When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a MAN, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11
I remember in High School the men’s sports clubs, particularly basketball or CHS letter club would have an initiation “session” with the elder classman. Usually this initiation involved drinking a weird mixture of eggs and other junk, maybe jumping into a whirlpool full of icecubes with just their underclothes on and being forced to stay in there for 30 minutes or more. Maybe one of my old classmates can help me remember what they had to do in good ole Cimarron High, but being a girl, we didn’t have to experience initiation. I seem to have gotten old and cannot remember all the memories of my youth. Man it stinks getting old.
I also remember a particular initiation ceremony I partook of which was held at the TKE fraternity very close the women’s dorm called Ford Hall. I remember at that initiation the goal was to get the little sisters of the fraternity um lets just say very happy in the alcohol spirit sense. I remember eating a tequila worm that night and it just about “to killed me” with too much tequila. Oh my, those are NOT the days I want to remember so well. Yikes.
My memory also recalls that now in America almost ALL initiation ceremonies of any kind in the High School and/or College levels are strictly against the law and punishable by the court system, even up to imprisonment. If those responsible for initiation parties and or practices are found that they are putting others at risk by making them do things that are considered dangerous to their health by consuming intoxicating substances and or ritualistic practices, those parties can spend time in jail. This would ruin their potential career while still in college, if over the age of 18 years old.
During my stay in Nakuru, I have learned that certain tribes also have initiation ceremonies where young boys gain their right of passage into manhood by completing a certain initiation process. This tribe called the Kalenjin tribe initiates their young men by circumcising their young men at age 12 years old. Then during the healing process there are certain things they are taught by men leaders and teachers of the tribe.
Mind you there are 42 tribes in Kenya. Talk about having racial issues. I am not sure how many classes of people there are in the Indian culture, but can you imagine 42 tribes in a state the size of Texas all fighting, judging each other, and having their own mother tongue language….YIKES…Then the racism due facts they cannot do business with certain tribes and they can’t sell to certain tribes. Then they are expected to NEVER intermarry and if they do they are considered outcasts among their own tribal people. If the husband of a mixed tribal marriage dies, which is the case of my house mom and the Pastor I am living with at this time, the wife must go live with the husband’s tribe and not even her own mother if she cannot provide for herself. You know I think there was a great woman in the bible named Ruth who chose to do the same thing. But these women do not get to choose, they must go live with the husbands tribe.
One thing I MUST tell you about this Kalenjin tribe, which is really sickening and sad is that they are one of the tribes in Northeastern Africa that still practice the FGM/FGC of little girls ages ranging from 8 to 10yrs old. This is a practice where they circumcise little girls and then sew them back up to prevent them from losing their virginity before marriage. They only leave a small hole for urine to escape, and during the process of “sewing” there private part back up they sometimes use thorns to hold it together till it forms a massive scar. Many girls die from the process, or they have life long infections, or they cannot conceive. It is a horrible practice straight from the pit of hell. Then when the parents present the girl in marriage there is proof she has never been with another man, she has the scar. Also in this mutilation of the female private parts all pieces that give the female pleasure in relations with her husband are removed, because that tribe does not want the wife to enjoy her husband. In this manner he has the right to have many wives and the men practice polygamy and have many children.
Two weeks after I arrived, the local news announced that there had been a rescue of 100 girls from this AWEFUL tribal tradition. GO GOD!!!!!!
Pastor Jotham is of Loyha tribe. Many of the Pastors and church members I work with have chosen to intermarry with tribes they went evangelizing with over a 3 year period to find their wives. My house mom was of the Kalenjin tribe. I hated the Kanenjins until I found out this fact, and I was confused because she is so quite and reserved and oh the love of JESUS just resonates off every fiber of her being. How God, HOW can SHE be a Kalenjin, and oh Lord PLEASE tell me she isn’t cut. Lord I just don’t know how I could handle it if she shares her memories with me. Well when I finally asked her about it. I was informed that her mother was a Christian and she was saved from this horrible “tradition” of keeping their child pure before marriage only by the fact that her father died when she was 3 yrs old. Her half sisters are all cut. PRAISE GOD! Her father had many wives, and she has many siblings whom she isn’t all that close to or talks about. When I first arrived, Jael my house mom took me for a walk out by the cliff, my special spot. Then she took me through the bush, out to the area where maybe some of you remember I posted a couple of pastors almost got cut by a couple of tribal men with machetes before the baptism at the river. Anyway she told me that I could sit at the top of the cliff alone, but never go down through the cliffs and NEVER to the bush. She said it was “OK” with her with me but NEVER alone.
Oh how I love to go out by the cliff where I spend many of my mornings in quite time with the Lord as I watch the African rhythm begin its day. See there is this strange musical like rhythm about everything in Africa, from the crazy way people walk, ride their bikes, the picky pickies (aka motorcycle taxi’s), or the public transport buses (14 passengers), to the cattle, sheep drives in traffic as they move from water to grazing pasture land, or even the sounds of the animals. At all hours of the day and night there is a specific sound and rhythm that seems to beautifully flow and just gives you this amazing drive to carry on. You can actually feel it in your chest. I don’t know if true African’s or Kenyans can feel the rhythm of Africa, but I see it, feel it, and sense it in EVERYTHING, everywhere. In all the major cities I have been in all over America, London, and Paris, I have never experienced anything like this perfectly timed movement of people, mechanical objects and animals.
