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| Image created by Tim Keiper using Adobe Photoshop |
I've been programmed to fear Islamic images. Black robed women with slits for their eyes, turbaned men with dark eyes and long beards, white buildings with high minarets looking like they've been dipped in green, and on top a crescent moon that looks like a star on a Christmas tree but it isn't...not even close. I'm usually a bit apprehensive when entering a new culture for the first time...but for me, this is different. I've seen the images of the angry Muslims and the men that crash planes into buildings.
But then the young woman in the long black robe, getting water for her family, turns and gives a bright white smile that contrasts with her dark skin and shouts "Hi" and waves. Why haven’t I seen more of these images? And still the journalists report that Al-Shabaab, the Al Qaida ally, is actively recruiting at the refugee camps just minutes from here. I find I'm fighting this internal battle between TRUST and NAIVETE.
My new friend Paul has worked to develop a community center with the people of Dadaab for 15 years. His co-worker Yattani moved to this desert from his home area in northern Kenya several years ago. My son Matt came in to get me out of bed one night because Yattani wanted to pray...and so, under the desert stars we prayed for their Muslims friends and their families. They call themselves followers of Jesus rather than “Christians” because of the Western political and militaristic baggage associated with the term in this area…and this is the ministry they have given themselves to...praying for their friends...looking for ways to be helpful - from building clinics to giving rides and water to thirsty camel herders walking in the desert...funny, in all those years I doubt if they have ever given a sermon in that place...but there are a thousand or probably many more that look on them as the only “Christians” they know. Unlike in the West, discussions of a religious nature are welcomed, almost expected, and an understanding of religion is key to forming relationships with Somalis. So, there are Paul and Yattani, one white Canadian Liverpool football fan and one black nomadic goat herder from the other side of Kenya building relationships in a Muslim world.
That's fine but then there is the little issue that Matt wanted to stay out there too...to volunteer at the Kenyan school I was visiting…just a bit troubled by that. The morning I was leaving one of the elders of the town came up to greet me as he did each day I was there. Subax wanaagsan (good morning) he said. I faced him and put my hand on his right shoulder. I told him I was leaving and that as a village elder I would like for him to look after my son. Paul was standing across the outdoor cabana-like structure and translated what I had said into Somali. Osman turned very serious at this and put his left hand on my shoulder. "I will look after him as if he were my own son" and I said: "then I give him to you to look after as your son while I'm away". He repeated: "He is with me. I will look after him like a son." As you can imagine, I was so thankful for this encouragement. I was thinking about it on the way home...I'm thankful...but I hope Osman doesn't marry Matt off to his two daughters before I get back up there....
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| Photo by Tim Keiper of Osman. Those I met do not like their picture to be taken so very few would give me permission. |
This is a polygamist society so, for example, one man that looked to be in his sixties, came calling next door on his third wife. She is in her teens and had recently given birth to her first child. My friend Mousa, in his thirties, has one wife and says he wants only one wife. One day he introduced me to his 70ish year old brother and told me his father had 22 children and four wives. He told me matter-of-factly that the Qur'an permits only 3 or 4 wives. Marriages are usually arranged by dowry and in case you wondered, no, women do not have more than one husband. A woman's role in this culture is well documented and I'll not go into it here.
We hear from and visit Matt when we can and he is doing very well. He teaches one math, four PE, and two English classes at the local primary school. He is “the great white hope” on the local soccer team whose away games involve travel into the refugee camp to play one of the teams there. The school and town of Dadaab is just next to 3 UN run refugee camps "hosting" almost 300,000 Somalis fleeing the violence across the border. While most refuges came recently and are from Somalia, others are from Sudan and Ethiopia. I had an interesting Ethiopian lunch with some men that had lived in the camp for 20 years! This man said: “if we were in prison at least we would know when we would get out.” But they stay because it is safer for them here than in Ethiopia.
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| Photo by Tim Keiper. Over the years the refugee camps have become a maze of tangled stick fencing leading to doorways. |
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| Photo by Tim Keiper. Driving British style. |
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| Photo by Tim Keiper. Somalis in this area are nomadic sheep and camel herders. I wanted to ride a camel until I learned that that would be like asking in Whatcom county if a could ride someone's cow. Camels are for milk and meat and people travel with them to "pasture" for a maximum of 3 days without water. Traditional nomadic routes cross the Kenya- Somali border regularly and as you can imagine no one cares. And yes, there are African style predators in this area. |
Everyone seems to know that Al-Shabaab is active in the area and there is anti-Amercian graffiti visible at the school, and yet, the teachers and students are very kind and thankful for assistance (when asked where we are from we usually smile and say “right next to the Canadian border” but I think everyone, in a small town sort of way, knows we are from the U.S. I have learned that in most of East Africa if I say I’m from Obamaland it elicits a wonderfully warm and happy greeting but not so here in this region…Somali’s in general don’t think highly of Bantu Kenyans or the U.S for that matter).
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| Map from UCLA Language Materials Project. The yellow area is Somali language region. From what I've gathered Somalis in Kenya seem content with being part of Kenya and away from the violence of Somalia. The Ethiopian government is heavily involved militarily in the Somali civil war due to its interest in maintaining current borders. |
It is no wonder they are grateful for the assistance at the Dadaab primary school. It has 1,200 students and 20 teachers. I noticed the class sizes are a little smaller than the 60 you would expect because the students don’t all show up every day…but then, again the teachers don’t show up every day either and sometimes the class is there most of the day without a teacher (except for the one next door that checks on the them once in a while). The teachers often carry sticks to keep order but I only saw one instance of a “disciplining” as the students where respectful and friendly.
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| Photo by Tim Keiper. This is my favorite photo so far. |
Sheikh (rhymes with peck): a lay religious leader
Imam: a teacher at the mosque usually formally trained – similar to a professional pastor, rabbi, or priest but with a teaching focus.
Teachers at this school have a bit of formal training but most were recruited after completing secondary school. The (4) schools I visited here and at the refugee camp provided housing for the teachers (think mud and stick huts and you’ll be close). Salary for these Kenyan teachers is 7000 KSH ($90 USD) per month or if you could get on at the CARE school at the UN refugee camp you would earn10,000 KSH ($130 USD). Teachers get their assignments from the Kenyan government but can “suggest” a region of placement. I asked one teacher at a particularly remote primary school (we traveled half a day by 4-wheel drive on “tracks” laid out exactly on the equator) what he thought about this method of placement. He said: I have confidence the government is placing us for the good of the people.”
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| Photo of teacher housing by Tim Keiper |
