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Showing posts from November, 2017

Grandmother's Shack

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                                                         Grandmother’s Shack I heard someone shouting loudly, which was bizarre in the morning. I got out of our house and tried to listen to where the noise was coming from. That is when I saw Rita, my younger cousin, running down the hill towards our compound. She had a twig that she was waving profusely from east to west. I knew she was in distress, but could not make out what she was trying to say. By this time, everyone had come out of their houses, including grandmother Teresia. Rita never made it to our compound, as we saw her fall down abruptly as she came down the hill. Samson, my older cousin, ran out of the compound, followed by my uncles, to check what had happened to her. To understand our past I will have to go back to the beginning. There were five houses with two shacks in ou...

SPECIAL DEDICATION TO DAD

               I must confess growing up was tough under the umbrella of my dad. We called him Dad, but he was referred to as Mzee Nyakenyanya, the tough man. He is a disciplinarian by nature so you can imagine what paraphernalia he had for discipline. A bamboo stick hidden behind his bedroom door. My elder sister was brave and could try to wrestle when the lashes came down, but not me. I hated being caned and preferred to be the humble obedient girl. Sometimes I look back to how he shaped us and smile because without his strong principals we will not have made it to who we are.           He has four girls ...that meant molding each one of us to become unique and responsible at the same time. He had no worries about my big brother and the last born for after all they were men and were required to be strong and protective of their sisters. We loved to play, but we had to do it focused on the time. You see, time was what...