My friend has quit her Chinese Interpreting job to become a farmer.
I asked her so what kind of farming she was doing.
She said "You know, the usual
Spinach and a few kales."
But I met her a few weeks ago and she informed me she has started livestock farming.
'Oh really? In the village? '
I asked
"No, just in my backyard"
So I thought possibly rabbits or chickens.
Then she showed me a video.
We were standing outside the Buruburu KH. It was the Sign Language Assembly and Maureen had come looking for me, she brought me lunch but didn't find me so she came back again.
This time we found each other.
And talked until it got cold.
My mother loved Maureen.
My grandmother loves Maureen
And everybody else I introduce her to ends up loving her because she is just that.
A lovable girl
She is those kind of girls who always know how to talk politely to everyone, give advice without crossing lines, cook good food for a family, knows what spoons to use to serve a man, what dress to wear when.
What perfume to buy, what gift to give. She knows how to dance and even how to make liquid soap.
And most of all she knows how to keep a friend because if it was upto me we wouldn't be friends after all the stunts I have pulled over the years.
Including poisoning her with a carelessly prepared meal, choosing a new friendship over an old one and just being a complete big eared bovine who doesn't know a good thing when it's staring right in her face.
When Maureen came home my Shushu said:
'In fact ,she doesn't behave like a Jaluo at all.'
A very high compliment from someone who only has interacted with other tribes through the radio.
And every other time she would ask me.
'Na Kaī kairītu karīa karata gaku kamūjaluo gatūire kū?'
That small luo girl who is your friend, where is she now?
I told her she got a married
She exclaimed 'Then may God bless her, even you now it seems you might find a husband too.'
That was a few years back.
Maureen is one of those friends who still kept me as a friend after she got married.
I really appreciate friends who don't kick me out of their lives after marriage.
It's very hard for a single girl of 30+ to start making new friends.
But I think the highest praise I have for Maureen is that she would never use information given in private for public use.
I mean:
She may know dirt about you but she won't use it to score points somewhere else.
She may know dirt about you but she won't use it to score points somewhere else.
(I don't collect dirt but dirt seems to find me and settle.)
She is that kind of confidant who doesn't harvest data from you.
And if she comes across it won't repeat it somewhere else.
That is class.
Mercedes-Benz kind of class.
I aim to be that kind of human being.
The one that puts over a blanket over another's shame.
The one who doesn't laugh at friend who decides to go out on a date outing with an idiot, just because she is 26 and 'oh God what if no one ever asks me out and then I am 35 and all alone in the world?'
I should have known I would be 35 at some point but not all alone in the world. I'm not. I'm surrounded.
It turned into a disaster, the outing. The worst disaster you can imagine.
It rained heavily as well.
And all she said: "Don't blame yourself, you seemed to love each other."
And then she cooked the fish we had caught as I tried hard not to cry a lot for trying to fall in love.
1. In Kenya it's not simply about working smart, it's about working hard and breaking your back, then perhaps you might have enough to feed yourself.
2. Be nice to people. Be kind. Be polite.
3. Care about people. When her friend was sick, Maureen moved to her friend's house to take care of her friend for a month, while working a demanding job at a tour company.
4. Always dress right.
5. Have fun. No matter how bleak things seem. Go out, have chocolate, date someone, fly to China. Just don't drag yourself down
I'm proud of my girl.
And if you are a fisherman. She can hook you up with bait, bucketfuls of them.
@decathlon are you listening?
Yeah, that's Moreno. She takes after her mum.
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