MY KENYAN MOTHER

 Today, I arrived in Chogoria and met my host family mother, who is letting me stay with her while my predecessor and mentor, Mitsuaki, trains me. When he leaves, 3 weeks from now, I will move into his apartment, where the other previous Global Health Fellows have lived.

I simply love my host family, and it has only been one evening! Lucy has already dubbed herself my “Kenyan Mother” and was very welcoming. She says I may refer to her as “mother” from now on if I want to.  She has made it her mission to make me gain at least 2kg (in just 3 weeks time) by cooking me delicious meals and encouraging me to take large portions and eat a second plate of food. She dishes out a large portion for herself as well, rubbing her tummy and saying, “I must maintain” with a smile. I simply loved this, as many American women feel they need to lose weight to be attractive, yet, here Lucy is being proud of her slightly rounder body. Although Lucy is a little bigger than some American mothers I know, she is by no means fat or overweight. She is curvy and unmistakably beautiful.

Lucy’s other mission is for me to get married. She says she wishes she had a son my age that could make a good husband for me. I was able to satisfy her for now by eating as much as I could stomach and assuring her that I have every intention of marrying one day… but that I am not ready to get married yet because I want to travel a lot... and besides, I told her, “your son is too young for me to marry now.” She really got a kick out of that! Lucy burst into laughter as we both noticed her young son, Tosh, blush.

Tosh is really adorable and sweet. He is about 10 years old, he’s very shy and polite, and he has the cutest smile. It is difficult to know what he is thinking, but I think he appreciates that I am so talkative, because he is not very talkative himself. He recently fractured his leg and has a plaster cast on, so he hobbles around (which only makes him cuter). He was unable to use crutches (not sure why, maybe he just couldn’t get the hang of it), so he is supposed to be carried everywhere, but Tosh keeps getting up anyway. I can tell he is an active boy and loves to play futbol (soccer) and the Playstation his father bought him. Since his cast is not as strong as the ones made in the US, he cracked it from standing on it too much today. Lucy didn’t get mad; instead, she sighed and asked me, rhetorically, “what am I going to do with this boy of mine?”

Tosh obviously loves Liz a lot because when I mentioned her name he perked right up and hung on my every word. Liz was kind enough to email me photos of my host family (who she, too, had stayed with when she was in Kenya), which I just got today, so I pulled out my computer and showed the photos to Lucy & Tosh. They absolutely loved them! Then, I showed them photos of Salt Lake City, Arches National Park, my family, and a few of my closest friends.

It is just the 3 of us at the house now because Lucy’s husband works until midnight tonight (he just returned from spending a week in Scotland related to his teaching position here) and her 2 daughters are both off at boarding school –it is very common around here for parents to send their children to live in the dorms for high school (which they call Secondary school) and sometimes even elementary school (which they call Primary school).

I offered to help Lucy with the dishes this evening, but she told me today I am a guest so I cannot help… but tomorrow, she says, I will be considered family and she would appreciate my help. I can tell that she wouldn’t accept any payment from me for room and board, so when her phone ran out of SafariCom minutes (you pay as you go here by loading minutes onto your phone by entering codes from prepaid scratch cards), I gave her one of the 40 minute calling cards I had bought this morning. I’m glad I found a way to repay her for her kindness. She just showed me out to unfold my bednet, so I am off to bed. Tomorrow, I have agreed to attend a Christian church service with her. Mitsuaki warned me that church services here last up to 4 hours, but I am happy to go and meet members of the community. Christianity is a huge part of the culture here so I would like to see what their services are like.

I feel happy and safe here.