All under one roof

where can you have a catholic mass, courtship,evangelistic ministries and circumcision all under the same roof? upper hill springs of course. at least that is what i saw last Sunday during a family fun day. actually in upper hill springs every Sunday is a family fun day. and they have nyama choma, kids swings, and play arena, magic tricks. horse riding , 'live' music, beer, you name it.

The magician was quite good with the kids even though his clad was a little too creased and faded. magicians are supposed to be brilliantly dressed and good looking. However he performed some very nice tricks, one man came to me and said, if this guy can do all these things with the power of the devil, just imagine what the real Satan can do!

the whole place was full of enterprising Kenyans, one was selling second hand story books to the kids, he claimed he wrote most of them, another was selling second hand toys which had been wrapped afresh to look like new, while there were face painters, etc. somehow during these family fun days, parents are normally very generous with their money and they buy stuff for their kids that they would otherwise not buy in normal times even if they were cheaper. also at this place, you could get your car washed, of your hair cut while you wait.

the music was being provided by the a Capella group which is a break away from kayamba , kayamba itself broke away from muungano choir, i don't know how many pieces there are right now, but you know its Kenyan since we even have new kanu, new ford kenya which broke away from ford kenya which broke from ford. actually Kenyans have an answer to Shakespeare's question, "what is in a name?" Everything! thats why when you break away, you must hold a bit of the name. these particular kayamba acapella group did not really do a capella, they lip synced some music in the background. they started with the solemn church songs, then they went to auma nene ayie kodi, then to some club songs from congo, back to natudhie nyambaini ya baba before they burst into a luhya circumcision song! the afternoon was unfolding nicely though with parents drinking beer while their kids take sodas on the same table. some girls whom my colleagues remarked were half naked if the blouses was anything to go by joined the kayamba guys on stage. as the day wore off, the beer did its job and more people joined the small stage. The group loved it.

towards the end i saw parents push their kids to join the dance, then the kayamba leader made the kids one by one to showcase what they got. one girl who could have been about 7 got to the stage and put one arm behind her head while the other caught her waist, she then wriggled so sexily all of us in our table gasped. but the other patrons clapped in approval. at least i only saw one woman shake her head in disapproval and protest that the music and showcasing should stop. but the show went on since the fat lady hadn't sung!

Well, having had enough of the mchanganyiko, I left the others to enjoy the day and probably night while i went to prepare to work for the working nation the following day.