Living the Little Dream[40] – Enock, my best Kenyan host

Enock is a colleague of mine from ILO and I first met him last year in Gevena when we went for training for the fellowship program. He is an agricultural specialist and have previously worked in various projects distributing weather-indexed insurance to small-scale farmers in Kenya. In particular, he has previously worked on a product known as Kilimo Salama which packages micro-insurance with seeds products for farmers – one of the most innovative agricultural products in the world. Anyone who knows Enock will describe him as fun loving and more importantly a genuine friend with a great heart. Although Enock is based in Ethiopia, he has by far been one of my greatest teachers of Kenyan culture.

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“You must visit me in my rural home in Eldoret, Chow!” Enock always invites me since we’ve been friends. Finally, shortly after Easter I had the chance of visiting Enock in his rural home in the highlands of Rift Valley in Western Kenya. Enock is a proud Kenyan from the Kalenjin tribe who is famous for producing their country’s Olympic runners (75% of all the top runners in Kenya are Kalenjin). He grew up in the farmlands of rural Kenya and believes micro-insurance to be a great risk management tool for farmers in coping with weather uncertainties and climate change.

In Enock’s rural community, there is a love for cattles and they are perceived to be one of the greatest financial assets. In any Kalenjin marriage, the groom-to-be must pay at least 6 cows to the bride’s family as dowry payment. A special gourd made of calabash is also presented to the couple at the beginning of their home formation as a household goods which symbolises a long lasting marriage. Enock’s mother also prepared a traditional spiced gourd as a wedding present for my husband and I. “You are welcomed into our family” she adds as she presented us with their traditional present and thoughts. The calabash gourd is used to ferment their traditional food mursik – a fermented milk (cow or goat) spiced with smoke and charcoal of certain tree species. Mursik is usually consumed with the Kenyan favourite ugali. No doubt, the ugali prepared by Enock’s mother was the best I have ever had in Kenya. I have never tasted ugali with such rich and fresh aroma of maize!

As a city girl, I have never experienced the simple life of self-sufficient farmers who grows and consumes their own crops from their backyard. It is a privilege to be part of a Kalenjin family and what a beauty it is to see one’s traditional culture and identity to be valued by younger generations in a rural community!