Qande

Monday, 28 July 2014

Changing times

Mumbi and Wangechi are cousins who grew up in the early 50's as kids.  Their idea of fun was creating their own games and toys from String and plastic papers to make a ball.  And creating toys from things like sticks, sacks and anything they could lay their hands on.

They looked forward to going to their grandma's and grandpa's as they used to get spoilt. Their grandfather was wealthy in the days as he was the son of a chief.  He had 26 wives.  Their grandma was the 20th wife.  Their grandpa would slaughter a goat and then roast the meat .  He would get both kidneys and roast them over charcoal and then call Mumbi and Wangechi and give them one kidney each.  Those days kidneys were given to girls.  When the meat was ready, he would call all the children and they would sit round the charcoal fire. He would cut up the meat and as he cut it he would pick up the best piece and cut it, and give it to  Mumbi who he always asked to sit by his leg.  He would take the next piece and give it to Mumbi and then pass it Wangechi then round to all the other kids.  He would do that until all the kids had had enough.  He would at the time be telling them stories.  When the kids start falling asleep and he would call his wives to come get their kids.

In the process of going to their individual huts, some of the kids woke up.   In those days the goats spent the night inside the hut on one side side.  Mumbi and Wangeci would wait for their grandma to close the door and go out to talk to the other wives. Mumbi and Wangeci would get out of bed and let the goats out from their corner.  They would ride the goats and pretend they were horses.  And because all this was done in the dark with very little space inside the huts, they would fall off the goats and either hit the wall or the floor.  Then they would chase the goat to get back on it.  The goats would be making a lot of noise.  Their grandma knew what was going on and let them have fun for a bit.  When they heard her footsteps they would run into bed and pretend to be asleep.  In the morning they would wake up with bruises on their foreheads, legs and arms.  Their grandma would not ask them anything until after breakfast.  She would ask them "What happened to your foreheads?"  They would say they don't know and pretend that they were not aware they were bruised.  After a while of being questioned Mumbi being the cheekiest of the two would say that the goats must  have head butted them in their sleep.  And grandma  would laugh and pack a bag of vegetables for them to go home with.

In those days, children never wore helmets, or knee and elbow pads or any form of protection  when playing.  They made their own toys and created their own games.  They spent the entire day out and only got into the house when it was dark at 6.00 O'clock.  There were no health and Safety issues and kids grew up very well and became creative.

In modern times, everything is bought and is very expensive.  Kids need helmets, Elbow pads and knee pads if they are going to be riding anything.  Kids spend the whole day indoors.  Kids are not encouraged to be creative because they have games consoles keeping them indoors.  With that, obesity sets in as they do not get enough exercise.



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