Evan Playing Soccer

As most of you know by now, Evan's school here in Kenya didn't work out very well.  First off, the credits wouldn't have transferred to Natchitoches Central.  Secondly, the school day goes until 5:00 PM, and I just couldn't see punishing him for having come to Kenya with me by making him go to school longer than he would have if he had just stayed home.  Also, the teachers were often not there at school when he went there, and that got to be kind of a pain for him.  And finally, once the rainy season started up, it would have been a long, muddy walk to a school that didn't count.  So, that's how that played out.

However, one thing that has worked out pretty well for him is soccer.  Before the rainy season began, Evan played soccer (football here, obviously) pretty much every day.  The guys here play a somewhat looser, kind of wilder brand of soccer than we do, and are VERY fast, as he will attest when you talk to him.  The soccer field is right next to our house, and this has meant that every afternoon when the sun is shining he has been able to play for an hour and a half or so.  The guys he plays with are at the college, or are the children of people working at the college.  They call him "Evans" because that is a name that is familiar here (Evan is not), and he has made some pretty good acquaintances here on the field.  The field itself needs mowing, but since I have only seen one mower on campus, I don't think they will get to it before he leaves.  Nevertheless, they play. And here are some pictures of him playing soccer.

Anyone who knows Evan has seen a lot of this type of pose.

Here he is spitting.  Ah, my little Kenyan!

He is out there somewhere.  He is the only mzungu.

Running after the ball.  This is usually a friendly game between engineering students and some other group.  It does get heated occasionally, though.

The Kenyans just have real jump speed.  When I started to take this picture Evan was in front of the guy, by the time the picture snapped, he was past him.

But Evan has held his own, scored a few goals, and really had a good time playing.

He is down there in the mix somewhere.  The guys seem nice, I say "seem" because they are all speaking swahili, so they could be saying most anything, and we would never know it.

Evan doing a throw in.  There are no lines, and no nets in the goal.  This is one step above the village soccer we have all seen in movies about Africa.  There is some grass, and they probably need to put cows on it one afternoon to give it a trim.  Of course, then there would be other problems with the field, I'm sure....

He has gotten a good work out most days, though the rainy season did set us back.  Still, I think this has been one of the highlights for Evan.

Nyama Choma at Highlands Inn, Eldoret

We had been to a nyama choma out in the country, at a waterfall, that was really fun.  When we returned and were telling people in the guest house about our experience, our friend Kaka was aghast.  "They served you sheep?" he asked incredulously.  "Sheep is for women..."  Later on we went to nyama choma (which means grilled meat) with Faith in Eldoret at Highlands Inn.  A few weeks ago we took the Swedes there.  They had not had nyama choma.  Living in town I think they had had other experiences than some of what we had.  Anyway, this past Saturday, May12, we returned to Highlands Inn with Faith, and also with Kaka and a friend of Faith's.  These are some pictures of that afternoon, to give you a sense of what a nyama choma is like.

Evan, Kaka, and Faith at Highlands Inn.

Evan looking pretty relaxed, tweeting...

Kaka, looking dapper.  He has basically been Evan's Kenyan dad.  A wonderful gentleman who has made our stay in Kenya much better than it would have been otherwise.

Faith pouring herself a drink, also looking quite decked out in her Kenyan garb.  I should have worn my Kenyan shirt.

And this is me, wearing my NSU shirt.  The day was nice and sunny, which we haven't had a lot of during the rainy season.

And here comes dinner.  That's the goat he is cutting up there.  The meal is served with ugali, mukimo, which is a delicious potato mash, sukuma wiki, which is basically greens like collards (though different), and kachumbari, which reminds me a whole lot of pico de gallo.

The meat is carved very carefully, right at your table.  Apparently these places are all over Nairobi, and that's what people do, go out and drink beer and eat nyama chomo.  It's interesting because the beer is not all that strong, so they can drink a good bit of it.

Carving that big leg of goat.  Goat is interesting meat.  We think of goat as being, well, let's just say not a meat of choice.  However, that's because our goats eat garbage.  The best goats in Kenya come from the drylands, and eat only sweet tasting plants.  Kenyans swear that the best goat meat is very sweet, and I would have to agree.  You do not need a lot of sauces or anything to give the meat taste, which makes me realize just how bland the beef we are getting in the US really is.  The meat is flavorful, and needs nothing to make it taste excellent.

One more shot of the platter....

Faith and her friend Jennifer.

A picture of the restaurant.  Its a nice place, with one of the few outdoor eating places in town.

Looking quite satisfied....

As am I.  A nice afternoon in Eldoret.

A last picture of our little group.  A lot of fun, and some great goat!

Kissing a Giraffe

We recently went to Nairobi, and had a fantastic time.  We traveled the city, I danced, Evan went to see a movie, we went to see elephants, and did a lot of other things.  One of the things we did was go to a giraffe conservation center, where you can feed giraffes, learn about giraffes, and also kiss a giraffe.  Well, Evan and I both did that.  I hope these videos work!

This is Evan....

And this is me....

The Crying Stone of Ilesi

Outside Kakamega there is an incredibly unusual rock formation called the Crying Stone.  Evan and I went there when we were at the Drama Festival, along with Faith and the cab driver.  The cab driver has lived in Kakamega  for years, but had never been to the stone.  There are a lot of legends associated with the formation, most of which I think are nonsense., involving a king and a maiden, that sort of thing.  I think those are for the whites when they came.  However, there is no doubt that this represents a very sacred and important site in western Kenya, standing along the borders between agriculturalists and pastoralists, giving it added meaning.

