Welcoming a new member of the household seems to deserve an entry on the blog. Omundi is three weeks older than Tommy and they are rapidly becoming as thick as theives around the house. It’s coincided nicely with the start of the school holidays!
We first met Omundi just before we came to the UK when we delivered Lillian, our house keeper, to her rural home about 40km from Kisumu. The home was poor, poor even by Kenyan standards; Lillian’s house had a large hole in the roof and the money that she earnt with us clearly wasn’t enough to feed all those hungry mouths. Omundi, her youngest child seemed to be bearing the brunt of the situation. His stomach was hugely swollen and he was suffering from worms. He clung to his mother and whimpered like a kitten.
We took Omundi for treatment at the local ‘clinic’ - a one woman show a pharmacy shop in the local trading centre a couple of miles from Lillian’s house. She was eager to prescribe a list of drugs as long as your arm, i guess she wanted to make as much money as she could from us, but we just took the worm treatment and left.
When we got back to Kenya we invited Omundi to come and live with us. Lillian agreed and went to fetch him, returning with a whimpering, hungry little boy who was clearly nervous in his new surroundings. We took him for a check-up with the local peadiatritican and he weighed in at 10 kg, a kilo less than Tommy at the height of his recent illness. Lillian and Omundi eat with us and mealtimes have become big family-style affairs. Omundi is slowly gaining in both weight and confidence.
Omundi speaks only Dholuo, he does not understand either English or Swahili. It’s turned us into a truely multi-lingual household as Lillian communicates with David and I mostly in Swahili. I don’t think it will be long before Omundi starts speaking English though, after little more than a week he spoke his first word of english today. I was promting him to say kayie which is ‘please’ in Dholuo and after a couple of minutes he looked up at me and said, ‘please’. In English, clear as you like.
A terrific addition to your household. A companion for Tommy and learning for everyone. Degrees in linguistics [David, Sara] only the book whereas Omundi is the reality. And sounds charming with it. Well done, and I mean well, not patronising [or is that matronising]
A terrific addition to your household.
Indeed. He’s fitting in well. The whining has stopped, pretty much, and his distended belly recedes with every mealtime. He is used to me being around (he waswary around men when he arrived) and every now and then drops on my lap on the sofa for a snuggle or chat.
Hey, that’s a lovely picture!!!!