A busy 10+ days

Sorry it has been well over a week since you last heard a peep out of me. But in that time things have been SO busy and so much as been happening. To summarise, over the past 10+ days we have had 10 visitors with us and all kinds of things have been going on.

If you recall, Cedric came down from Paris and together with him we held the first inter-house sports day. We had sack races, 3 legged races, welly wanging, egg and spoon races plus a team event involving 6 people laying numbers from 1 to 6 on the ground in order, then a 7th person walking across them…this continued all across the school field with the winner being the first house to make it to the other side (it’s much harder to explain in words). Anyway, at the end of the afternoon we totted up the scores to find Buffalo had won and so they received a lovely trophy with ribbons and all the trimmings.

On another evening, Cedric organised a science experiment evening making rockets out of plastic camera film cases. The children built and decorated their rockets in teams and then with a mixture of vinegar and bicarb inside, they put the lids back on quickly and watched them shoot up to the roof of the assembly hall (again it’s much harder to explain in words). They loved it as it was messy and noisy.
The highlight for me though was the goat roast last Thursday evening. Apologies in advance to any vegetarians amongst you for the graphic content of what follows, but a few days earlier Cedric and I acquired a goat with the express intent of barbecuing it and eating it outside with the children, teachers and visitors. And so at 4pm on Thursday afternoon, the bell tolled and the blindfolded goat was led to the back of the school by 3 of the teachers. With no final requests forthcoming, it had its legs tied together, was laid on a bed of banana leaves and had its throat slit. Mr Macharia, who was holding the goat’s mouth and head had the bottom of the trousers covered with blood as it sprayed out of the goats now open throat. Within a minute however it was dead and decapitated. It was an amazing scene .. as the sterner stomached visitors and I looked on in fascinated horror and the unmistakeable smell of goat enveloped the area, the teachers and children preceded to drain it, skin it and gut it with industrial efficiency. The meat and bones were dispatched to the BBQ whilst the stomach and intestines were emptied and cleaned of their less palatable content. Once cleaned they we refilled with a mixture of fat and blood to make sausages. For the next couple of hours whilst the children cleaned and did their washing, we sat round the BBQ with the teachers preparing dinner : the ribs, meat, liver, kidneys and sausages roasting while the goats head boiled in a pan to make soup.

At 20h00 everyone came out for dinner and together we feasted with regular intermissions for songs. Of all the things that we have done here and that I have experienced, it is definitely one that will stand out for me.
At the beginning of this post I said that we had 10 visitors including Cedric. So what of the other visitors? Well, the other 9 visitors (Al, Robin, Dan, Jemima, Ben, Ashley, Dan, Clemmie and Sam) were all from the same church (St. Ebbes) in Oxford, and their mission here was two-fold. Firstly do you remember Jane whose house was collapsing? …well in the mornings, together with Cedric and local masons they were building her a new home. So everyday they all walked from the school, down one side of the valley and up the other side to Jane’s home and by the end of the week the old place had been demolished and a new one erected in its place. It was phenomenal the pace at which they all worked; so much so that by Saturday it was ready to be blessed by the local vicar with only the more cosmetic aspects remaining to be completed. Words cannot describe how happy Jane is.

In the afternoons, after washing off the morning’s sweat and grime, Al, Robin, Dan, Jemima, Ben, Ashley, Dan, Clemmie and Sam ran bible study classes with the children. Each session began with a short enacted scene from the bible; the message of which was the subject of the breakout sessions with the children after. The children loved it (as did the boys of Kiambugi High School who we went to see on Sunday). They also came armed with a catalogue of songs (most with accompanying movements) which is a prerequisite for anyone coming down here. They were great and we were all sad to see them leave on Monday.

Et voila ... so as you can see it’s been pretty full on. We are now taking a breather before the next set of (17!) visitors come on the 12th July.