Mabera Circumcision Parade

The thing I missing most right about now is The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I know it seems silly, but I really like parades.  I like getting up early on Thanksgiving and Christmas and watching the Parades on TV.  I like watching them when we go to Disney World, and I liked watching them roll down Jackson Street in Downtown Newnan.

So today I witnessed a surprise replacement parade, only one day before Thanksgiving.  I went to a town called Mabera this morning not to far from our town of Isibania.  Now there are basically no Muzungus (white folks) in Isibania, and there are even less in Mabera, so I get noticed, alot.

I was accompanied by my Kenyan-counterpart Rogonga Augustine.  So as we were in the cab on our way.  By the way a cab here is a toyota station wagon, and it will usually hold about 12 people, no lie.  4 up front, 2 people sit in the drivers seat, the driver actually will often sit in the lap of a passenger and drive.  5 people in the back seat, and then another 3 or maybe 4 in the cargo area along will all the bags of maize and whatever else is happening to be transported.  This morning I was up front sharing the passenger seat with a rather large man.  I noticed alot of people on the side of the road, some were dancing.  When we hit town I knew something was up.

There were alot of people and then coming down the main dirt road that we would be travelling on to go further into the bush was a parade of folks.  It was indeed a circumcision parade.  They have a circumcision season here, it will occur in a community every few years.  During that time boys and girls will be circumcised.  The have sheets rapped around them, their bodies are painted white, and there are tons of folks around them singing, and dancing and carrying weapons!  They have a weapon here called a Rungu, which is basically like a club, with something menacing attached to the end, you would see them  in Mad Max, Beyond Thunder Dome.  And some people have like shakers things all over their body like maracas making noise.

So I knew before I left this morning circumcision season was coming up.  I was actually traveling to see the Chief because 3 members of my team had been attacked by a crazy-man in the village.  None were harmed, and in the end he didn't take any of their belongings.  This was the team I traveled with last week in the same area, and on Monday I decided not to go in the field and oversee another area of the project at our HQ.  I had also been warned that during circumcision season, the clans don't allow vistiors or people from different clans into their area, because they do secretive things they don't want others to know about.

But I had no idea when I got out of the cab, I was going to be in the middle of the Circumcision Parade.  I was on edge a bit going back and fourth from the Chiefs office.  I prayed alot, and tried to go unnoticed, well as unnoticed as I could be, being a Muzungu whipping by crowds of people on the back of a motorcycle.

So in the end, I was ok and I got to watch a parade.  I'll be honest and say that if they were streaming the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I'd be trying to find a way to watch.  But they are not, so the Mabera Circumcision Parade will have to do for this year. I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving back home, and you all enjoy the Parade.