Naivasha Community Fair

Last week the centre was invited to participate in a community fair put on by DRIK (Disability Resource Information Centre) here in Naivasha. It was an opportunity for organisations which are involved in working with the disabled to show a little of what they are doing.

The Big Event

With numerous booths present, each with different wares to show, it was a feast for the senses, everything from the downright strange...

Stuffed Tiger on Guard

to an explosion of colours to dazzle the senses.

Necklaces

More Necklaces

Bags

Insects and Reptiles

Earrings

Modelling the New Style

Our table seemed to attract the most amount of attention. Part of the reason for that may have been because people could actually watch how the students made some of our products. Here, for example, Shiro is showing some curious visitors how to do “Kumihimo” braiding, a recent project we just recently taught in the weaving program.

Shiro Demonstrating Kumihimo Braiding

Not to be outdone, the students from Little Hands also performed for the audience. Their poem "Inclusion" was particularly powerful. For many of the disabled children, what is more normal for them is to be shoved aside to make room for others. But this was their special day to shine!

Little Hands Children Performing

Of course, the children were by far the best part of the whole show!

Stopping Crime the Naivasha Way

Stopping Crime the Naivasha Way

What can you do when thieves steal all your valuables, but you cannot find them to get back your possessions? This hypothetical question became reality for us this past week.

Last Thursday one of the workers at the centre went to his house for lunch only to find his door wide open. On closer inspection he discovered that thieves had been to call and had stolen everything of value.

Sadly this is not the first time this has happened. In fact, over the last few years the same person has experienced a number of thefts. Fortunately they left the bed this time, though the mattress, blankets, radio, food, and cooking stove and utensils were all gone.

What shocked us all was that this had been done during daylight hours. Anybody could have walked passed and seen the thieves sawing their way into his house.

We subsequently sent out a posse to see whether we could find any evidence of who may have done this in hopes that the stolen items could be retrieved. Sadly, no witnesses could be found. The things were well and truly gone.

What could be done to retrieve the stolen goods? One suggestion offered was that the victim could go to a local woman who was capable of putting a curse on the culprit. The curse would make the crime too costly for the thieves and they might return the stolen items. This woman's specialty was to force a perpetrator to suddenly begin eating grass like a cow!

Such things are not unheard of in Naivasha. In fact, the town is getting something of a reputation for such activities!

Back in October of 2011 the Standard newspaper ran an article about just such an event in Naivasha.

Antoy Gitonga reported:

Naivasha is a town full of odd and sometimes shocking stories ranging from vampires to pastors nabbed red-handed in compromising situations.

And the town continued to live to its reputation in a bizarre incident that left many in shock and fear when a man, allegedly bewitched, started feeding on grass to the amazement of bystanders last week….

Some witnesses claimed the man, who didn’t have identification documents, was bewitched for stealing Sh15,000 from a neighbour.

And true to the allegations, he kept mumbling that one should not take someone‘s property without permission.

"Nawaambia msiwai chukua kitu ya mtu ama mtakipata (I warn you not to take anyone’s property or you will face the music)," he said….

Last year, another suspect who had allegedly stolen a donkey in Kongoni Division started feasting on grass after allegedly getting bewitched.

The suspect, however, admitted to stealing a donkey in Kamere estate and vowed to repent.

According to the donkey owner, she had decided to seek the assistance of a witchdoctor in Western Kenya after the disappearance of the animal.

"The donkey was my only source of livelihood and there was no way I was going to allow someone to go scot-free after stealing it," she told police as the suspect continued eating grass.

He later on ‘recovered’ after relatives promised to pay for the missing donkey.

The incident even made it into the television news! Once again Naivasha makes the news for all the wrong reasons.



That was in 2011. But just last week (May 2012) another man was found eating grass. Curious onlookers wanting to catch sight of the event caused a traffic jam in Naivasha town. The Kenyan Daily Post reported that the man was allegedly bewitched for stealing a shirt. The same article states that it is the fourth such incident in Naivasha town this year.

Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise when people approach witchdoctors to try to retrieve valuable property. Not to be recommended, but when people lose the little they have, you can almost understand it. Will we read of another such incident in the next few weeks as our colleague looks for his stolen possessions?

Getting Started with Natural Dyeing

Our weaving program is progressing well. We have had the students producing some nice gauze scarves. That has been the latest project. The weaving takes longer than for kikoys as it is not a tight weave. That means that, although the material costs will be lower, the difference will be made up in the increased labour costs.

That is a problem when the market is being flooded by cheap alternatives from India which are not hand woven. For many, cost is more important than quality. However, I believe there is still a market for something which is made well and which is made by hand. The scarves are beautiful.

Gauze Scarves – the Latest Venture

Showing Off the Scarves

My personal favourite is the red scarves as they change colour from turquoise to red depending on the angle at which you look at them.

Weaving the Scarves

In addition to the products on the floor looms, we’re also continuing with the carpet production. That is more challenging as carpets are naturally more expensive than cotton products made on the floor looms. It is therefore much harder to move these once they have been completed.

In order to help with sales, we’ve decided to do some natural dyeing again. This is not the first time for us to do this, but for the last few terms we’ve only been using natural coloured wool: whites, browns, and mixtures of the two.

Carpets in Natural Colours

We have a number of local plants which we can use. We’ll start with those and once we know what’s available in the garden we’ll be more adventurous and check out some of the plants we can find in the bush around Naivasha.

The Owl in African Tradition

Last night our little dog got out and ran around on the top plot of the centre, much to the frustration of the workers trying to sleep up there. We have been having a lot of problems with our water recently and had dug a ditch for the new water line. The little dog was small enough to squeeze through a hole made for the pipe and was thereby able to gain access to new territories to explore.

Apparently there was a lot of noise and only part of it was the barking of the dog. One worker told us that an owl took an interest in the dog and tried to catch it. Now I know the little thing is small – that’s why we named him “Fupi” (meaning “small” in Kiswahili), but I find it hard to believe that an owl could have managed to carry him away.

Owls have a special place in many African societies. They are considered to be a tool used by the witchdoctor, a harbinger of doom. When you hear their call, it is believed that someone is going to die. Apparently one was repeatedly spotted flying around the centre days before our head teacher died a couple of years ago.

African Witchdoctor

I was surprised that we still had an owl flying about the centre. I’d seen a barn owl a number of times in years past but just assumed it had moved on as more houses sprung up in the neighbourhood. So maybe one of these days I have to build a home for the owl. I’d considered doing so long ago but then thought the owl had moved on.

When I mentioned my intentions to one of the workers, he recoiled in horror. I thought it would be a great solution to our rat problem. But he reminded me that the owl is considered a bad omen, one associated with witchdoctors. The idea that I would do anything to attract such a bird to the centre was clearly something he was very uncomfortable with.

That explains the worried looks we used to receive when we put a plastic owl up a number of years ago to try and scare all the pigeons away. I guess that, together with the giraffe bones and skulls I’d collected and had strewn around the garden didn’t do our reputation very much good in the community. They must have wondered why we were collecting witchdoctor paraphernalia.

There is a place in the hills above Naivasha where many owls are known to have their nests. People sometimes go there to collect the eggs which are then taken to Nairobi and sold to Arabs for a lot of money. The money is attractive, but nobody understands what someone would want to do with owl eggs. I suggested the Arabs may want to rear these birds of pray and train them. The sport is called Falconry, something which is virtually unheard of here in Kenya, though I was surprised to read that there was a falconry centre at the coast, in Malindi. But here in Naivasha people don’t understand such a concept: why would someone willingly want to keep an omen of death around them?

