The snow sleet. I had not seen snow before, neither knew of the sleet. I was dressed in summer clothes on a very cold winter morning and wearing sandals. And I was walking to school and stepped on the slit and I fell backward and I was hit hard on my end of the bottom bone. I was holding my purse on one hand and school bag on the other. No one else was walking, I looked around quickly to see if anyone could help me get up. I sat there helpless until the pain went down. I stood up and was able to continue my walk and I did not realize what had made me fall. The weather checking. The weather was another experience-how to dress in every weather. Kenya has a moderate climate in our time. The weather was not a big deal not so today. The climate change created a semi-winter as said and it is felt by those that haven’t a feel of real winter weather.
Hospital records. We went to the public hospital to enter the family health records from Kenya’s system into the US record. We filled the hospital forms for each family member. Gĩkûyû tribe describe skin color in three different tones: white person, (Mûndû mwerû), brown person (Mûndû wa mwĩrĩ mûtheri), and black person (mûndû mûirû). We filled the forms according to our knowledge of colors of the person’s skin complexion. In our family-two kids were white, two black, and the father black, and I brown. To our surprise, it turned out that we were all black people. We gained another understanding of a different meaning of what black and white meant in the US.
American history. I was more informed when I did the American history. The America I knew was when I did world physical geography in secondary school-the great rivers and lakes in the world. I learned how everyone before me came to America. In physical geography I learnt the great river mississippi and five great lakes, the Superior, Huron. Michigan Erie,and Ontario. Also my biology laboratory teacher at Mary Leakey Girls Secondary School, Ms Carol Sanders from America taught the class a song saying “away the rolling river across the wide Missouri.” And that there was another small river Missouri. I also had my secondary and college sponsor from a Church in the state of New Jersey, the Cathedral of the Woods in Medford Lakes. The pastor of that church, Dr Richard T Say. I had not seen him or his photo nor him had one for me. I met him for the first time in his church when I came to the US. In the Say’s church, some people did not believe he used the church money they donated for the purpose he told the church. On arrival to Georgia, the pastor informed his church that we were in Georgia in the US. The church sent two church elders. They were two erlderly women from the church. They flew over and checked on us if we were real people or robots, the two ladies said to us. We met the two church elders in one of the major hotels in the city of Atlanta and we had a meal together and they left.
The first trip out of the state. In the following summer, we were invited to visit a family friend in New Jersey. We talked to the rental car business, selected the car we wanted to pick the following morning. We Carried cash to pay the rental fees, to our surprise we found we could not pay cash. We had to pay using a major credit card. A major credit card was an unfamiliar term. In Kenya one paid cash to every transaction as a sign of richness.
We missed the travel day. We took our car to service. A large American’s old two-door nova. It was a very strong vehicle. The mechanic affirmed that the car would make it to and come back with no problem. The following day, we traveled. The friend had advised that driving was good for us. It would allow us a lot of time to see the country, and he advised us to travel halfway, take a break, and then spend the night in a motel. The word motel was familiar. We had motels in Kenya. We drove looking for a motel to stay for a night, but never saw the word “motel” anywhere on billboards along the road. When the driver became exhausted we were already in Baltimore. The driver made a wrong entry to the highway, and an oncoming eighteen-wheeler truck was headed toward us. It was plausibly the truck driver saw our car lights and slowed down and signaled us as he stopped ahead of us so that we could turn back. That’s how narrowly we missed the death of us six that night.
We stopped at a gas station and asked a person taking gas where to find a motel. The person pointed to a building not far from the gas station and said that it is a motel, “there are everywhere and many of them,” the man said to us. The building facility the man pointed at had no name motel, but we believed the man. We drove to the complex and we found a man standing outside the entrance. We explained to him that we cannot find a motel and we were very tired. We asked him to help guide us to one. The man said to us “this is a motel and I am the manager. The place is full since it is late at night, only one room remaining.” We accepted the room and all slept in the room. Soon kids entered the room. They just lied on the carpet as they were very tired and had sat for a long time and squished together in the car for a long time. We parents used the available bed for the few hours remaining for the daylight to come. The following day we woke early in the morning and proceeded with the journey. We didn’t change to clean clothes or had a shower. We continued our journey and at 6:00 pm we made it to New Jersey.
