The Chalbi Desert, or Living the Bible

Pictures: Traditional manyatta; the groom; Lucy in the back of a desert car; the desert, dry bones

For the last three weeks I traveled to the Chalbi Desert to assist in running Vacation Bible School type camps. The Chalbi Desert is in the northwestern part of Kenya. The first night we made it to Marsabit, the last town of any size before you reach Ethiopia. The next day we drove to North Horr, where there is a Catholic Mission. On the way we had many “punctures” (flat tires). Where we stopped to fix them you can literally see nothing but sand in most directions. Even though it is the coolest time of year right now, the sun beats down on you.. We had to stop in a nearby town (1.5 hours away) and have the Father in North Horr come and pick us up since we were out of spares. I felt like I should be in an Indiana Jones movie riding (or I should say bouncing around) in the back of a land rover packed full of stuff on a sand road through the desert.

North Horr and the surrounding areas are inhabited by the Gabbra people -- nomads who have kept many aspects of their way of life. It is a little funny, however, to see someone in traditional dress talking on a cell phone.

The children and youth here have never had any type of camp, and were very excited. In fact, they would not leave when it was time for them to go home! Even the older youth who were supposed to be animators (like counselors) were not helpful because they did not want to miss their opportunity to have camp. The young children spoke only Gabbra, so we had the nursery teachers from the school work with them. The older youth spoke some English, but I mostly helped with arts and crafts because of communication difficulties. I did love to sit with the little girls though and let them braid my hair.

After a week in North Horr we went to Dukana. Dukana is very rustic: no running water, electricity or communication to the outside. Dukana is considered an outstation of North Horr, even though it is a 2 hour drive away. In the mission there are 3 Fathers for 20 outstations, all of which take a decent amount of driving to get to.

We also spent a couple days in Kalacha, a place much like Dukana, but the youth leaders had not spread the word about the camp so we had very few participants. Also, the Census was going on at this time so everybody who was educated was working for that. They were supposedly going to count at night, although there are no lights and the manyattas (traditional homes) are the same color as the bush… we aren’t sure how or if they counted them.

At the time we were in North Horr, the Parish Priest, Father Anthony, had his nephew and two of the nephew’s friends visiting. All of them are from Germany so it was fun for me to practice my German and have other people to go see things with. They were very welcoming and including of me. We went to some little towns, such as Gus (sometimes spelled Gas J ), Molobot which is known for the singing wells of Molobot as the people sing as they fetch water and also took a sunset trip to a sand dune. It was soo fun to run and jump over the edge to a very pleasant landing. It’s like snow, except hot. We also briefly visited the outstations of Wormo and Kurau. Here the people are devil-worshippers, but only at night when they drum. During the day they are very kind people and the Fathers can even take tea in their homes. But, when they are invited into church they say “Father I can’t I have Iyana in me.” When someone gets sick the demon calls for them to slaughter a goat or even eat hot charcoals. There are many “listeners” there (people interested in becoming Christians) and the only baptized person is one of four wives.

While the Gabbra people have many beautiful traditions, there is a lot of work to be done in raising the status of women. The older girls in the camp would not even talk in front of the boys. The girls have little opportunity for education, even up to finishing middle school. If the mission was not there no school (or hospital) would be in North Horr. Boys are allowed to run around before marriage, but if a girl gets pregnant out of wedlock she is forced out of the community. Angela, a Lay Missionary who has been in North Horr for nine years, (and basically runs the place, when she leaves they will need four staff people to replace her) adopted a little girl, Grace, who otherwise might have been killed. Once married, however, sleeping around is acceptable. This did not make any sense to me! Even at camp the boys were much more respectful when a Father was present and the girls asked Sophia, a Salesian Aspirant, how she could be so brave to present in front of boys and tell them what to do.

We were lucky enough to be able to attend a traditional wedding. The Gabbra can only get married on two days out of the year, depending on the moons. A couple must do the traditional wedding even if they are married in church or have another arrangement (for example this couple had essentially already been married for a few months). The groom was a pharmacist from Nairobi in his late 20s or early 30s and the girl was about my age. It made me angry at first seeing that an educated man would take such a young bride -- marriages are generally arranged -- but we later found out it was both of their choices. It is not uncommon for a man to marry someone 20 years his junior. The first, and most important thing to many, is the bringing of the dowry to the bride’s family. No matter the wealth, three camels, 2 male and one female, must be given. After this is properly worked out, the wedding can continue. It was funny because the groom clearly did not know the traditions, and the elders were instructing him. He must be shaved from head to toe, cut his nails and give away his clothes. This is symbolic of when he was born. Then, he walks into the bush to find a special type of tree which he will make into a stool. He then starts a fire using only sticks. Meanwhile, the bride must stay inside during all of the festivities and listen to the elder women give advice on how to be a good wife. She cannot even get up to go to the bathroom! The catechist who was showing us around the wedding ceremonies was somehow related to her so we were able to meet her. She looked terrified, but beautiful with many henna tattoos. The women do all the work while the men aside from the groom sit, drink and watch. The women take part of the mother of the groom’s manyatta and build it into a new one. They move and set it up once symbolically, then lay the pieces in a circle. The family members of the couple then take a mixture of oil and milk -- which they must taste first, yuck judging by the looks on their faces -- and pour it on the house. There is music and dancing all night, and at 6:00 AM the bride is brought to the groom. For four days they sit on opposite sides of the new manyatta, separated by two youth, and stare at each other. They are not allowed to talk. After this, they are considered married. It was really neat to see some of the things they do, and we were lucky enough to be able to take photos. In this area many people believe that photos will steal the soul of the animals or make them get sick.

Camels are very important to the Gabbra, and one person even said that (although he didn’t believe this because he was educated) to men the order in their life is God, Camel, Wife. It is a good thing he did not see things this way or there might have been trouble… But, camels symbolize wealth and status. People will even starve to death before selling their camels. Camels do not do anything, really, except carry the house when it is time to move. Very rarely will someone eat camel meat. Caring for the camels is the one thing men do. They take them in search of water. This year there has been no rain and it has been very difficult to find enough water for their camels, who incidentally can drink 114 liters in ten minutes! The women do everything else -- they cook, clean, build the houses, raise the children etc. -- yet they are considered lower members of society. This makes sense how?

Alright, this was a long post but I had a lot of adventures! It really does help to think of these things as adventures, otherwise I’ve noticed people tend to get quite angry. If all you want to do is go back home, that is all you will think about and you will not enjoy the experiences you are having.

Ahh and the reason for the title… The stone here look a lot like loaves of bread (think the temptation of Jesus), we saw some VERY dry bones (Ezekial), and we crossed the barren desert but we did not die of thirst (Isaiah).