Circumcision

We took a road trip with Katrina in early August to Jinga, Uganda. It is so interesting to travel in Africa because you never know what you will see.

Although Kitale itself has a mixture of many tribes, this area is Luhya territory. They are the second largest Bantu ethnic group in Kenya. Being Bantu means that originally their ancestors came from western Africa and migrated eastward over the years. Traditionally, they are agriculturalists. Depending on where they live they grow cassava, sugar cane, maize(corn)or wheat.

Circumcision in Kenya is an important event in Kenyan culture based upon your tribe. The procedure is not done at birth as in the United States, but rather when a young man enters adolescence. It is considered to be a significant rite of passage as they enter adulthood. These boys are being escorted to the ceremony. Notice the rattles, whistles and cow tails. They are creating a lot of noise so that everyone is to notice they are on their way.

The Lyhya still practice the traditional male circumcision ceremonies. We saw several young men being escorted to the elder’s place for their circumcision or returning from the operation.

They only circumcise their young men every other year in even numbered years during the months of August and December. The boys range in age from 11 to 15 years. An elder performs the ceremony and cutting of the foreskin. Then the boys must enter into a period of seclusion where they are not allowed to see their mothers or any other females. These boys are wearing dress like garments because the ceremony has been complete.

Once the time of seclusion is over, a feast is held in the village to honor the young men. At this point, they begin counseling by the elders on skills, appropriate adult behavior, and tribal ceremonies and history. They are no longer able to live with their mothers and sisters, so a bachelor hut is built for them on the family compound.
Not only are they wearing dresslike garments, but the boys in back have had their faces painted with mud during the ceremony.

Note: Most people today have their sons circumcised at a hospital by a doctor between the ages of 10 - 15 years old.

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Mount Elgon

The town of Kitale is located in the foothills of Mt. Elgon, about 40 km away. Mt. Elgon was formed by volcanic activity at least 12 million years ago. It is now an extinct volcano that was once higher than Mt. Kilimanjaro. It is located in both Uganda and Kenya with the majority in Uganda. It is huge being 80 km in diameter with five major peaks, the highest being 14,140 ft above sea level. This photo of Mt. Elgon is taken from Kitale, about 40 miles away.

The rocks forming Mt. Elgon contain sodium. This has caused elephants to form caves on the mountain. They dig into the softer rocks behind waterfalls with their tusks to be able to eat the salt found there. What they leave behind on the floor of the cave is then eaten by smaller animals like buffalo, bushbuck, hyrax, leopards, hyena and monkeys. The last known cave-in caused by elephant mining was in 1982.
We spent a day at Mt. Elgon National Park hiking to two of the caves, Makingeny and Kitum, and viewing the wildlife there. Kitum Cave was the inspiration for the movie “The Hot Zone” about an Ebola virus outbreak. Two people became ill with Ebola, one in 1980 and the other in 1987 after visiting this cave. However, the US Army’s Infectious Diseases Unit and Kenya Medical Research Unit examined the caves. They found no evidence that there was any connection between the caves and the disease.
One of the many waterfalls on Mt. Elgon.

We had a wonderful day. Since it is the rainy season we hired a 4WD vehicle to tour the park. I’m sure glad I wasn’t driving! We needed the 4WD many times. When you enter the park, you must take a park ranger along with you. He/she carries a gun in case you meet wild animals. Fred, our park ranger was a great help. I still don’t know how he was able to stay clean when I got so muddy! During the day we saw zebra, baboons, colobus monkeys, velvet monkeys, bush buck, water buck, deer, and guineas.

Standing at Elephant Platform.

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Victoria Nile

Here we are standing at the source of the Victoria Nile. Lake Victoria is to our right and the Nile River is to our left.


The night before rafting standing at Bujagali Falls.


The Nile River is 6650 km (4132 miles) long making it the longest river in the world. There are two major tributaries: the White Nile and Blue Nile.

