Skip to main content

THE RUDIMENT.
        
            On the Wednesday of 11 November 1998, at Kitale District Hospital, I lay, wrapped in a lesso, beside me, Moses, my twin lay too. Quite but terrified were we of the new, acrid and cold world we'd just been born into. The light, of course, was so piercing that my eyes remained close. I had just been born! Mrs Gladys Naliaka, my mother whose name I came to know four years later lay too. Just like me and little Moses, she too lay tired for having me and Moses living inside her womb for close to 274 days. The labor she had just experienced 20 minutes earlier draw her into deep sleep. Later on we were to have our first taste of her love and care, both of which we required at that  moment of our beginning life.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

PARTING SHORT           Situations could not allow mom to stay longer. The negativity she faced was so intoxicating for the young mom she was. Mom had to leave. Early one morning, at around 5:30 she set out on a journey. A journey she was determined to do once. She was done with this. The ridicule, contempt and disrespect from the in-laws was more than she could bear. She was loving though to me and Moses of course. She did bathe the both of us, changed the diapers and breastfed us. Her boobs were dripping she narrates. She then silently closed the door behind her and left. The morning was chilly, birds chirped from the many trees that fenced the homestead.           She met a few early risers  of course. Mum is shy and was even more shy back then. She walked herself all the way to the central business district. As early as it was she could manage to get any form of mechanical transport. The buses were few those days.   ...
THE PRETENDER           Mom had to use the nearest route possible. The day was still fresh. The African share of the sun slowly brought Kitale a brighter and warmer essence. Dad had not seen them though. After seeing dad in that state, mom was immediately confused. She could never even explain how on earth she managed the 3 kilometers back home. She had even forgotten that Nekesa had accompanied her. At home none suspected had left earlier that morning. Breakfast was brought and lucky enough she had arrived. Mom explains that dad used to drink those days.It was after this that he came home and physically abused her. She would scream her lungs out for the neighbors to arrive for her rescue.           She explains such an occasion. After seeing that it was quite a burden to the sisters, dad decided mum should be preparing her own meals and that of dad. Dad got mum three cooking pans, plates, spoons and a small basin. He brough...
REVAMP           Things worsened for mom. Mother-in-law was too rough, mom resorted to be resilient but the pressure from the on-laws was too much to bear. The only person mom trusted for as friend had died, dad was so busy with work for him to notice  what she went through, she had to revamp her earlier plans to go back home. This time, she had to be smart and careful, she had no option, that was the only thing she had to do for the better life she wanted.                  Mom had an ego. She narrates how she could not accept to be in an affair with any man from her neighborhood. None deserved a beautiful woman like she was. Unlike many hyperactive women in the village, mom stayed home, cooked and washed all day. When the chores were done, she either slept or sang the catholic hymns she learnt at the local catholic church she attended. It is in this, dad won her heart. Dad had visited his sister, Gladys, she...