Not unlike home, christmas in Sigowet is very much about the three F’s: food, family, friends. In the morning a goat was slaughtered and prepared for the dinner. The ribs were boiled and the intestence prepared for an additional cusine. We also got mashed bananas, rice, tomato salad, a vegetarian dish, chapati-bread and a carrot and cabbage-salad. Bottles of Coca Cola, Sprite and Fanta were lined up for the guests to select what they desired. We sat along the four walls of the room facing the table in the centre, and we balanced the plate on the lap.
The party consisted of the mother and father with their five children, some cousins, a boyfriend, two families from the church, an additional priest and the two Norwegians. After dinner I went out to the field with the children. We played badmington, talked about DVDs and Reaggea music and I was impressed by the level of english the children here seem to have. One will start in first class in January and speak already very good English. He had one year of English in nursery school he explained. I have to point that English is his third language. First he speaks his mother tongue Kipsigis, then Swahili and English.
After tea and coffee (coffee here is very weak, almost like tea) everyone came together in the livingroom to pray and sing. They do some kind of high-speed prying that I have never experienced before. There is no hesitation even though the prayer is improvised. The skill is similar to the talent of a jazz player; They have a repertoar of melodies, rythms, chords and spins to pick and choose and after years of practice the ability it habitualizad. Talking of improvising I also have to mention the singing. It can be difficult to tell the melody apart from the rest because everyone seems to make their own matching version. The result is a beautiful multi-voiced, poly rythmic psalm where I can only recognize the word ‘Yesu’, meaning Jesus.
The party consisted of the mother and father with their five children, some cousins, a boyfriend, two families from the church, an additional priest and the two Norwegians. After dinner I went out to the field with the children. We played badmington, talked about DVDs and Reaggea music and I was impressed by the level of english the children here seem to have. One will start in first class in January and speak already very good English. He had one year of English in nursery school he explained. I have to point that English is his third language. First he speaks his mother tongue Kipsigis, then Swahili and English.
After tea and coffee (coffee here is very weak, almost like tea) everyone came together in the livingroom to pray and sing. They do some kind of high-speed prying that I have never experienced before. There is no hesitation even though the prayer is improvised. The skill is similar to the talent of a jazz player; They have a repertoar of melodies, rythms, chords and spins to pick and choose and after years of practice the ability it habitualizad. Talking of improvising I also have to mention the singing. It can be difficult to tell the melody apart from the rest because everyone seems to make their own matching version. The result is a beautiful multi-voiced, poly rythmic psalm where I can only recognize the word ‘Yesu’, meaning Jesus.
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