Just attended
macakaya (@Washiku help me with the ingrich word here
) for one of the young men who perished in the disaster. From my observations, most of the dead are aged 25-40yrs. Sad sad state of affairs.
I'm told a mass service is planned for either Mon or Tue next week after which families will be free to bury their kin. Post-mortems currently a prerequisite with the state organizing the same.
Talked to a few young men. They tell me in shauri yako (simply shauri to the rest of us), there are two types of alcohol:
macore (pronounced mashore) and
kathavuria. The former is simply traditionally brewed liquor along the lines of
muratina and the rest. The latter is however not brewed, it's simply industrial ethanol. It earned its
kathavuria name due to the nature of preparation. Apparently it's brought as neat ethanol which is then put in a sufuria and diluted with water before being sold to clients. (in the local lingo, a sufuria is known as
thavuria, with
kathavuria being a small sufuria).
One guy who's a recovering alcoholic (having quit about 2yrs back) tells me in its neat state, the drink is so 'potent' that one would not dare take a sip coz 'inachoma'. When I asked some chokoras why they themselves were not affected yet they usually partake, they told me that they took
macore, not
kathavuria. They seemed conversant with method of 'preparation' of
kathavuria too and in previous such episodes, helped identify some of those who had partaken of the kathavuria stuff but were too afraid to walk out of their houses and go to hospital.
What is now not known is why, on this occasion, somebody provided methanol instead of the usual ethanol. Hapo ndipo upekuzi wangu umenifikicha!!
Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.