowed to marry. Cultural traditions force Samburu women to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) and Samburu women are married off to other members of the tribe starting at a very young age. The Samburu are a polygamic culture, and it is common that the young women married off to older men are usually that man’s second or third wife.

The Samburu woman is humble and strong. They are responsible for coordinating grazing (which is done by children chosen by the family), domestic work, construction of houses — nkaji or manyatta — and water collection, among others responsibilities. A majority of the women do not go to school, and education is usually reserved for men. However, not all of the children of a family go to school are only some are chosen to get an education, depending on the resources and desires of the family.

The Samburu culture is a culture where the opinion of women does not matter. A Samburu woman tends to have no say over her life or body, and she can be punished with physical violence for any reason. Additionally, the children belong to the man. In the event that the woman decides to leave the husband for abuse (and the laws are starting to support women who are abused) she loses rights over her children and they are left to the abusive husband. Because of the polygamic structure of most Samburu families, a patriarch shares a nkaji with all his wives, which often produces confrontation among the women of the house. This is a serious psycho-social problem.

This situation of the Samburu woman — genital mutilation, many responsibilities of pastoral and domestic work, denial of education and physical violence in some cases — is clearly an abuse of her human rights hidden behind traditions that are accepted by both the men and women of the tribe. This situation demands action by both the national government and the international community. At the local level, actions aimed at empowering women through education are incredibly important because it is only by educating women that they can begin to discern what is desirable and what is not desirable. For all these reasons, I decided to come to Kenya, where the Samburu tribe lives. I believe that in the 21st century we all have a duty to give our time and talents to contribute to the well-being of other human beings. By educating others on their rights, we can become a seed that brings about immense change.

Today we had mass, of course, it is Sunday! Thankfully it wasn’t as early as yesterday… today it was at 10 AM. Thank you God!

The mass here is a beautiful celebration. The music is very rhythmic and catchy. The women are very well dressed. Some of them wear traditional Samburu dresses. Some men were also wearing traditional shirts and something similar to a skirt, not too long just up to the knees. Others were simply wearing western clothes: shirts or blouses and pants. The population that attends mass is 60% children, 25% women and 15% men. 

For me, their mass is like a party. The people are dressed in their best outfits, they sing, dance and through this celebration they break the routine of the week.

Unfortunately I couldn’t understand anything because the mass was only in Samburu. What a shame that language divides us… The only problem (for me) was that mass was too long. It was almost 1 hour and 30 minutes, in the heat and with no AC….I have been missing the AC.