Mamma Josephine's House

Living in someone’s house for a day in which you understand neither the culture nor the language has the most profound impression.

The first thing I notice is how suddenly the world is now in shades of brown instead of the normal bright pallet. Then the surroundings start to come into focus. Chicks chirping in the every room. The constant faint aroma of smoke from the fire lingering in the air. The smell of the earth which enveloping the room.

The house is small - less than the size of my room. It has three beds, two fires -which are the extent of their kitchen- and a place for a cow, donkey and 20 chickens to sleep. The ground is indistinguishable from the animals manure, and the chickens come and go as the please- one even finding a comfortable position on my lap (at which I screamed and the mamma laughed at me).

As the day begins you say your prayers. She led us to the grave of her husband, who died a month ago. I learned how to pray in Swahili for the grief and death of her family. Next, we clean the dishes, remove the animal droppings, and ration out food for the day. Fire wood is next, followed by feeding the cows and chickens. Then we boil the water and take a small break to drink tea. Cut the cabbage, slice the meat, buy tomatoes, stir the ogali and the feast is ready for lunch. After lunch we must again wash dishes, shell the harvest of beans, separate the beans, and then collect water to begin to cook supper. Then the children come back from school, and father returns from the field – and so the cooking preparations begin again.

Time goes slower here. Mostly because any activity you choose takes vast amounts of time. There is no tap that you can turn to get a glass of cold water. Instead, one must travel a mile with a bucket to a well, and then carry the heavy bucket back. One hour passed. Then a fire needs to be prepared. Another 15 minutes. Once the water is boiling and then cooled, 2 hours of the short 12 hour day have passed. Just on a glass of water.

There is no window you can walk up and order a hamburger from. Instead you must first decide if meat is actually worth the time and effort it takes. Here, these people will only eat red meat on extremely special occasions, such as the harvest time or a wedding. Bringing them the meat today was better than any Christmas morning they have ever had.

First, you must kill the cow. Then you must drain its blood, and skin off its hide. Next the organs and intestines are pulled away, and then you can finally begin to cut the meat away from the bones. Already up to 4 hours. After this you must boil the meat, salt it, and drench it in tomato sauce. Grill the onions, and then let it fry in vegetable oil for 30 minutes. Already up to 6 hours. Today I was lucky in that I did not have to kill the cow, but last week I watched the cooks here kill a goat for a meal we had. 

An incredible sense of guilt sinks into your soul. It’s hard to believe that in 3 months, what take this family all day I can accomplish in less than 15 minutes.

And every day she gets up and does the whole thing over again.

After seeing how hard these people must work for water, food, and money, it makes me realize how much I take for granted the things I have been blessed with. It will be difficult to turn the tap in my house at home, and even harder to stop for fast food. I wonder what this mamma must think of me, and how she would react to my house at home. I wonder how she has the courage to do this every day, when I realize that she knows nothing different, and therefore does not find it a burden at all.

Even though this mamma was so poor and just had her husband die, she let me see her life, share her meals, and mostly we just laughed the entire day at how I reacted to everything. It reminded me of the lyrics to “Through Heaven’s Eyes”

 and that's why we share all we have with you

though there's little to be found
when all you've got is nothing
there's lots to go around.