Meeting With The Chief

We met with the chief today. Unfortunately we did not get any photographs of that meeting, so the picture above if from the school we visited later in the afternoon.



We were supposed to meet with Chief Nguenyathi on Saturday before our meeting with the rest of the community, but he was ill and did not make it. The fact that we went ahead with the other meetings and ahead with our project without meeting with him first was something we were afraid would be a sign of disrespect. We apologized for this right from the start and he seemed to be pleased that we made note of that and all was well.



The Chief, the son of the living Chief handles all the affairs of this land and its people. It is a traditional hereditary position and even now is much more than ceremonial. He was accompanied by three of the local Head-men and together they are a part of what they call the Traditional Council.



It is very intimidating to meet with a man of such high esteem in a place where he rules everything. However, he was genial and very receptive. As with most of our meetings, they start with a bit of an awkward "getting to know you" phase due to language and cultural differences. We felt it went extremely well and recieved the blessing from them for our work.