Piercing Eyes

When you look at the piercing eyes of the owl as it looks down its beak, you can almost imagine how these stories started. But why would the West have such a different perception of the owl? True, it is often a bird associated with wizardry even there. The wizard Merlin in Disney’s movie “The Sword in the Stone” had one as his companion as did Harry Potter and his wizard friends in the popular children’s story books. But they are also considered good. When someone says you are as wise as an owl, that is a compliment, not a death treat. It would be interesting to know why there is such a difference in perception.

Burned Alive

One of our students – let’s call him John – was coming to the centre the other day when he suddenly heard women screaming. Rushing to the place he saw some women clustered outside a locked gate, trying to break into the property. On the other side of the wall a woman was screaming. She was crying that she had been unable to live up to God’s expectations. There was nothing else she could do. She had tried everything but now life was no longer worth living.

Who Can Repair a Broken Heart?
The sign on the back of a matatu (taxi)

And with that she’d decided that she deserved to burn to death. She first drank some paraffin and then set herself alight.

When John finally made it over the fence he found a woman covered in flames. He looked around for something to put out the fire. But all he found was charcoal powder about him. So taking big handfuls, he threw it over her and finally managed to put out the flames. By this time she was screaming and blood was pouring from her mouth.

After wrenching the gate open, the women who had been frantically screaming outside came running in. They took the poor soul and put her into a car and rushed her to the hospital.

Unfortunately the woman did not survive her injuries.

A few days later I met the pastor who buried her. It was a large funeral so she must have been well known. She had told her pastor earlier how she had tried her best to overcome certain family problems but just could not get over them. What a tragedy that the only recourse she had felt open to her was to end her own life. And in such a horrific way!

Despite the outcome, we were very proud of John, that he had been brave and willing enough to try and save her.

John had demonstrated his courage on a previous occasion as well. As he was returning home one day through Naivasha, he saw a large crowd of people so went over to investigate.

Downtown Naivasha
A Jacaranda tree in full bloom

The crowd was gathered around an old well and were peering into its depths. Apparently a young child had fallen in. The hole was so deep everybody was standing around trying to figure out how they could get the young one back out. Members of the Red Cross were there along with people from the Municipal Council. Someone had brought a rope and a few long ladders. They had tried to tie them together but that had been unsuccessful.

And so they were stuck, unsure of what they could do.

When John saw what was happening he stepped forward and offered to go into the deep well himself to collect the child. Initially they resisted the offer as they felt it was much too dangerous. But when they realised they’d run out of options, they tied the rope around him and slowly lowered him down into the deep pit.

Unfortunately John was left with a dead child to bring to the surface.

Despite not being able to save the child, we were still proud of John and impressed with his bravery. Anything could have been down that hole: dead goats or dogs, or snakes. Yet that thought had not stopped him from wanting to help. Sometimes it takes one person to be willing to stand up and make a difference. Well done!

Changes in the Air

The weather truly is strange in Naivasha at the moment. We’re getting a fair amount of rain even though the rainy season has technically not started yet. But we’re not complaining! The lake desperately needs the extra water and the showers, though not particularly large but quite frequent, help keep the grass green and the dust down.

Rain Clouds Approaching the Centre

Another unusual occurrence this year is that there are so many butterflies around. In Jan 2009 we saw thousands of them come through the centre, but they were all small white ones. There were so many that it almost looked like it was snowing.

Butterflies like Snow

But this year different verities were to be seen: big ones, little ones, very colourful ones, swallow tails…. Some I haven’t seen since I was a child. What brings them this year is a mystery, though we are enjoying the phenomenon.

Marvellous Butterflies

Two weeks ago fish suddenly started dying in the lake. Many of the fish were very large. The government assessed the situation and banned the catch and sale of fish until they could determine the cause.

Immediately rumours started that flower farms were to blame; it’s always easy to blame the big guys. Others suggested that it was due to some form of algae. Sometimes the lake does indeed look red though we’ve usually concluded that this from top soil being washed into the lake from outlying farms. Others theorised a lack of oxygen in the water was killing the fish. The report on the cause is expected imminently. Maybe then the fishermen will be able to earn a living once again.

