There is a Mission to the Samburu.

 The Samburu peoples are cousins to the Maasai.  The only difference in their languages is that the Samburu have a different pronounciation of plural words.  Their dress is very much alike except the Maasai have a red basic color and the Samburu that I met have a yellow and blue basic color set, and even when working the clothing is quite stunning for the women.  I am told that Samburu have red colors too but I didn’t see any.  The men, unless they are “moran” or warriors are pretty plain.  But if you see a moran out in the bush you know you are facing a pretty formidable character.  They carry a beautiful spear, the “rungu” or club, but what I noticed was different from the Maasai was the knife.  It looks soemthing like a Bowie” knife and is carried in a decorative sheath that hangs around the small of the back.  I hope one of our group got a picture of a moran.

Samburu women working

I am told that the Samburu, like the Maasai did not take to the Gospel the way the other tribes of Kenya did and that only recently “relatively speaking”,  have they started to allow mission work and now they are quite excited and anxious to get the whole area evangelized.  The ELCK has a school at Womba, but the school is at the end of the Womba road.  The school is 18km from the town of Womba but it is still called Womba and the children that go to school at Womba come from as far away as 18 km in any direction.  This is all confusing I know, but the rescue center is in Womba town and 23 children have been identified to be placed there.  As near as I can tell they will walk the 18 kms to the school in the morning and then walk back to the center in the evening.  By the way, for those of you that have an American education that is about 11 miles one way.  That means that going to and fro they will travel 22 miles by foot to go to school.  I have kids in Grafton that are transported by bus to school and they live about 4 blocks away.  I am not going to pick on our education system anymore – it is too easy.  We had to use our cell phones to convert dollars to schillings and I sat with the Kenyans who figured out the area of a ceiling in their heads so that they could order “puppy”.  They meant “putty” but you get my point.

These are smart people that greatly value education.  They have no electricity.  Well, they have generators and the school has a solar panel that gives them some electricity.  They desperately need one, I repeat one, computer.  I have right now within my eyesight 4 of them.  The problem with that is that if I try to send one over to them it would cost more than what all 4 cost in the first place.  The best way is to send the money to the ELCK and have them purchase and deliver.  If you are interested I have the head masters name.  He only has a postal address and the post office I believe is 18 kms away from the school.