Gold Diggers, North Kenya
KENYA
"Too bad, Sharrif", I said, and then asked if I could take some photos, but Sharrif explained how it was illegal for them to carry guns, and they did not want to be identified. The Kenyan government did not understand that having guns was their only way to survive. The Gabbra bandits soon left, and Abdup and I cooked a small potion of the meat, saving the rest to roast that night. Sharrif, despite his hunger, again refused to eat the meat.
"Would you rather starve?" I asked him.
"Yes, I am true Muslim", he responded.
"Sharrif, surely in times of starvation Allah will forgive?" I
asked, and took another mouthful of the juicy tender gazelle.
"What kind of religion would allow a person to starve"? I asked
between mouthfuls.
"I not starve yet". he yelled at me, annoyed that I was questioning
the rules of the Islamic faith.
"I tell Gabbra to come to next Well. They will shoot animal only in
leg. It will still live and I will bless it and then kill it", he continued,
sounding gruesomely enthusiastic.
"It does not worry you in the least, does it?" I asked. "An
animal is going to suffer terrible pain when it should be killed quickly,
put out of its misery, and all because of you and in the name of Allah".
"Stop this talk. You are not Muslim, you not understand", he yelled
at me.
"Me or the wounded gazelle or ostrich, or whatever the Gabbra return
with", I responded.
I later told Sharrif how I had not felt in anyway threatened by the
bandits, but if they had wanted to, they could have killed us, taken
whatever they liked, and nobody would ever have known. He looked at
me smiling.
"I told them you are here to look for new water, to make more Wells
for their people. That you have a radio. That every day you call in
and if you don't the Kenyan Army would come look for you. That you are
a very important person and doing great things to help their people",
he said.
"No wonder they gave us the gazelle meat", was all I could
reply.