A view of the stone.  It's called the crying stone because at certain times of year water will run from the stone.  You can see it in the dark streak in the picture above.

This is a neighboring piece of stone, with some kids who had followed us up the trail.

This thing is tall, and the story is that no one has climbed it.  Not sure I believe it, but the resemblance to a human is undeniable, making it a very interesting formation.

This is Evan at the base, which gives you some idea of the size of this thing.

This is the young man who guided us up the stone, taken from the back.  It is just impossible to get a good picture showing how tall this thing is.

This one kind of helps, that's Evan and the cab driver at the base.

This is me on a nearby flat area, I just thought this was all so cool, and off the beaten track.

Evan under a nearby formation they called the ship, because it has kind of a ship's prow.  Tall and very dramatic.

A little cave we had to crawl through.

This is Faith.  Notice her shoes, she had no idea what I was getting her into, since going to the stone was my idea.  The kids behind her are interesting, too.

Another picture of our young guide as he told us the various legends associated with the stone.

A last view of the stone as we were leaving.  It seems to brood over this valley.  Very strange thing to visit, and I'm glad we made the time to see this most unusual part of Kenya.

The Kenya Drama Festival

On April 15 and 16 we returned to Kakamega for the Kenya National Drama Festival.  This is a long event, that pits primary, secondary, and university students into a competition for original works of art, including dance, theater, monologues, and even film (though the film didn't seem to work out very well).  The event lasts for over a week, though we were only there for two days.  We went with Faith, who had brought her school group here years before, when she was a teacher in Kenya, and wanted to relive the moment, I think.  We saw some interesting things, and I wanted to share a few of them with you.

This is a picture of the auditorium where the secondary schools were having their performances.  We only saw a couple of things, because we were late.  It is a looong matatu ride from Eldoret.  This was held at a boys secondary school in Kakamega.

The first thing we saw was a drama in French about a girl who gets in trouble at school.  This was a secondary school production, and was well done.  This is the girls mother.

This was the school.  The students make all the sets and bring them from schools all across the country to the festival.  The productions were pretty elaborate, as you shall see.

The next thing we saw was an incredibly elaborate dance.  The theme of the festival was national unity and reconciliation.  You may not know this (I did but didn't, if you know what I mean), but after the 2007 elections in Kenya there was incredible violence in the country, and many people were killed, and the killings were ethnically based.  So, reconciliation is a big thing in the country.  In this dance, there is a couple getting married, but if I read it right a parent is objecting because the girl is marrying someone from a different group or tribe (don't really like that word).  In the end the parents are reconciled to their daughter marrying someone of a different group.

Here is the wedding in progress, a the beginning of the dance.  Its complicated, but the next bit is a video to give you flavor (if it work) of the dances.

This dance actually got second place at the festival, it was really incredible to watch.

We stayed at the Kakamega Golf Hotel, and it was very nice.  This was another one of the places that the British used to come to get away from the hotter areas of Kenya and play golf.  I don't believe that this is the original hotel, it looks a bit more 1960s or 1970s, and the British left in 1963.  But it was a very nice place.

Another shot of the hotel.

These are little bandas where we had lunch at the hotel.  They are nice.

The hotel pool.  It started to rain before we could get in.  Disappointing.

Evan at the hotel.  We were actually not excited about going to the festival, but it turned out to be a great experience.

On Monday we went to the competition for the colleges and universities, at a girl's school outside of town.  We were lucky enough to see our second award winning production, about a woman police officer who is neglecting and maybe abusing her husband.  This was in English, and easy to follow.  Spousal abuse is a huge problem here, with men beating on wives, wives beating on (drunken) husbands.  So that was kind of the central theme of this play.

Here is the husband, Mr. Jefferson (pronounced Meeeeeester Jefferson by the villagers in the play), and he has climbed a tree and is threatening to commit suicide because his wife is being so mean to him.

They call in the priest to help Mr. Jefferson and Mrs. Jefferson reconcile.

They do a flashback, recalling how the couple met....

How they courted... The two leads were very good and this was all quite fun and funny.

And how they got married.  Note the hair.  You do NOT see that kind of hair in Kenya now.

They talked Mr. Jefferson down from the tree, and the family (they had two kids, who were also hilarious) walked off happy.  At one point they had angels appear to speed the healing process (the figure in white), but to be blunt, Evan and I almost lost it because it looked like someone from the Ku Klux Klan had invaded the stage.  Only someone from the American South would probably think that.  This was a very good production.

 Another art form that shows up is the monologue, usually running about 15 or 20 minutes.  This is drawn from the African story telling tradition.  Some we saw were humorous, but this one, of a woman who has been abused, and is sheltered in a hospital, was serious and I thought was very good.

She was very passionate, and of course they write these themselves.

Very passionate performance.

Evan in front of a sculpture at the girl's school.  He did not want to do this trip, but by the end we were both saying it was a lot of fun.  We were laughing, since we were the only mzungus there, that we could tell people we were talent scouts for Jay Z or P Diddy or something like that.

This is me, getting ready for the long ride back to Eldoret.  I think what I liked, besides the great performances, was the fact that this is something tourists don't see.  This is why you come to live somewhere like Kenya for months at a time, so that you can begin to understand the culture.  I think this helped me understand it better.