Christmas is here!

Amazing how Christmas evolves as you grow older.

As a young gal, Christmas was my favourite season, partly because the school holiday was two weeks longer than the usual four week holiday in April and August. I could therefore do myriad things.

The first stop was visiting my grandma who lived ten kilometers away in the country side called Sironoi,that season had a lot of wild fruits and as we looked after her cows we feasted on those fruits which were rare and only found in Sironoi.
Then there was the initiates called "torushek' boys and girls going through the circumcision rites and hidden in the bushes. The girl torusheks wouldnt come out at all, you would just hear them singing softly. If you were lucky one of your friends having a torushek sibling would be sent to deliver food and you would accompany them to some designated point where you leave the food and sing a song to alert that "food is here" then vanish. Their chaperones would come shortly and pick them.

The boy torushek were not a joke, they would be heard singing tirelessly all day long with an accompanying horn callerd "kuryombu". In the course of the day , the torushek would go bird hunting, to the river or just wander or take a walk and anyone in their path had to run, their chaperones called "matirenik" younger men so to speak had long whips to scare anyone on the path that the torushek would use. Sometimes if you were unlucky and didn't hear the kuryombu a lash across your back would land, not us little gals though, we were so fast you wouldnt catch us. Not to mention we wanted to peep at the mysterious torushek clad in sisal skirts,sisal crowns and all the body painted white with ashes, they however walked with their heads bent, you wouldn't see their faces, its just from their height that you would guess their identity.

The initiates would stay in the bush for about four weeks then they would have a ceremony to welcome them back to the community now as men and women.

I would visit with grandma for a week, if i was lucky two then be back home "Mosop" in time to practice the christmas carols at sundayschool.

Sometimes my cousins would visit us and it was a lot of fun taking them around, showing my town and mostl likely a visit to grandma's again.

My grandma was very generous and every time you went visiting a few chicken would be slaughtered. She also had very fine recipes of cassavas and pea nuts and some concotion made of maize meal left crust called "kerunyek". She had three gigantic lemon trees, and we wouldhelpher sell the lemons by climbing high and pick the fruits, a sizable commission was the norm. This was a welcome motivation amidst the thorns in the lemon tree

That was one aspect of my childhood Christmas i miss,my grandma is very old and now lives with my parents in Mosop,whenever i visit her i get that hapy-little-gal feeling.

How was your christmas season like?

G

Talai

I know you might be wondering who Talai is.

Actually, Talai is my tugen clan name, and all women are called by their patrilineal clan name.

Talai is special, because is means gentle- something i would love to be true about me. It does not however mean being stepped on and inferior. It is sort of like horse power, so gentle yet powerful.

So my sisters and cousins too are called Talai, and true to it,they are gentle doves soaring high.

Alpha post!

Finally!

my blog is here- will be sharing random thoughts with you as often as i can.

Feel free to share your thoughts too and lets see how this rolls out.

G