The Christmas season has arrived and it has brought two funerals with it. Last week the father of a close friend became very ill and ended up passing away. My first thought was, "oh my gosh i don't want to go to another Kenyan funeral!" but out of respect for the family and friends i ended up going. For a Kenyan funeral you don't just attend because you knew the person, you attend even if you only knew someone that is related to the person, to show support. While this is a really great idea, who doesn't need extra support though those times, it makes for a very large funeral party, and a rather uninteresting service if you don't know what they are talking about. the family of the man who passed away is very close to the family that i am living with, so they are staying with us during the service and the rest of Christmas. This added another element of the Kenyan funeral that i had not had the pleasure of experiencing thus far. The family of the deceased gather at the funeral home at 9 am. to view the body and say prayers. then they load the body in a flashy ambulance like van, and have a processional to the church. At the church i sat though 2 1/2 hours of service all in kimeru. After this we all load up again and have a processional to where the body is being buried, usually the family home. Here they have a few more ceremonies and burry the body, then everyone that has attended the funeral goes and throughs a handful of dirt on the grave. After this we are served food. I left right after the burial which was 4 pm. the rest of the family stayed until 6 pm. we began the whole process at 8 am. it was a very long day. i don't mean to sound flippant about the whole process, i know and understand that funerals are a very important part of the grieving process, but it is hard spend some much time in different ceremonies when, first i did not know the person, and second i had no idea what was being said.
The second funeral was for an extended family member of the family that i am living with. This was a very different funeral. He was a young man in his late 20's, who had had some ups and downs in his life. About the beginning of December he was out drinking and someone poisoned his drink. It was a very serious poison, and he was in and out of three different hospitals before finally passing away about a week and a half ago. Because he was so young, and didn't have as many friends, and some people were a little disappointed in the way that he was living his life, the service was held outside the house and he was buried immediately afterwards. It was a sad service, and quite the other end of the spectrum from the first one.
A lot of you by now have heard about the elephant smooshing one of our cars. well it happened on the morning of the first funeral. the father of the family i live with was driving through a corridor in the forrest. This is an area where there is no electric fence in order to give the wildlife migration routes, so you are always watchful and careful when in these areas. A baby elephant ran out in front of the car that he was driving and the mother was not far behind. Elephants are very protective of their young, so she came running out right after it to protect it from the car. He couldn't stop in time and he ran right into the mother elephant. The elephant wasn't really hurt, but it really smashed up his car. He is a colonel in the army, and not much phases him, but that was all he has been talking about since.
The second funeral was for an extended family member of the family that i am living with. This was a very different funeral. He was a young man in his late 20's, who had had some ups and downs in his life. About the beginning of December he was out drinking and someone poisoned his drink. It was a very serious poison, and he was in and out of three different hospitals before finally passing away about a week and a half ago. Because he was so young, and didn't have as many friends, and some people were a little disappointed in the way that he was living his life, the service was held outside the house and he was buried immediately afterwards. It was a sad service, and quite the other end of the spectrum from the first one.
A lot of you by now have heard about the elephant smooshing one of our cars. well it happened on the morning of the first funeral. the father of the family i live with was driving through a corridor in the forrest. This is an area where there is no electric fence in order to give the wildlife migration routes, so you are always watchful and careful when in these areas. A baby elephant ran out in front of the car that he was driving and the mother was not far behind. Elephants are very protective of their young, so she came running out right after it to protect it from the car. He couldn't stop in time and he ran right into the mother elephant. The elephant wasn't really hurt, but it really smashed up his car. He is a colonel in the army, and not much phases him, but that was all he has been talking about since.
