Kari, Brie, Amanda and Val head into the church to begin talking to the Maasai girls about some tough subjects.

The girls from Najile look so much the same. But what a different life they lead, what a different culture they come from. Yet - they still really all are the same, all God's children.

“The Most Difficult Topic”

If you want to skip this entire discussion, I don’t blame you. I’d like to skip this topic, but after a lot of thought, I decided to just put it out there. In two words, “female circumcision”.

It’s something that those of us who have lived in North America our whole lives cannot hardly comprehend. The fact is that an incredibly large number of tribes around the world practice it, in varying degrees. If you want to learn more about it (or have never even heard of it), search the internet. Sorry, but I am not going to give you any description here.

The reality though is that many, many girls between the ages of four and eleven are being subjected to this by their parents. It is the tradition of their culture and they have never questioned it. Outside organizations attempting to end the practice have met with stanch resistance.

While we were in Najile, Jen shared that a young girl at Mosiro knew that her “procedure” was coming up. She chose to run away rather than be subjected to it. Now, running away in the wilds of Kenya is a little different from running away in Middle America. There are no runaway shelters, no 1-800 numbers to call for help and if you meet some kindly local female stranger she will more than likely turn you in instead of bucking the deep-seeded tradition. Of course, none of that matters because the wild animals would probably get you first.