The Children

Tom's Story: This past Saturday we attended the funeral for the brother of one of the local church members. Knowing that these events can last up to six hours, we chose to be fashionably late and arrived about 1230 (it started at 1000). We were ushered to the front and invited to share a brief testimony. Then Violet joined us as we sang 'Come, Come Ye Saints". Shortly thereafter, we were invited to the dining area and were served a delicious meal of vegetables, chicken, beef, ugali, chapati, rice, fish, and more. And no, I didn't sample all of the menu items, just some of them. It is a tradition to feed all those that attend funerals; there must have been over 250 people at this funeral. It was close to 4 before the casket was placed in the hand dug grave and covered with dirt. Again, the tradition is to permit relatives an opportunity to speak, local church leaders get a chance to share their beliefs, friends express thoughts and if any politicians are in attendance, they are permitted to share something too. Since most of these spoke in something other than English, I really don't know what they said.

To help pass the time, I started people watching and was intrigued by the number of children in attendance. I began to take pictures of some of them; they would then crowd around me to look at the image; they would point and laugh. It seemed to be fun for them. So, as we paid our last respects to Fred, I would also like to pay respect to some of the rising generation as depicted in the photos below.