Rites of Passage

Most societies have rites of passage - formalized events that mark major transitions in life. Marriage is one, birth of the first child is another. One that is quite strong in African cultures is the coming of age ceremony for young men and women. Kathy and I had the privilege yesterday of participating in the conclusion of this rite of passage for Seth Mairori, the son of Stephen and Roselyne Mairori, our good friends and national leaders.
















The traditional rite takes about a month and involves the separation of the boys of a certain age group (around 13 years of age) from their families. The boys are taken out into the bush or forest by a selected group of older men. They stay out for about a month, learning from their mentors what it means to be a Sabaot man and warrior. At some point the young men are circumcised. When the period is complete the new young men are reintroduced to their community as men who can now begin taking on the responsibilities and privileges of adulthood. They are also expected to leave the things of childhood behind. Typically the new young man would begin living in his own dwelling on the family compound.

One of the challenges facing Christian parents is how to keep their children connected with their culture, while remaining true to biblical principles. Stephen and Roselynne determined that there were aspects of this coming of age rite that they wanted Seth to experience, but there were other aspects they wanted to avoid. They enlisted the help of others, including Dr. Emmanuel Chemengich, a fellow Sabaot, and the Principle of Africa Theological Seminary, who is writing a book on the subject of creating Christian Rites of Passage for African young people.

Seth and his cousin became the age group and were circumcised at the beginning of the period. Then they lived apart in a specially-built shed on the Mairori property for 30 days. During this period they had no contact with the women of their household and were mentored by Dr. Chemengich in what it means to be a Christian man in today's society. Yesterday was the final day of the rite and about 70 family members and guests gathered to celebrate the event.

At the end of the event, Seth was presented with a few new responsibilities - a sheep from his family and a cow from the guest speaker, General Sumbeiywo, a retired Kenya military officer turned peace maker for Kenya. I had the privilege of brining a greeting as an ICM representative. I observed that this is one more area where we in the West have an opportunity to learn from our African brothers and sisters. What rites of passage do we have for our own sons and daughters to help them learn what it means to be godly members of our society?

Christmas in Portugal

It has been a busy run-up to Christmas this year. Kathy and I decided that we would take the Christmas break and visit our friends and fellow finishers, Doug and Myra Gentry, in Lisbon where they are serving as missionaries. 17 hours after departing Nairobi we arrived in Lisbon and were conveyed by Doug and Myra to their home in Loures (pronounced Loo-resh), a community just outside Lisbon.

Yesterday we went for a drive to an old mountain community named Sintra. We walked up and down cobbled streets, explored curio shops and had a meal together in a local restaurant. We wanted to visit the local palace in town, but it is closed on Wednesdays. We had to settle for a picture of the four of us in front of the steps leading up to the entry. High on the hill above the city we could see the remains of a fort dating from Moorish days, and on other hills were the palaces of various Portuguese royalty from days past.

After we left Sintra we drove through the countryside, enjoying the trees and vegetation that reminded us so much of the central coast of California. Eventually we made our way to the coast and were treated to the sight of magnificent waves rolling in off the Atlantic and crashing against the rocky shoreline. As we drove south along the coast towards Lisbon, we visited the "Boca do Inferno", a bowl shaped crevice that had a water level access to the ocean. Waves would rushthrough the opening and explode on the interior rocks. The gate to the pathway to the lower levels was closed to the public due to the rough seas, but the action from the top was impressive.

We returned to the Gentry's apartment for a short rest and then enjoyed a dinner with their teammates, the Ekks, and another missionary couple at a local grill. After dinner we visited a local nativity scene which featured larger-than-life images. It was a mixture of humor and holiness as some of the figures were quite funny, while the center characters of Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus were striking.

After reflecting on the scene for a while we joined together to sing a carol before departing for a late evening desert and more good conversation at the Ekk's apartment. When we finally dropped into our bed after eleven we were exhausted, but fulfilled by our first day in Portugal.

Do Two Cows Make A Herd?

I wrote in August about our foray into the cow business as a ministry to the ICM staff at the Mt. Elgon Training Center. Since then, Juma's cow has birthed a calf, a bull, and has settled into her new life on his property in Kopsiro.

We've just purchased our second cow, a fine Asian-Guernsey mix, who is currently residing on the Africa Theological Seminary campus here in Kitale. The photo is of Chemway, as her new owners have named her, grazing on campus. If you look close you'll see that she looks thin. In terms of quality she is a very good cow, but her previous owner was trying to maintain a herd of four cows on a small plot of land. One of the points we're trying to make with this project that it is better to own one or two quality cows, who are healthy and fat and who give more milk, than to own many cows who give little.

Our partner for this cow is Jusus Kirui. Justus serves as the administrator of the METC as well as a teacher in the Certificate programs there. Justus has served at the center for many years. He is a quiet man, but is very astute and is quite the planner. We've had a number of long conversations this past two weeks, and I've come to appreciate the wisdom that God has given him. He has just completed the Diploma in Bible and Theology program and will be starting as one of our BA students in January. He is married to Suzy and is currently finishing their new house in Kopsiro

On Bowes' farm

I've always enjoyed having a vegetable garden. I can remember back to when, as a young boy, I tried to coax tomatoes to grow out of a patch of barren ground in our back yard. I don't recall having any success. After Kathy and I were married, we bought our first home and I enjoyed turning the adobe clay of our back yard into fertile soil by adding to it copious truck loads of compost from nearby horse ranches. Livermore, San Bernardino, Germany, England, Los Angeles and finally Bakersfield - all provided gardening experiences.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when we moved here to Kitale. I knew that our house had a big yard and there was an area for a 'shamba' (garden) on one side of the house. I also knew we'd be busy, and that it takes a lot of work to do a good job of raising vegetable. But, oh for the taste of fresh tomatoes from the garden again.

