This past weekend we visited a harambee (“ha-rom-bay” - community fundraiser) for a youth group in Ribe called Play Safe. Their mission is to educate young people about how to be safe in all activities, including avoiding HIV, pregnancy, alcohol and drugs. We have seen them practicing drama skits frequently at the school grounds; their dedication is impressive. This was our first harambee, so it was quite a surprising experience!
A harambee is held when a family or group needs to raise money for something. Whenever there is going to be a wedding, funeral, church construction, or sending someone to school/college, the members of the community chip in. Rather than having individual savings plans, they tend to share whatever is available at the moment with each other. It’s an interesting phenomenon, because it goes against traditional western ideals of saving and investing, but it really serves the same purpose in the long run. You set aside or give money when you have it, and when you run into a big expense the money you need will be there.
As with most harambees, pledges are taken in advance and invitations are distributed to important people in the community (educators, church leaders, politicians … us?). We brought a little bit of money that we planned to contribute, and at various points attempted to give it to the organizer, only to be told that it wasn’t time yet. The entire harambee is a well-orchestrated ceremony, with specific steps and timing of which we were initially completely oblivious.
Guests are seated in different areas: some under the shade of a tree, special guests under a tent. The harambee is opened by the chairman of the organization, then in this case the Play Safe group performed an acrobatic show and a skit about safe sex (I think – it was mostly in Kiswahili). Then the official fundraiser came up (someone outside the group), and each person is supposed to go and greet him with “a little something,” ranging from 10-100 shillings (in the range of a few cents to a dollar or so).
As with most harambees, pledges are taken in advance and invitations are distributed to important people in the community (educators, church leaders, politicians … us?). We brought a little bit of money that we planned to contribute, and at various points attempted to give it to the organizer, only to be told that it wasn’t time yet. The entire harambee is a well-orchestrated ceremony, with specific steps and timing of which we were initially completely oblivious.
Guests are seated in different areas: some under the shade of a tree, special guests under a tent. The harambee is opened by the chairman of the organization, then in this case the Play Safe group performed an acrobatic show and a skit about safe sex (I think – it was mostly in Kiswahili). Then the official fundraiser came up (someone outside the group), and each person is supposed to go and greet him with “a little something,” ranging from 10-100 shillings (in the range of a few cents to a dollar or so).
After that, various people from the general audience give their donation, and these were pooled to be considered as one big donation. Then everyone is invited to “escort” this donation with a little something extra – 20, 30, 50 shillings. Then each special guest is invited to give his/her donation, each of which are also “escorted” by a little extra from others. As we were doing this process, it appeared that when you escort someone’s donation it is a way of paying respect to them and thanking them for what they are giving. The larger the donation, the larger the escort, usually. During this segment they also totaled the amount of money pledged from those who were not present and encouraged people to escort that as well.
In addition to asking for the escorts, the fundraiser used additional tactics like encouraging the audience to help round out a number (“we have 1,240 shillings, can we get 60 more to make 1300?” or “we have 1300 shillings, can we get 200 more to make 1500?”) It was pretty effective – you really wanted to see the group have a successful fundraiser, and there is definitely peer pressure to keep donating! As each person donates they are applauded, so there is definitely also an aspect of pride and recognition. Finally, when you think they can’t possibly squeeze another cent from you, they ask for things like a “chair” donation – 50 shillings if you were sitting in a chair! It really was all pretty amusing – at least we knew when we went that we were going to be asked for money – we just didn’t know how many times! Next time we will bring the same amount as planned but in smaller bills. :-) All in all the Play Safe group raised 40,000 shillings (about $570) - pretty impressive for a small audience in a small town with poverty struggles – even for Kenya. Their first project, aside from the skits raising awareness, is a water storage tank in an area of Ribe that frequently has water issues.
(video: Chicken! ... sorry, video to come soon)
After the harambee we headed to Kaloleni (where our post office is – larger than Ribe, smaller than Mombasa) to catch the latter part of a wedding. The headteacher’s sister was getting married and he invited us; we had never met her, but it is common to invite anyone and everyone in the community to weddings. When we arrived at 3 pm we thought the party would still be in full force, since we heard there are large crowds and long parties … but I guess this one had started the night before and was now ending. We had a chance to say congrats to the wedding party and then they left about 10 minutes after we got there.
After the harambee we headed to Kaloleni (where our post office is – larger than Ribe, smaller than Mombasa) to catch the latter part of a wedding. The headteacher’s sister was getting married and he invited us; we had never met her, but it is common to invite anyone and everyone in the community to weddings. When we arrived at 3 pm we thought the party would still be in full force, since we heard there are large crowds and long parties … but I guess this one had started the night before and was now ending. We had a chance to say congrats to the wedding party and then they left about 10 minutes after we got there.
(the ecstatic bride and groom ... Kenyans don't usually smile for pictures)Although the wedding was basically over, we did get to enjoy visiting with the headteacher and his family, and eating the food traditionally cooked for mass quantities of people: Pilau!
(The headteacher's wife, relative, and brother show us the enormous pilau pot)
(Lesley with some flower girls and other children after the wedding)
Oh yeah, and all this was on my birthday – what fun! We didn’t really do anything additional to celebrate since this was already a lot of activity. I did enjoy getting the chicken you saw above, a new pair of sandals, and some chocolate :-)
Other things we have planned for December:
- Visiting the homes of a few different teachers from Ribe Primary
- Visiting artisan workshops and shopping in Mombasa
- Celebrating Chris’s birthday by attending another local wedding (December is wedding season in Kenya, and there are more than 5 weddings each weekend just in the local area!)
- Spending Christmas in Nairobi with our friends Albo and Eda and their family
- Going on a safari in Maasai Mara and one of the lakes
- Celebrating New Year’s in Ribe with Tito’s family and village
We will also need to continue working on some of the community projects, like helping the women’s sewing project get started and planning for the computers and library. There is quite a bit to keep us busy this holiday season!
oh that all looks like so much fun! happy belated birthday, lesley! i have a couple questions =)
ReplyDeletei noticed the bride was wearing a white dress and the groom had on a tie- i can't imagine that is traditional kenyan wedding dress? do you know much about the culture surrounding the weddings (or maybe you can post more on that after your next wedding). also, what religion have you found a majority of the people in the community to be? keep up the great work! i miss you guys!
Hi, thanks for writing Brooke! I don't really know traditional Kenyan wedding dress, but this was a Christian ceremony in a church, so I think many folks here do the white dress thing. I'll have to write more about traditional vs. official weddings, and of course more about the weddings once we go next weekend!
ReplyDeleteFor religion, the coast in general is very Muslim but our immediate area is mostly Christian, especially Methodist in Ribe itself. I'll have to write more about religion, too!