CIRCUMCISION PARTY, REST TIME

Hotel room, Maua Basin Hotel

CIRCUMCISION PARTY

After our tour of the hospital on Sunday afternoon, Scott, Alfred and Helen were guests at a circumcision celebration for a 15 year old boy. It had been 3 weeks since the circumcision and the event was sort of a “coming out as an adult” event. The balance of the team went back to the hotel to rest.

Males tend to get circumcised between the ages of 11 and 15. We were told that Samburu women are circumcised the day they get married (just prior to the wedding). OUCH. We saw T-shirts in Meru that read "Say NO to Female Circumcision" and there is an effort in the country to reduce the incidence but even some Christian women are still circumcised.

DINNER AT MAUA BASIN HOTEL

We eat dinner in our hotel diningroom every evening at 7 pm. It is served buffet style and is like eating at the Ritz Carlton compared to what everyone around us is eating! The service is excellent and the food so far has been very familiar (in fact, we have requested that the chef serve us some “Kenyan food” rather than always fish, steak, spaghetti, etc.).We hold a worship service following dinner in the hotel courtyard. This evening we began with a debriefing session. Team members had lots of questions and concerns and just needed to talk about what we have encountered so far -- especially in terms of the extreme poverty all around us.