The Myth of Dustless Chalk (and Other Thoughts)

I'm glad I began teaching in the 21st Century. Only on teaching practice did I encounter chalk and since then I've always used a white (or SMART board). That is, until I came to Korr. All classrooms have a black board. They are large, and need to be for the amount we write on them. But it is the chalk that is the challenge. The boxes claim the sticks we have are dustless. This is not the case. Chalk dust gets everywhere and is just horrid!

Putting on a smile despite the chalk dust!

Despite being in the northern hemisphere (just), June-August is the cool time of year in Korr. Temperatures drop below 30 degrees and strangely this seems cold to me, especially as the wind is still going strong. I need a jumper and a have a blanket at night.

I had always thought that school children in Africa would be very well behaved. Obviously this is a generalisation as Africa is huge but I fell for it. It might actually true for the continent or even Kenya. But not for Korr! Students here are late to lessons, call out, cheat, lose their books, try and get out of wearing uniform. Like kids back home!

And my final thought is that I don't think I will ever prefer sweet Kenyan chai to a good English cuppa (without sugar) no matter how much of the sweet stuff I am given!  

Prone to wander

Yesterday I bought a camel bell from a local man called Lekuche who came to the school. I think he must have heard that some wazungus were interested in buying bells and I got a help in negotiating a good price. He came to the house just now with another, smaller one and I managed to do some bargaining on price, on my own this time, in Rendille. 
 

 
Camel bells are carved by hand from wood. Lekuche had cuts on his hands to prove it! The bells make a distinctive sound a bit like a wooden xylophone. I often hear the sound on the breeze as camel herds pass. And Jim and Laura have some hanging outside their house, like wind chimes.
 

Camels are vital to traditional Rendille pastoralists. I recently read it put like this:

"You can't understand these peoples if you don't understand that livestock is the spinal cord of their whole existence. Bank, pantry, symbol of power, of fertility, arsenal, soulmate, spirituality, work, pastime , spectacle, subject of conversation, of poetry, of song, exchange currency, reason for existing, for loving, for fighting and dying, livestock is everything and there is nothing outside of livestock. I have livestock therefore I am: that is the pastoral cogito." 

Not all camels wear bells. The camel in the lead wears one, but also the ones who are likely to wander off and get separated from the herd wear them. You don't want to lose a camel, so herders put bells round the necks of wayward animals. Hearing this fact this reminded me of a song that I like - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. One verse (below) mentions how I am like one of those wandering camels. Yet God loves me so much (even more than a Rendille man loves his camels) that he sent Jesus to rescue me from my wanderings.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.
 
 
 

Meet...Eysimbasele and Bagajo

This is me with Bagajo, one of our two night guards. He works alternate fortnights.

 

 

He arrives around sunset with animated Rendille greetings for us all, eats his supper and, then as we start getting ready for bed, he pulls out a mattress on the front porch.

 

Then there is Eysimbasele, who is not as scary as the picture below suggests! He is sometimes called upon to kill a spider, failed in his attempts to kill the mouse that was in the pantry and enjoys the electric racquet-shaped bug swatter.

 

A fearless-looking Eysimbasele!

 

But one evening a while back he did the wonderful job of killing this snake, or toff. Christina discovered the snake in the hallway outside the bathroom and promptly climbed onto the high bathroom cabinets while I called Eysimbasele! Whilst he was clearly wary of the snake he nevertheless managed to beat it to death with his stick! This is the first snake that I saw in Korr, and apparently it's a pretty big one!

The following week housemate Misha was stung on the foot by a scorpion while out with some Kenyan friends. After squashing the offending animal they found a car and got her to Jim and Laura who have a one of the electric shock machines. This helped ease some of the pain, although she had to have many electric shock sessions and remained in discomfort for several days.

Interestingly the Bible records how Jesus spoke of snakes and scorpions: 'Look, I have given you authority to crush snakes and scorpions underfoot. I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you.' Luke 10:19

This seems quite relevant to us in Korr although I don't think that Jesus was speaking literally of these dangerous animals but about the evil that is in the world. Jesus said 'In this world you will have trouble.' But he continues, 'But take heart! I have overcome the world.' (John 16:33). Those who walk in faith with Jesus don't have to be consumed by these troubles but can use his authority to overcome the 'snakes and scorpions' that we face.

Last weekend I visited Eysimbasele in his village, go'ob Neybey. I met his wife, mother and two youngest children. They live in a traditional Rendille house called a min into which we were warmly welcomed to drink chai.