Getting ready for Rwanda...

I feel like I write these notes moving towards the future but about the past. I am currently still in Lamu, my last day here, before moving on to Rwanda via looooong bus ride through Uganda.

Where did I leave off? Male circumcision.....and then female. Many ethnic groups in Kenya and other parts of the world practice female circumcision, also known by the politically weighted term "female genital mutilation: (FGM), and it is considered a human rights issues with the UN in support of ending the practice of FGM as a female right of passage due to the many health complications that arise from the practice. So disclaimer: I am going to talk about the different forms of FGM practiced and what I learned from my time in the Massai Mara around communities who still, although decreasingly, practice FGM.

It is considered a right of passage for woman as well as men to be circumcised into adultood. The health workers we spoke to were rather shy, as is common in Kenyan women, and much of the frank conversation the west is more used to is not common place here. But alas, we had a meeting with two comunity nurses where we were able to speak openly about what alot of us were curious about of a practice which was very foreign to us.

When the time came the class was pretty reserved as well but, of course, I was upfront about questions I had. So the nurses described different variations of FGM that occur. In the olden days a group of women would get together and support the one being circumcisized. As for the older practice, the only description we coulf get was that the surgeon (other community member) "cut to the bone". Whatever that means, I took it as being a pretty severe portion of the vagina being removed. The more contemporary versions that take place are removal of the labia and clitorus, sometimes just the clitorus. There is no antistesia invloved in the procedure and when I asked a woman who had seen two done, she said she never saw the girls cry.
I think it is important to remember that inside of the social systems people in these communities work from, it is a sign of dignity to perform a rite of passage, and without such things (more so in the past) you were stigmatized and unwanted.

After the procedure the woman spends a month alone healing. It is not unheard of for women to die from infectious complications. It is rumored that part of the ceremony is to ensure that the woman will not cheat on her husband if she cannot receive pleasure from sexual activity. How true this is goes without saying.
Some parts of the world do more extreme versions like cutting everything off then sewing the vagina closed, leaving only a small hole for excretion and after childbirth they are sewn back up again. After being cut (with any variation of FGM) scar tissue forms and complicates childbirth. The scars tear causing more probability for infection and increased pain.

At the museum in Nairobi there was a display for the Maasai people and there was a t-shirt amongst the display the stated "Supporting Alternative Initiation Rituals for Women". So there definitely is public initiatives to eradicate and replace the practice but these things are slow. And with the introduction of schooling becoming more popular in rural Kenya it empowers the girls closer towards a position of having a voice to oppose the practice. Although, like I said, it is a point of pride and some girls choose it. They circumcise women around 16 years old. On another note, education is not free and much of the time the cost prohibits poorer families from sending their children to school.

Female circumcision is illegal in Kenya, along with gay marriage, but how do you enforce something like that. And one counter-intuitive repercussion of making it illegal is that now women have to be secretive and subsequently less sterile about the proceedure increasing their personal health risks. It is a hard topic.

Ok, I must go write my final paper! Ahhhh! But then school is done. Keep sending the comments.

All the Best.
Love,
Chelsea