Last week we traveled with Katrina to the source of the Victoria Nile in Jinga, Uganda. There it begins with a spring at Ripon Falls at the end of Lake Victoria. It empties into the White Nile after passing through several more lakes. The White Nile and Blue Nile converge in Khartoum, Sudan. There it continues northward toward its mouth in the Mediterranean Sea. The water travels at a rate of three km per minute. It takes 3 months it to travel from its source to the Mediterranean. Incredible!

Katrina wanted to white water raft on the Nile. Previously we had rafted on both the Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers which have level 3 rapids. Rapids are rated on a scale of 1 to 6 based on their difficulty. I must say, the Nile was much more fun and exciting. We spent a day on the Nile traveling a total of 30 km. Locals call the Nile a “pull down river” meaning it flows at one level, the rocks pull it down to a lower level where it is nice and smooth before being pulled down again several kilometers later. We were pulled down five level 5 rapids, five level 4 rapids and the smaller ones were too insignificant to count!

While there we met people from Belgium, Great Britain, Turkey, Slovenia, Germany, South Africa and Uganda. It was a great day. We started near the Owens Falls dam where the water was nice and calm. There we learned the commands we would need throughout the day. We flipped the raft to practice getting back in and getting into the crufix position in case we got separated from the raft and needed to float downstream.


Kayaks and two oar rafts accompanied us in the river as safety precautions. If you got separated from your raft these boats were there to pick you up. At three different points when the water was calm, we could leave our raft and swim or float downstream. That was great fun. Even though we were all just a few feet away from one another it was amazing to see how we would get in different currents that would take us at different speeds down river.

They provided all three meals for the day. Lunch was half of a pineapple and biscuits (cookies). The fresh pineapple was wonderful! The evening meal was a BBQ back at our campsite. The beef shish kabobs had the best meat we have eaten since we’ve been in Africa! Vegetables, fruit, rice, potatoes, and chapatti completed our meal.

It was a wonderful day!

Click here to view pictures of our rafting adventure.

School Visitor

Our friend, Mary Oldham, came to visit last week. Mary is a fellow Maryknoll Lay Missioner, class of 2010. We along with twelve others joined MKLM in September and attended a three month orientation in New York. That’s when we first met Mary, a fellow Midwesterner. She was also assigned to Kenya so we traveled on New Year’s Eve to our new country. We were together in language school in Nairobi until April. At that point we moved to Kitale while Mary moved to Mombasa. We were delighted to see her again and get a chance to visit about our ministries.

Mary is coordinating a project called Maryknoll Fathers AIDS Orphans Project in the Archdiocese of Mombasa started in 1999. This project addresses the educational needs of children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS. They come from marginalized families who have very limited economic opportunities and live in slum areas surrounding Mombasa. Many of the guardians are living with HIV/AIDS and have other children to care for. Some of the orphans in the project are living with HIV/AIDS themselves.



She also deals with schools, but in a totally different way than we do. She is involved with finding schools that will accept her children, placing them, the admissions process, paying fees, etc. She was very interested to see how schools function on a daily basis and what education looks like in Kenya.

She was able to spend one day with John at St. Anthony’s and the next at St. Monica’s. Unfortunately, the boys were taking exams so she was only able to meet the teachers and other staff and see where John works. Since we were still holding class at St. Monica’s, the girls were thrilled to be able to talk with her and ask her questions.

Although she isn’t a teacher, she is a natural in the classroom. She started off each class telling a little about herself and then opening it up to questions. The questions ranged all the way from: Tell us about your family. Are you married? What are you looking for in a husband? What are your traditional foods? Where did you go to university? How is life different in Kenya from the United States? What are some of the challenges you face in Kenya?

Of course, the girls were thrilled to have another visitor from the United States. Mary continued to reinforce the importance of studying hard and getting a good education. Education is the way out of poverty and to reach Kenya Vision 2030 economic and social goals.