Oops Rabbit, lol if any of you have seen that movie “UP” you know what I mean. Sorry I got sidetracked I hope you can follow my writings as they hopefully are written exactly how I talk. Lol….
Anyway as my house mom and I were out on our walk, she pointed to the bush. Then it was explained to me that area is where her tribe has a ceremony for young boys to become men. Then she explained the process to me. At first I shared with someone on Skype how I thought that was kind of cool as they had to go through something really painful and then they were taught the traditions of their tribe.
Later the Bishop’s sister in law, Mwatime (I call her Muah for short), explained the truth to me as we were sitting in the grass waiting for pastors to find the perfect spot for 6 souls to become baptized. Those boys are put in animal skin from head to toe, the only opening they have on the animal hide is for their eyes. If they get an infection from the circumcision they are taught which weeds will take it away, and if it is painful, tough you must learn to fight in pain. You are not fed any food or drink, you must hunt or eat wild greens, bushes or berries to survive. You drink out of the river that all the animals drink out of and if you get sick, tough it out.
They do many dances at night and the parents/family members can go watch them dance. You cannot tell which son is your son, because the mother puts one small mark the size of the circumference of your small finger somewhere on the skin to identify her child after 30 days. That is if the young man chooses to allow his mother to see him after the final dance. Many of the young men never return to the parent’s home. The men of the tribe train the 12 year old boys how to steal, lie, fight, use weapons and basically become thugs. They are taught to beat women, cheat on their wives, and have many wives. They are told to from now on you treat your own mother and grandmother as if she were dirt.
When the pastors were chased away with machetes, I was probably 20 or 30 yards away as they jumped in the river to escape the men, they were having the 30 day ritual. I didn’t see the scuffle but I did hear it as there are many types of tall grass in that area. The men did not want us to see the boys without their skins on, nor did they want us to use the river that close to the boys as they might see and hear what we were doing down at the river.
Oh Lord Touch that tribe…
LOL.. WELL GOD ALREADY DID EXACTLY THAT….regardless of my pleas to HIM, He already had the wheels in motion. He is just too cool!
Two weeks after the exciting baptism I was invited with many other pastors, the Bishops wife Fridah, my house family and a few other church members to another initiation of boys to men in the Kalenjin tribe, across the river. I was kind of leery about going, then I found out this was a party to celebrate the Christian version of Kalenjin initiation of boys to men. I could not wait to see the twist on this tribal tradition.
These 12 year old boys are circumsized by a doctor, not a tribal leader with a unsanitary knife, in a church and attended to by a nurse in case of infection. If they have infection they are treated with 21st century medications. They camp out for 30 days at the church and learn to dance a WAY COOL DANCE. I really wish I had trained the pastor who loves to let me just sit and enjoy the ceremonies while he takes all the pictures, how to use the video of this dance. Then the boys memorize many scriptures at the church and recite in perfect unison back to the family and crowd. They give small testimonies and tell their favorite verse. There is a huge feast, every celebration there is a ton of food, I am NOT losing the amount of weight I was hoping to by now, but you have to understand how much they love food, and feeding pastors and missionaries. Oh my. ….
After the feast the boys and family are hugely recognized. Let me tell you something about Kenyans, whenever there is a microphone around you can guarantee that every member of the family will be recognized and they will talk. Everyone loves the mic… lol. Anyway there was about 8 women with me and the Bishops wife and we had to leave a tiny bit early because there was a marital problem way out in the Kalenjin mud housing area where the husbands family were trying to get rid of chase away the wife and children because she was not a Kalenjin. We all rushed there to consol, counsel and pray with her. She was of the Louyha tribe, I think they are cousins of Obamas Loua tribe. Regardless we did not get to see the ending of the boys to men celebration and witness the non Christian men and boys waiting outside the plot compound to fight the men and the boys of the Christian family because they broke tradition of the tribe and did not send their boys to the bush to become ‘real’ men.
But you, LORD Almighty, who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, Jeremiah 11:20
So you know through all of this I have learned not to judge a certain group of people, just from the tribe or culture they have been raised in. Shamefully, once again I was a little mad at God for a while for letting certain practices occur here to his children, the youth of the Kenyan people. Especially when I thought of the special relationships that mothers have with their sons then once again I have to realize Romans 8:28
Once again I am reminded how GOD is in control, and I am not.
Moral of this story, everyone including me may not recall Corinthians 13:13? But I need to remember this verse in Corinthians a little more, you might recall it because is recited at almost every Christian wedding.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Oh in 10 days I get to attend a Kalenjin wedding. The bride and groom are Christians the family members are not. They attend the church at Salgaa where I gave my first sermon. This wedding should be interesting, although I do have many pictures of the pre-pre-wedding practice. Where maybe 30 family members got to use the microphone and it was very ceremonial and actually kind of cool, but that is a story for another time.
Maybe a story of two weddings….with movies I am working on. Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment