Bullfight!
On Saturday I wanted to attend the funeral of Jacob Luceno, a famous Kenyan musician who died recently but lived just a few kilometers from my house in Shimanyiro. There were thousands of people attending the funeral, including members of Kenyan Parliament and many famous Kenyan musicians. The fact the funeral was walking distance away (the power company even let us have electricity for the weekend!) made this a cultural experience I didn't want to miss...that is, until I was awakened by an early morning text message from my work colleague, Habbakuk, informing me that there was a bullfight in a nearby village at 8:00.
Letsee...funeral or bullfight...tough call. Unfortunately it's very likely I will have other chances to attend a Kenyan funeral, plus I thought that perhaps I could be back from the bullfight in time to see some of it, since the funeral was inevitably going to last all day.
Anyway, with little time to spare I threw on some clothes and rushed to the bullfight. I arrived at the village where literally thousands of people were surrounding a roped-in field. People were also clustered in trees, up on hills, and anywhere they could get a good vantage point of the festivities.
A little background on Kenyan bullfighting: The Kakamega district is the only place in Kenya that does it, and it's not people fighting bulls like I expected, but bulls fighting bulls. Each bull represents the strength and pride of the village, and the bulls are pampered, extremely well fed, and raised for one thing: to beat the crap out of other bulls. As each bull was brought into the ring it let out a triumphant snort, as if it knew why it was there. After much hoof stomping and noise making the bulls were brought together to fight. One bull in particular was absolutely huge; to the dismay of the villages who brought lesser bulls, he could simply grunt and chase many of the competing bull away. This resulted in some pretty humorous moments (since I was on the other side and no one appeared hurt) as the larger bull would chase the smaller bull through the rope barrier and into the crowd, where people would shove each other out of the way and scurry to avoid being trampled.
So finally one bull showed up who was tough enough to take on the defending champ. Things started with some pretty intense headbutting as the bulls were pushing each other all over the field. After a few minutes the defending bull finally gave up and ran away, while the victors rushed the field, homemade Kenyan flags and branches held high, to celebrate.
By this time I found Habbakuk in the crowd, and he informed me that I was needed in Kakamega to pick up a Japanese FAO volunteer named Kenya (seriously) who has been working in Indonesia. Of course Habakkuk planned to make it back in time for the funeral but by then I knew it was a lost cause. So off we went to Kakamega, crammed 25 deep in a 14 seat Matatu since everyone was leaving the bull fight at the same time. Kenya (the person) is getting his masters in rural development from Carthage college in the US, and he's a pretty interesting guy. He really didn't have anything to do that day so on a whim we decided to go to the rainforest.
I called my friend Simon, who is the cab driver I most often depend on, to pick us up. He drives a primer grey, rusted out, all around beat up Toyota that appears to be about 40 years old. Surprisingly, it usually runs fairly well, but today it was having serious problems. He sputtered his vehicle, with us in the car, to a nearby mechanic where he assured us to just wait because overhauling a 40 year old car with millions of miles on it would only take about five minutes.
Yeah right, I've been in Kenya long enough to know what five minutes means, and after about another half hour of getting nowhere we took another cab. Finally, after plenty of negotiations on a ridiculous price, we made it to the rainforest. As opposed to just wandering aimlessly like I did last time we hired a guide for 300 shillings, and it was really worthwhile. Even though Habbakuk lives very close by he had never been to the forest before, and he really enjoyed it.
One thing to note: I haven't met a Kenyan yet who doesn't hate snakes. Almost every snake I've seen in this country has been chopped up into tiny pieces and left in a ditch somewhere. In the forest I got to listen to our guide talk about snakes becoming extinct, beneficial snakes who eat rodents, etc, and Habakkuk would have none of it. A snake is a snake and the only good snake it a dead snake, he said. There really wasn't much of a resolution to this conversation, and when the guide suggested Habakkuk keep snakes around his house to catch rodents...well, you should have seen it, it was pretty funny.
So lots of great information about the rainforest: There's a tree called the Strangler Fig that covers up other trees and takes nutrients from them until they decompose, leaving behind a hollow shell of a tree that consists of wooden vines that covered and destroyed the tree that once was inside. There are also plenty of medicinal plants in the forest, and many are nearly extinct and only found in the forest. One tree in particular, of which there is only a handful left in the world because they were all cut down for railroad trestles, has been shown to treat prostate cancer. As a result every one of these trees in the forest has been marked by research scientists and PHD students who are trying to learn more about these trees and save them before it is too late.
So there were tons of monkeys as usual as well. This time I saw blue, colobus, and a new one, the red tail, adding another check mark to my monkey collection.
That's about all for now. I'll try to upload some pics and it may be awhile before I can update again since I hope to be traveling for work quite a bit next week.
Letsee...funeral or bullfight...tough call. Unfortunately it's very likely I will have other chances to attend a Kenyan funeral, plus I thought that perhaps I could be back from the bullfight in time to see some of it, since the funeral was inevitably going to last all day.
Anyway, with little time to spare I threw on some clothes and rushed to the bullfight. I arrived at the village where literally thousands of people were surrounding a roped-in field. People were also clustered in trees, up on hills, and anywhere they could get a good vantage point of the festivities.
A little background on Kenyan bullfighting: The Kakamega district is the only place in Kenya that does it, and it's not people fighting bulls like I expected, but bulls fighting bulls. Each bull represents the strength and pride of the village, and the bulls are pampered, extremely well fed, and raised for one thing: to beat the crap out of other bulls. As each bull was brought into the ring it let out a triumphant snort, as if it knew why it was there. After much hoof stomping and noise making the bulls were brought together to fight. One bull in particular was absolutely huge; to the dismay of the villages who brought lesser bulls, he could simply grunt and chase many of the competing bull away. This resulted in some pretty humorous moments (since I was on the other side and no one appeared hurt) as the larger bull would chase the smaller bull through the rope barrier and into the crowd, where people would shove each other out of the way and scurry to avoid being trampled.
So finally one bull showed up who was tough enough to take on the defending champ. Things started with some pretty intense headbutting as the bulls were pushing each other all over the field. After a few minutes the defending bull finally gave up and ran away, while the victors rushed the field, homemade Kenyan flags and branches held high, to celebrate.
By this time I found Habbakuk in the crowd, and he informed me that I was needed in Kakamega to pick up a Japanese FAO volunteer named Kenya (seriously) who has been working in Indonesia. Of course Habakkuk planned to make it back in time for the funeral but by then I knew it was a lost cause. So off we went to Kakamega, crammed 25 deep in a 14 seat Matatu since everyone was leaving the bull fight at the same time. Kenya (the person) is getting his masters in rural development from Carthage college in the US, and he's a pretty interesting guy. He really didn't have anything to do that day so on a whim we decided to go to the rainforest.
I called my friend Simon, who is the cab driver I most often depend on, to pick us up. He drives a primer grey, rusted out, all around beat up Toyota that appears to be about 40 years old. Surprisingly, it usually runs fairly well, but today it was having serious problems. He sputtered his vehicle, with us in the car, to a nearby mechanic where he assured us to just wait because overhauling a 40 year old car with millions of miles on it would only take about five minutes.
Yeah right, I've been in Kenya long enough to know what five minutes means, and after about another half hour of getting nowhere we took another cab. Finally, after plenty of negotiations on a ridiculous price, we made it to the rainforest. As opposed to just wandering aimlessly like I did last time we hired a guide for 300 shillings, and it was really worthwhile. Even though Habbakuk lives very close by he had never been to the forest before, and he really enjoyed it.
One thing to note: I haven't met a Kenyan yet who doesn't hate snakes. Almost every snake I've seen in this country has been chopped up into tiny pieces and left in a ditch somewhere. In the forest I got to listen to our guide talk about snakes becoming extinct, beneficial snakes who eat rodents, etc, and Habakkuk would have none of it. A snake is a snake and the only good snake it a dead snake, he said. There really wasn't much of a resolution to this conversation, and when the guide suggested Habakkuk keep snakes around his house to catch rodents...well, you should have seen it, it was pretty funny.
So lots of great information about the rainforest: There's a tree called the Strangler Fig that covers up other trees and takes nutrients from them until they decompose, leaving behind a hollow shell of a tree that consists of wooden vines that covered and destroyed the tree that once was inside. There are also plenty of medicinal plants in the forest, and many are nearly extinct and only found in the forest. One tree in particular, of which there is only a handful left in the world because they were all cut down for railroad trestles, has been shown to treat prostate cancer. As a result every one of these trees in the forest has been marked by research scientists and PHD students who are trying to learn more about these trees and save them before it is too late.
So there were tons of monkeys as usual as well. This time I saw blue, colobus, and a new one, the red tail, adding another check mark to my monkey collection.
That's about all for now. I'll try to upload some pics and it may be awhile before I can update again since I hope to be traveling for work quite a bit next week.
posted by KenyaJoe at 5:42 AM
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