Friday, May 25, 2012

Funerals

Yesterday I went to my second Kenyan funeral. It is a really big event here. Everybody goes, not just close friends and relatives. We had two girls lose parents last week. The principal made a point of saying that she wanted at least 20 teachers and 30 – 40 girls to attend each. I hadn’t planned to go to either funeral as neither girl was a student of mine. I had even forgotten that one of the funerals was yesterday.

However, all of a sudden it was obvious that I was expected to go. Teachers were gathering their things and getting ready to load the school bus. A couple of teachers were telling me that I ought to go while others were telling me that they expected me to go. It always takes people longer here to get around to go places, so at one point I decided to stay. I even sat back down at my desk in the Staff Room and resumed working thinking no one would miss me. I thought the bus had left. Then my phone rang. It was one of the teachers asking where I was. The bus was waiting for me to leave!

The funeral was for Eunice’s, a Form IV’s mother. Eunice is from Kitale and her mother was a well known person, very active in the parish life of Immaculate Conception, the cathedral. She was one of the leading members of the choir and her small Christian community. The Sunday before they had mentioned her and requested prayers for her. She had suddenly taken ill and transported to Nairobi for treatment. She died while in Nairobi. Eunice’s father passed away when she was a Form I student, so she is now an orphan. She has two older siblings and a younger one.

Usually funerals are held at the home of the deceased. However, the homestead was extremely small, so the service was held in the cathedral. That was highly unusual. We arrived about 11:00. The emcee was recognizing groups of people as they entered. Shortly after we arrived they announced the presence of St. Monica’s. Then our principal and one of the teachers had to go forward to speak. Our girls were asked to sing a song.

Politicians use funerals as an opportunity to campaign. Of course, they are given a chance to speak. Much of it was in Kiswahali so I didn’t get all of what was said. I do know that one of the politicians promised to pay school fees for the children so that they could finish their education. You should have heard the clapping. My fellow teachers laughed and said it will never happen. Funerals are a place where all kinds of promises are made and very few carried out. I asked them if most Kenyans realized they were empty promises. They said, unfortunately no.

Before the funeral started our girls sang again while there was a viewing of the body. Caskets here are made with a window in the top half for viewing. There really wasn’t any choice but to go forward with the procession. My fellow teachers thought it was strange that I didn’t really want to go. There was an offertory box for contributions by the casket that would go to the family to help pay expenses. I understand it took about $800 to bring the body from Nairobi to Kitale for the funeral. That is an overwhelming amount for a Kenyan. It took a couple of weeks for them to be able to raise enough money for that.

At one point the priests were ready to start the Mass, but the politicians were still talking so the politicians made the priests wait! Because this woman was so active in the church, there were five priests officiating. It was a typical funeral Mass as we know it. St. Monica’s girls served as liturgical dancers, readers of the Scripture and servers. At the end of the service I realized that I did know Eunice. She had brought extra English work to me even though she isn’t in my class and we had spent time going over it together.

I haven’t seen a hearse here so I’m assuming they don’t have them. To transport bodies they are tied in the back of trucks or on top of vehicles. In this case, it was tied on top of a jeep. A funeral procession then went to the home. People are buried on their own homestead rather than in cemeteries. It is seen as a huge tragedy if the family doesn’t own land on which family members can be buried. Our school bus joined the funeral procession. We even passed a bunch of vehicles to get directly behind the car with the family. Then we even passed the family and the casket. Due to the narrow road, we had to park the bus along the main road and walk about a kilometer to the house. At that point it started raining.

At the homestead they had erected a couple of tarps for protection and a couple of tents. Kenyans sense of personal space is very different from ours. They squeeze into the tiniest of spaces. At that point I got separated from my fellow teachers yet I kept close to some St. Moncia’s girls. I was able to find a space under a tarp, but still got dripped on during the heaviest downpours. I didn’t even try to get close to the grave site for that part of the ceremony. The choir sang for at least an hour at this point.

After probably an hour and a half, huge kettles of food were brought out. The family is expected to feed everyone that attends. The food is usually served by close friends and distant relatives. We had cooked cabbage Kenyan style, rice and beef along with hot milk tea.

By then it was after 4:00. We called Eunice to come out so we could have a small meeting with her. Since it was so crowded, we moved out onto the road. Teachers and students formed a circle with Eunice. Again, the principal, counselor, head of the PTA, and one of the teachers talked. Along with other words of consolation and advice, they encouraged her to return to school as soon as possible. Naturally we closed with a word of prayer. Then it was time to load the bus and head back to school.

Another different thing about Kenyan funerals, photographers are there to take pictures and offer them for sale. I had seen pictures taped on the bell tower at the cathedral for sale. I had assumed they were pictures of the deceased. Then later on the fence outside the home compound had pictures for sale. It wasn’t until one of our teachers bought a photograph that had her in it that I realized they were taking pictures of the crowd to sell!
I must admit I learn quite a bit about Kenyan culture during the day. It also gave me a chance to visit with some of my colleagues as well as help support our school and Eunice.


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