We explained our delay to arrive on the agreed day and the friend said to us that all we needed to do was to call him and we put money in his credit card and pay the car rental fee. We did not yet have a house phone to do so, neither did it come across our mind to do so. In our time in Kenya, those that paid cash in all their purchases were considered rich and those who borrowed on credit with no credit card were considered poor and bothersome.
The hot summer. As we traveled to New Jersey, the summer weather was very hot, and driving from Georgia we had our first stop at North Carolina. We saw a large facility with a very large empty parking lot with a tree with a good shade near the roadside. We entered the parking lot and the driver parked under the shade and went to Walmart to buy a few things and use the bathroom. We all got out of the car, stretched ourselves, and went back inside the car to wait for my late husband to come back so we could continue our trip. One of my children decided to jump into the driver’s seat until Jotham returned.
Within a short time, we were surrounded by several police cars and a media vehicle. Our car tag was stolen. In the spot of the car tag is a hard paper with writing saying “stolen tag” stuck on the space of tag. The driver had reported to the police in Atlanta of the incident of the car tag stolen. The police went straight to the driver seat and asked the child seated in the driver seat to produce the driving license. First, I thought the policeman was not serious because I thought he could see the child was a small kid. When he persistently asked for a driver’s license and the child looked at him scared, I intervened and told him that that was a child relaxing there out of long travel. I went on telling him the child is in my document-passport, but the car boot (trunk) is locked. Therefore, I could not show him my passport at that very moment. Then he asked me where the driver was and I responded that the driver went into Walmart to use the bathroom. He asked me what was special about using the bathroom in Walmart and not elsewhere and I replied that the driver also wanted to buy a few things.
As the interview was going on, Jotham came back carrying some items he had bought. He was scared that something horrible happened to us while he was away and that was the reason the police were there. In a hasty voice, he asked me” what happened” and I replied, “I do not know.” “Anyone hurt?” I replied, “no, we were all well.” The policeman asked him to produce his driver’s license and then the policeman asked him if he had reported on the stolen tag and he said yes. The police checked from Georgia if the driver owned the car and finally said everything was alright that he could move on.
Everyone was in the car and I remained outside the car waiting to talk to the policeman, my late husband hurrying me to get into the car so we could continue our journey. I asked him to hold that I ask the policeman a question. He did. I asked the policeman what went wrong with us that about eight police cars and the media had come. He replied to me “this place you parked is a private parking lot and this large facility is a home for elderly people. And when they could not know who was in their parking lot they called us police to check. We responded to the call for their protection.”
I felt comforted that we will not be followed by police after we leave and charge us with an offence of some kind. I also learned about elderly home’s facility and private promises to be careful in future not to park without asking permission. These are a few incidents that happened within the first and second year. There were uncounted situations that continue occurring with a new learning now and then.
The lost child. One day our child got on a bus following friends. Usually, our kids’s school was close to the house, I picked them from school and we walked home. That day a friend offered to give the four kids a ride home but one child was missing. I panicked and started praying that God safe my child and bring back my child alive and if not alive get the dead body that I know the child died.
The father was at work. I hesitated to call him and passed on the devastating message. Before we came to the US we used to hear that the children get stolen and found killed and some of their body parts missing. The old memory kicked in my mind and created even great fear. While thinking the best approach to follow a Kenyan friend came in the house to visit. I told the story of what had just happened, a lost child. The visitor was an angel of the Lord. The visitor said to me I get into the car and we went to the City of Atlanta police place for lost and found kids. On arrival, the child was found and the police station waited for one to claim the child. The story told, the last stop for the school bus at a certain neighborhood all children were dropped off and the children ran to their houses. But my child was left alone standing on the street. The child had no house to go. The good neighbor called the police and reported that there was a strange child unseen in the neighborhood dropped by a school bus together with others and had no house to go. The police picked the child and took the child to the City of Atlanta police for the lost and found kids.
At the police, my friend and I were told to sit in the police cafeteria full of people, after identifying myself as the mother and giving a lot of details. As we sat in the cafeteria the child entered the cafeteria and saw me and I saw him. The child ran to me. That alone for the child entering a cafeteria full of many people and running to me was the best indication to the police that I was the mother of the child. The child never went to my friend. I picked the child and the friend drove us to our home. As we stopped at our house a police car passed by meaning that the police followed us without me knowing to ensure the address I gave as the address the child lived in was the same address I took the child.
I hope this blog material will end up in a biography published book