Enter our day man, Daniel, a farmer by trade. Daniel is supposed to take care of the yard, so having him set up a garden for me fit his experience and responsibilities.

The results so far are promising (if not downright intimidating). Daniel has increased the size of the shamba three-fold by converting attractive, but non-edible lawn into farm land. He set up bedding areas and then proceeded to plant ALL the seeds in the seed packets we purchased. In the accompanying pictures you see the garden as it is today.

The top picture is of our sukumawiki bed, into which Daniel has just transplanted young sukumawiki plants. Sukuma is either the Swahili name for kale, or a close cousin of it. The second picture is our potato patch. We're growing common reds. The third picture is one (one!) of our tomato fields. Each stake you see represents one tomato plant. The other field is larger. "What will you do with all the tomatoes," you ask. We reply, "We don't know!"

The final picture is of our chicken. We didn't plant chicken seeds, or find him on the road. We've begun working with another of our Mt. Elgon staff members to acquire a good milk cow (see a couple of posts down for details). His wife came to our campus today to attend a seminar for pastors' wives and brought us a box of vegetables and a live chicken.

So, if you're in the neighborhood, just stop by Bowes' Farms and we'll fix you up with whatever we're harvesting. But you'd better act fast if chicken is on your shopping list, because this kuku is soon for the soup pot!

Dealing with Pests

We have a lot of pests outside our house. We have bats and birds in the trees surrounding our property (lost our first carrot crop to birds). We have rats that have become more intrusive this past month (they got our worker's avocados which he'd stored in a bag that he hung from a rafter in the tool shed). And, we have ants - big, black African ants that are quite aggressive in building their nests in the lawn, the driveway, and at the foundation of our house.


We asked our day askari and gardener, Daniel (on the left), to do something about the ants (and the rats and the bats). He let us know that he'd need to have some equipment to do the job since he'd be handling some poison that is apparently fairly powerful stuff. He gave me a list and I acquired it. This is a shot of him suited up to do battle with the ants. The sprayer can also be used to apply fertilizer to the crops, so it'll do double duty.

We have a Cow in Africa...

One of the things that has been on my heart for some time is the loss that our Mt. Elgon Training Center staff endured due to the fighting on Mt. Elgon in 2007 and 2008. Chrispine Juma, Justus Kirui, Jonathan Aramis and Charles Chebok lost their homes, their crops and their animals. Some generous people have been helping them re-acquire land and homes. Earlier this year I had an idea about how we might help them with the loss of livestock.

I began developing the idea during my visit to Kenya in April, and after some discussion with Kathy and our cultural guide, Stephen Mairori, this is what I came up with: don't just give a cow, buy one and share ownership of it with the staff, gradually letting them earn our portion of the cow through profit sharing on the income from the cow.

We began with Chrispine Juma earlier this month. Kathy and I put up around $400 to purchase a good cow (good endurance for life on the mountain, good producer of milk). We made sure Bondet Kea, the Deputy Principal of the METC, was involved as he has good experience with cows. A bonus was that the cow we bought is pregnant and will deliver a calf later this month. We got the cow examined by a vet and given all the innoculations she needs for healthy living.

Chrispine then arranged to have the cow transported to Kopsiro, where she is temporarily residing and grazing while he finishes constructin of a shed for her on his proerty. He has planted Napier grass on a portion of his land to provide good food for the cow. On a recent trip to Mt. Elgon we visited "our" cow at the training center.

Chrispine has promised to give 10% of the profits from milk sales to Mt. Elgon Training Center, and Kathy and I will have our share of the profits from the cow and her offspring go to the METC as well. As we increase our herd(s), this should provide a reliable income stream for both the staff and the training center.

Next month we'll add another cow to our "herd" by working with Justus Kirui to accomplish the same objectives. We hope that by the end of the year we'll have five cows in place, hopefully with a few offspring.

We Went Grocery Shopping At Church Today

Last night Dorcus Chemingich telephoned us to let us know that there would be a special combined Thanksgiving service at St. Lukes Anglican Church this morning. So we altered our plans and arrived on time. Once in the service (which was about 90% in Swahili), we learned that it was a Thanksgiving service for the bean harvest which has just been completed. At the offering near the end of the service many of us gave cash, but there were quite a few people who brought the first fruits of their harvest. We saw beans, maize, eggs, potatoes, greens, a live chicken, a live goat and a live sheep. The animals aren't in this picture - they were kept outside.

Then it got interesting. One gentleman whom we've met before took over as a combination M.C. and auctioneer, and began taking bids on the produce from the congregation. Our friend and boss Emmanuel Chemingich explained that the church was converting the produce into cash which would be credited as donations for the people who contributed the produce. The MC/Auctioneer was really good and kept things moving along. In the picture he is moving a bag of potatoes. It was a lot of fun to watch, and eventually we got drawn in.


So, we got some quality produce at church today - in the picture you can see that we got some potatoes, some avocados, some bananas and some beans. We also got a small bag of eggs. It was quite an experience and once again took us back to what Thanksgiving services might have looked like one hundred years ago in small towns all across America.

Now all we have to do is figure out how to cook the beans!