It's My Birthday So I'll Dance if I Want To

January 30th in Korr, Kenya.

I woke up around 6:00 AM, which is sleeping in for me. It's not easy to keep dosing when sunlight is streaming through the windows and the morning winds blow our mosquito nets halfway out the room. I lounged around for a while, trying to think how to sum up my year of 22. I came up with "moving forwards" and "learning to trust God" as the general themes of my personal life in 2009, and what a lot of life it was, packed into that year. I graduated from college, started supporting myself (more or less...), fell in and out of love, had fights and made up, sent two of my best friends off to be married, got my first real teaching job, reconnected with old friends, and then moved to Africa.


But it being the first day I am 23, I couldn't be more excited to get this year started! Alicia says it's a good year, and if the first day is anything like the rest of it, I'm inclined to believe her.

We always have remedial classes on Saturday mornings, so I headed over to help the kids work on their poetry symbolism projects. A few weeks ago, I had all the students break into groups to write a poem welcoming the Form 1 students and/or providing their thoughts and emotions about Tirrim Secondary School. The results were truly AMAZING! There was some stunning imagery, classic rhymes, even an acronym. Portions of these poems include:



You are welcomed our Form 1 students
You're blessed to be in T.S.S.
It's great to have you here
It's our part to welcome you, and it's your pleasure to feel at home [...]

and...

Education is like a fruit, Hanging and dangling on a tree; Tirrim
Situated in a desert, Along a traveler's path
I am a traveler, Walking through the desert
Hungry and thirsty, Longing for the fruit
The tree is tall, I need a ladder
The ladder is education, Teachers are my steps
Striving and trying to reach the fruit
For education in Tirrim is like a fruit [...]

and...

T - Thinking twice before doing anything
I - Illustrious professionals will be found here
R- Redeeming feature in our community
R - Refinery of brains and hearts
I - Incomparable to other schools
M - Melodious education is found in it [...]

and...

If God is there and people care,
It is really a school [...]

These are just samples, and see how fabulous they are! And not only for the use of some pretty good words for ESL students, but in the heart behind the words. School is an "oasis in the desert" for these kids; it quite nearly saves their lives, and that's not an attitude that is often found in American students. What and encouragement to know that there are kids out there who think of their teachers as steps on the ladder to the Tree of Education.




All of us roommates and the Swanepoels celebrated with a wonderful lunch prepared by Ruthie, topped of with a delicious spice cake with candles (which were consequently blown out by the desert winds, and not me.) Lunch was delicious in taste and company, and we sat around for a couple hours digesting before Abba Obele came around to help us slaughter my birthday sheep.

No, it's not Rendille tradition to kill a sheep on your birthday, but the day before we had mimed to him that we would like to purchase one because we had recently run out of Nairobi bought, pre-packaged, and over priced meat. Abba told us to get our things and come with him, so we grabbed our cameras (a very touristy thing to do) and took a short hike to his land. He and his son, actually one of my students, had already picked the beast out. I was more or less fine until I realized this sheep, that was currently living and breathing, allowing me to pet its little head, would be, in a matter of 20 minutes, quite dead. Like little suburban Westerners, we watched with pity and morbid interest as our students Joseph and Lebonyo held "Sheepy" down and cut his poor little neck.

"Mary had a little lamb... And then she ate it"

























(Above are photos of Abba Obele with his son and friend, Abba's wife/ our bucket of sheep meet/ and me mourning the death of our precious lamb.)


Then it was time to bake 70 chocolate cupcakes to bring to the students as treats during their monthly "Game Night." Game Night is a misnomer, though, as evidently Jamie and Alicia hav just been teaching the kids American dances like the "Cupid Shuffle" and a dance they learned at summer camp back in Texas. The kids LOVE dancing, so this definitely beats Monopoly lit by a dim florescent bulb. Everyone danced their hearts out, laughed, kicked up dust, and then even preformed a traditional Rendille dance in honor of my birthday! It was truly amazing to see my students bobbing their heads, clapping, and swaying in a far more amazing rhythm than even the Cupid Shuffle can produce.


The dance begins with 3 straight lines: 2 lines of boys, and 1 of the ladies, which I joined. The guys in the furthest right line start moving in an oval around the other two lines, while everyone claps and sings and bobs their heads and rolls their backs. This first line of guys does one lap of walking and bobbing, and then they start jumping. While they're jumping, the second line of guys turns to the girls, each guy grabs the hand of a girl, and the two face each other while holding hands and bobbing their heads at each other. The rhythm of the bobbing is coordinated in some way to the chanting, although I've yet to learn that bit. So then at this point the second line of guys does their loop around the crowd, while the first line of guys steps up for their turn to dance with the ladies. Finally the ladies get their turn to move around the room, all the while chanting and gracefully weaving their bodies in a movement completely foreign to me. The gentlemen will pat ladies on the head as they go by to either encourage them to keep going or compliment the girls on their dancing skills. I wont deny that I got a few pats. And the kids all had so much fun doing their own dancing; not that they don't like the Cupid Shuffle, but they find a greater joy singing and dancing in their mother's way.

The night ended with chocolate cupcakes all around, and some of our students walking us home, because evidently, "Madames, the lugga is VERY dangerous at night!" I happened to say to Abdulahi, when he mentioned I had nothing to fear because he was a warrior, "Well, where is your panga, Abdulahi?" His reply: "Madame, I don't need a panga" (and he holds up his bare hands.)

The best way to spend a birthday is with people who will slaughter a sheep for you, bake you a cake, dance you a dance, and protect you with their bare hands.