Rains over Lake Naivasha

Last week a woman came to us asking for our help. She wanted her son to come do the weaving course at the centre. She makes her living by either catching fish for the market. Now that fishing has been banned she is struggling to feed her children. We’re not quite sure yet what we should do as the boy is quite young. He should be in school finishing his education, not in some vocational training course. But we can’t give the schooling fees to everybody who comes to our gate!

Technically schooling is now free in Kenya. However, sometimes parents have to pay even more today with the free education than they did when school fees were expected. The school has so many other charges which the parents are obligated to pay. One local school tells the parents that they have to pay virtually all of the school fees as they no longer receive funds from the government since millions of shillings disappeared through corruption. Who can say whether that is indeed the case or whether the school officials are using the crisis to their own ends?

More recently the Daily Nation reported that Sh1.7bn worth of books have disappeared from the schools. When you go to a local school here in our area you don’t see very many books as it is. This latest development will probably make the situation even worse.

The Arrogance of Knowledge

The BBC has a news article (here, written by Bethany Bell) about a burial shroud which was found in a tomb in Jerusalem and dates to the time of Christ. They state that it is the “first time” that such a shroud has been found. The new discovery is naturally compared to the Turin Shroud which many believe was Jesus’ burial cloth.

The recent discovery is different from the Shroud of Turin in that it is a simple two-way weave while the Turin cloth was a complicated weave.

I have no idea whether the Shroud of Turin is genuine or not. I know that there are many who would die for the belief that it is the real thing, showing us what Jesus actually looked like. Meanwhile others claim to have all the evidence that it is a fraud.

The Shroud of Turin

What truly amazes me is the arrogance that demonstrates itself through the researchers when they describe the importance of this find. This really is nothing new. After all, one can find the same type of conclusions drawn from archaeological finds regarding the origin of species. One skull is found, or maybe even just a jawbone and the timeline for a whole species is defined.

Human Evolution: Filling in the Blanks

The conclusions drawn from this discovery seem almost as grand. In the BBC article, Bethany Bell states:

"The researchers believe that the fragments are typical of the burial cloths used at the time of Jesus.

As a result, they conclude that the Turin Shroud did not originate from 1st Century Jerusalem."

This, we are told, is the “first time” pieces of a burial shroud have been found from the time of Jesus. That would make this the only burial shroud ever found from that time (except for maybe the Turin cloth). Yet this one discovery is sufficient evidence for the researchers to conclude that this burial cloth was typical for those used at the time and subsequently to decide that the Turin Shroud was a fake. This strikes me either as incredible arrogance, or great faith! You either know what all the other clothes were like at the time (based on one find?), or you have a firm belief that they were all the same. But are we not told time and again that faith has no place in science?

What is it about science that makes people lose all humility, that makes people believe they have all the answers – to everything? In the modern era many believed that technology would solve all the world’s problems. We would live to a ripe old age, free of war, poverty, famine, and disease. Then the world wars hit Europe and many changed their minds.

But still many scientists believe they can know everything, even if their conclusions are drawn from just one cloth or one bone fragment. I firmly believe in the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge without humility is arrogance. Few seem to agree with the well known quote, “The more I know, the more I know I don’t know.”

It isn’t only the scientists who virtually worship knowledge and technology. In a recent BBC interview concerning global warming a specialist from India was asked whether we need to be concerned about climate change. He didn’t really think it was a problem as he was convinced that future technology would be able to fix all of today’s mistakes.

Some people choose to look to science for all the answers to life, refusing to acknowledge that faith plays any role in their decisions. Others choose to make God part of their lives, thereby acknowledging that faith plays a role in life.

The BBC report about the burial cloth states another interesting bit of information. The researchers believe the man in the grave had leprosy. That would have made him the earliest proven case of leprosy. They also believe that he was a member of the aristocracy or was a high priest.