Sunday, July 30.
Wow. What a day. Today was definitely the highlight of my stay here in Kiluani. We just finished eating the goat we slaughtered, and I'm quite full.
Sunday school started at 9am. There were about 180 kids. I went up to the front and introduced myself, and all the kids sang a song for me. I didn't understand a word the sang, and I don't know if it was kiswahili or kimasai (Masai language), but I still enjoyed it. For the second half of Sunday school, we divided into small groups. I went to Pastor Stephen's group. There were about 6 girls at ages of around 12. I got to share with them about 1 Corinthians 10:31, and encouraged them to live for God's glory. Afterwards we had main service, but most of the kids left after Sunday school. There were only about 50 to 60 church members. They used to have all the students from the secondary school come to the church, but ever since the new principle took over, many of the students go to their own church they made at school. Apparently they don't even have a legitimate pastor, but basically they play loud music and dance around for service. During service, I fell asleep a few times briefly, but I was surprised to see some people deliberately sleeping (with their heads buried in their arms). During sermon, the pastor actually said please don't sleep during sermons, but some people still slept. After he said that I didn't fall asleep at all.
In the afternoon, I went up the mountain for some hiking with some of the guys. Originally we were going to bring ht goat up the mountain, slaughter it, and eat it there. But we started out too late, so we just walked up. I got to see the entire Kiluani (although it's mostly bushes). At one point I heard some bird noises down a hill. Nyingei told me they are guinea fowls. They are basically wild chicken. You can setup traps for it, catch it, and eat it. Unfortunately I didn't have time for that this time. I've been to tougher hikes (trekking across some mountains in Japan, Half Dome in Yosemite, and Mt. Fuji), but hiking in Kenya isn't just about the hike. It involves dodging thorns everywhere you go. There are small bushes with thorns, trees with thorns, tiny plants with thorns, and seeds with thorns scattered all over the ground. If you're not careful, you'll get little thorns all over your pants and socks and inside your shoes. I guess it should remind people of Genesis 3 when the ground was cursed and thorns came up of the ground. More importantly, it should remind us of what Jesus went through for us while wearing a crown made of thorns.
We came back down after a couple hours. I bought a goat for Ksh2000 ($27.97) from the secondary school, and we slaughtered it. Some how people manage to find out that we're slaughtering a goat tonight. So although we started with 7 or 8 people and were wondering if we could finish all the meat tonight, by the end we fed about 17 people. At least a third of them I've never seen, but I didn't care. I had enough to eat, and we only ate the meat. We still have the internal organs. Apparently Masai people eat the organs raw, and the kidney is the best part. As soon as they cut off the kidneys they were gone. I wonder what they taste like. It's basically filled with goat urine... Maybe it's salty because of that, and so they like it so much. We're saving the organs for tomorrow. They have to wash it and then make a soup or something. I ate so much goat meat today... My fart even smells like goat. Or maybe goats just smell like a fart.
Tomorrow, Rev. Kim is supposedly dropping by here on his way to Tanzania. If he's going back to Nairobi on Tuesday, I could probably get picked up then and be dropped off at Lenkijape. Otherwise I'll have to go to Lenkijape tomorrow. Or maybe I'll go to Tanzania with him. I don't know. I guess I'll find out.
I've had such a wonderful time in Kiluani. People are so friendly here. I've been really fun hanging out with the three guys who work in the clinic: Lemomo, Henry Nyingei, and Gideon Leshushu. They are the only ones close to my age here (23, 23, and 20, respectively). The secondary school kids seem a bit shy. They like to just gather and stand around me, but most of them don't say much if not nothing at all. Some of them are talkative and friendly though. The kids in the primary schools are more friendly and talkative, although they can't speak all that well.
Speaking of English, there's not a single person who can speak English properly here in Kiluani. I'm sure some of the nuances are British English, but most of the time I have to listen very carefully and try to figure out what they actually mean. Even PuiMeng, who is from Singapore, can't speak English all that well (she tends to put "la" at the end of many sentences). It's strange because English and Kisuwahili are the official languages of Kenya, but most Masai people don't even know what the national languages are. People who can speak English tend to say "Fannneee" (or "funny") when they mean "strange" or "weird." I remember Rev. Kim says that too. I think that's kind of fannneee.
Alright, they've turned off all the power, and I'm seeing bugs on the screen every minute. So many bugs are flying into my face too. I think a small one just flew into my right ear... jk. Geez, there are so many spiders in this room too. Why aren't they doing their job eating off the annoying bugs? Maybe they need to make better webs... Ugh.
Since I'm going to Lenkijape, I'll have to write my journals on a paper under a candle light from now on. Goodbye world.
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