Total Eclipse of the Sun

It was only 8 am, but the light was fading, as if it were hazy outside. And the air looked thick, although don't ask me to describe that any further. I noticed that there weren't clouds, but didn't consider it really until I heard all the kids running out of their classroom next door. I walked outside and everyone was staring at the sun... What in the world?! You're going to shoot your eye out kid! Someone had finally put two and two together to realize that there was a solar eclipse going on!

We looked such a thing up in the kids physics book, and it turns out that a solar eclipse is quite rare and is often only seen around the equator, where we were currently standing. It occurs when the moon moves across the sun; essentially when the moon comes between the sun and the earth, casting a shadow on earth, and therefore blocking out a significant portion of the light that actually reaches earth particularly at the point where the moon is directly between the sun and earth (which happens to be right around Kenya latitude). If I said anything beyond this, I would probably be wrong, so check out this diagram and Wikipedia it if you're still curious. I'll just continue talking about my "feelings" on the eclipse.



So all the students are standing outside, and someone realizes that my sunglasses aren't helping them stare at the sun any longer, so they pull out their science class "pin point cameras." These little cardboard and wax paper boxes were actually really useful, and we were able to discern the tiny round disc of the sun turning into a crescent as the moon moved across its face. And even better than this was the red dust pan one of the teachers pulled out! If we held the plastic up to the sky just so, we were able to get a fingernail sized image of the sun with the moon's interference clearly visible. I really felt like I was witnessing the greatest astronomical event in history!

And so did the Rendille, evidently. One of the kids said that Jesus was coming back. One of our Abayas said that everyone out in the remote villages were praying for God to give the sun back, and pulling their cattle in from the "fora" just in case the apocalypse happened. I understand to a certain level... It was creepy if you didn't know what was going on. Like I said, the light changed. Even the light coming through the branches of the acacia trees cast thousands of eclipse-shaped shadows across our porch. It simply was not the correct sun or the correct light for that time of day.

But we pulled through safely, and are now planning a trip out to the goobs tomorrow to watch a Rendille New Year ceremony. I don't know if this annual ceremony is in fact coordinated with the occurrence of solar eclipses, but it is certainly fitting!