The rain was only brief this day, perhaps 10 minutes or so about 3pm. Usually when the rain comes everybody halts what they’re doing outside, if their jobs allow it, and retreats to the indoors, or at least under a cover of some sort in order to keep dry. The clothes were quickly pulled off the line about 5 minutes before the start of the rain. It amazes me how the people here can tell whether it will rain. To me, it just looks like a cloudy sky that could downpour at any minute. And that’s every day of rainy season. At any rate, soon after the rain ceased, I walked outside to see what the guys were up to. Felix and Henry said they were about to release the cattle, a daily event that occurs sometimes twice a day to keep the cows healthy and fat. They accompany the cows as they graze freely up and down the roads. It’s pretty much open country here, and it’s a normal site to see a shepherd collect and guide his livestock as they wander up the roads, complete with the ideal shepherd’s staff.
So I venture out with Raj, Felix, and Henry, pointing the cows in a northerly direction… I think (for some reason I just can’t get my bearings in Kenya). I mentioned wanting to see the ‘swampy area’ so we veered off the road and onto a single track trail that leads into a valley and over a hill to the swamp. And there we rested at the bottom of the valley. It was quite jungle-like, and very peaceful. We all just sat and laid on the grass as the cows munched on the grass around us. Another owner had a couple of cows and some sheep in the valley as well. I imagine it being the same sort of environment shepherds in the Bible would have sought, creating an almost identical feel. I could almost see David watching his sheep from a hilltop. Every now and then a small grasshopper would jump on my arm and then awkwardly jump off once it discovered my arm hair made a strange resting place. The unwelcome visitors were the gnats, buzzing around my face trying to get at the moisture in my eyes. Nonetheless, it was picnic worthy, making me long for a little wicker basket complete with a peppered pastrami & Swiss cheese sandwich with mustard and sauerkraut on Jewish Rye bread, a container of potato salad, and perhaps some of my mom’s fried apricot pies. A Green & Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate bar wouldn’t hurt my feelings either. Oooh, and a frosty cream soda in a glass bottle. (You dream a lot about food when you’re on the Race.)
Now, it does sound peaceful, and don’t get me wrong, it was quite peaceful and almost relaxing. Yes, almost relaxing. See, I discovered that there’s something about this whole shepherding thing. Even though you may get a nice green field to lay down on while the sound of animals walking and picking grass around you serenates your mind to a state of drowsiness, there’s a level of anxiety in it all. Every now and then, one of those critters would wander off into the thick of the jungle, or over the next hill out of sight. Then all of sudden when you see that one’s missing, you run after it for fear of losing your valuable living commodity.
So you don’t really ever fully relax. It looks relaxing, but the anxiety and readiness of tracking the lost sheep (or cow, or goat, or whatever) keeps you alert, which is really a bummer of a tease because all you want to do is close your eyes and doze off as the grass tickles your arms and the sunshine warms your face between the passing clouds. I couldn’t relax, even though I know the animals couldn’t wander too far without one of us catching them. It actually happened a couple of times as we entered conversation engaging enough to take our full attention, and it honestly does give you a feeling of rejoice when that wanderer is brought back to the herd, just like in Heaven when one of us is brought back.
