We were yesterday with Sinikka in our first Kenyan funeral. Our schools deputy died for cancer two weeks ago and they asked also us to come for the funeral. So we left at 7am from the school yard with the school bus and two small cars. We were told that the funeral will be held in a small village 2hrs drive away. Well it took us a bit longer because our buss broke down on the way and we had to try and get another one. We got one of these big matatus and so we continued. First we went to this place where people go and see their lost one and then collect the body and take it home for the ceremony and to be buried.
The teacher’s home was a beautiful place with a lot of banana trees. There the ceremony was held on the backyard with at least 100 guests. Most of the guests were standing during the whole ceremony which lasted almost 5 hours! Ceremony included a lot of photographing around the coffin (they asked also us for two photos), many speeches, some singing (I think it was gospel, tho I didn’t understand anything), a lot of sermons from at least 4 priests. We were able to understand half of our principals speech plus on sermon from a priest, and it felt like he meant that sermon for us.
We got back around 7pm without eating more than a few bananas and drinking only a little water during the whole day. It was very long and interesting day, also very different to Finnish funeral. People were wearing anything from black to bright yellow and some were crying, some laughing. I didn’t take any pictures during the day.
Tomorrow we are planning on going to Nakuru national park and to Nakuru city for the weekend. The school is now closed for Thursday and Friday because of a mid brake.
