I barely had the time to wipe the dust of the trip to Uganda from my feet before I headed for my third field trip to Cherangani. Cherangani to north and west from Nakuru is the land of Sengwer people. The Sengwers had made a 3D model some years ago, but the features of the model had not been documented. So me, Francis and two new students who came for an attachment for Ermis travelled to Sengwer people’s cultural centre on sunday the 10th of May. We spent the following week talking with the elders about their traditional learning process, activities of different seasons, features of the model – basically all about Sengwer culture.

It seems to be commonplace that the trips always start with small adventures. We didn’t quite know how far we were travelling so unfortunately we arrived into Kitale, the last bigger town before our destination, a bit late. Charity, who works with the Sengwer, was waiting for us there way too early. She welcomed us with many angry phonecalls before we even reached Kitale, telling us to hurry our matatu to drive faster. She said we were so late that the next matatus had already stopped running and even taxis didn’t like to go to our direction because of bandits on the roads.. Neverthless we challenged the darkness and covered the last distance by at first a taxi packed with nine people, then pikipikis, the motorbike taxis, and finally with our own feet before arriving at sengwers people’s cultural centre long after sunset. But we soon forgot about all the troubles of the journey. The cultural centre was a very nice place with comfortable bomas for sleeping, wonderful views and a whole storage of items that the sengwers used to use when living in the forest.

We had a lot to do for one week, but the first morning started peacefully because so many elders from other parts of the forest were still on the way to the cultural centre.Meanwhile we admired and updated their big map and legend with the ones already present. I was happy to notice that Mzee Laima, who had been in the meeting in Mau, remembered me well and welcomed me the most warmly to Cherangani.

When everybody else arrived, we got to interview alltogether 12 elders including one woman. I had got snapshots to forest people’s cultures before but this was the first time I heard all of it from the beginning to the end. It is amazing how much all the communities I’ve met seem to know just relying on their memory, without practising all the traditions and livelihoods for so many years. The oldest mzee was 101 years old, but it didn’t stop him from walking, participating, and being one of the most resourceful people we talked with. I’m also excited in comparing the Sengwer’s eco-calendar with the the ones of other forest peoples of Kenya. Francis said they are all originally the same people, even the language tells it. So similarities in the cultures are many. But what makes a big difference is local surroundings. The Sengwers knew the appearance of stars, winds and movement of different animals among other things for each month of the year. The knowledge of nature is impressive, and according to Charity nobody had collected their inherited information before us. So it was good to know our work was well worth doing.

I’m sure that the elders appreciated our work together, too. It don’t think it’s common for forest people to gain such dignity and interest for their culture, see young educated world-citizens listening to their stories. At least we could clearly see and hear them smiling, laughing, going with the flow of storytelling. Often when something was difficult to put in words, they almost jumped up from their chairs and brought us all possible cultural items from traps to cloths and coocking utensils to demonstrate. And even better, they often also demonstrated events and and activities such as traditional prayers, grinding millet, even initiation and circumscision. The Sengwers told several times that they don’t take their youth to be cut in hiding, no! Their youth had to show their bravery in front of the whole community. I, once again behind the camera, really enjoyed filming on those moments.

Even after finishing days work we either watched Sengwer dance group from a video or sang and danced ourselves around the big map. The dances and songs reminded me of the ones we enjoyed after the meeting in Mau. I felt it really brought the group together. The people made sure that I would feel myself especially welcomed by giving me a Sengwer name. I was called Cherop Kapoon, which means directly “Rain Frog”. Rain was given to me because they said it never rained before we arrived. But when we came it raind indeed heavily for the whole week. Kapoon, the frog, is my totem animal. The reason to choose this particular animal didn’t become completely clear for me, though, but at least I heard it’s very humble and never argues with other clans. Whenever it sinks, it always rises up to the surface.

Apart from filming and enjoying the culture, I also felt the need to pay special attention to women’s indigenous knowledge, especially when I know that usually nobody else does. Difficulty is being objective, of course, and respecting the communities. If we want to record their culture as they see it, there’s no space for me to come and complain about something that is not right on my own opinion. But if, on the other hand, we don’t say anything, women will always be a silent minority listening to men’s stories of men’s culture. I just can’t believe that only men have special knowledge, especially when nobody ever seems to ask women. So I talked to the only mama present and got a glance to the less romantic part of the culture. But I also realized that there is indeed something that the mama knew and bwanas didn’t. We had so many stories of good and bad omens, hunting and circumscision – things dealing with mens life. But what mama told, for example, was that women are usually better medicinal healers than men, maybe because they’re present from pregnancy to birth, seeing children grow up to the adulthood. When the calendar is finished, we’ll see how much these issues were handled and talked about.

Otherwise it was very nice to have some company from Ndolo, Gilbert and Francis for the evenings. In the end I have spent so little time here with other young people, that I really enjoyed hearing something of kenyan student life. So I have really enjoyed all the field trips I have made and I’m looking forward to editing, seeing what kind of results my filming experience has brought.