With a baby was on the way, things were going well until the eighth month. My wife began experiencing backaches, and her legs swollen. I asked an older lady in the neighborhood about leg swelling, and she told me that it was typical for the portions of a pregnant mother to swell. When we went to the hospital, my wife admitted, and while the doctor did not tell us what the problem was, she had a total bed rest until she delivered. When the baby was born, I picked my wife and child from the hospital. We had bought clothes for the baby, medium-sized striped towels, a dozen white nappies, and a leso-fabric to carry our baby boy.
I cared for my wife and the baby while still going to work. My mother taught us to cook, and I had also learned to prepare goat and cow soup with herbs and to stir (kūbīra) it with a stick with bones crossed at the ends (kībīri). A lady friend from my home took care of my family when I was at work. The couple, our next-door neighbors, and at times the wife helped me cook. The lady took me to buy the herbs used to make goat and cow soup recommended increasing the mother’s breast milk supply. Our baby grew big and fat. An older friend offered to bring me goat head and beef bones from the butchery he worked. I adjusted well to the new family routine and lifestyle. The baby slept in the same bed with us and would be breastfeeding with minimal movements, which allowed me to sleep with little disruptions.
We went to see my parents in Nanyuki, three people, my wife, the baby, and Ione, and we traveled by O.T.C. bus from Nakuru to Nyeri and then from Nyeri to Nanyuki on another O.T.C. bus. We paid twenty-five shillings per person, from Nanyuki town to George farm, we traveled in a land rover that mzungu gave to George’s workers. The road was terrible, and only the land rover could maneuver on the terrain.
We made our visit a quick one because my parents lived and worked on the farm. The neighbors passing by my parents’ home came to the house for a few minutes and greeted my family and me. The parents were excited to meet my child and wife for the first time. My mother had excellent joy h that the baby named after her husband. I was on leave at the time, so I spent two weeks with my parents, then left my wife and baby to stay with them longer.
My father told me, “Son, you cannot raise a family in the city; it is not a healthy environment. Everything, even the onion, is bought out of pocket. Bring your wife home here so that she can farm foods, and the kids brought up well.” I brought this up with my wife and talked to her about my father’s words. She loved the idea and went on to live on the farm with my parents. She grew food and raised the family as we continued adding the number of kids. My parents loved my wife and kids.
I took my father’s advice and built a four-bedroom mud house on the farm people had bought from a white guy as a group and planned to divide amongst themselves. Before they divided the land, the new owners occupied the houses that the people working for the mzungu had lived. A person had the freedom to make the largest piece of land possible and grow food on any part of the land while waiting for equal distribution. My wife developed a large portion of land and produced more products like beans, maize, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes. She preserved some foods such as dry maize and dry beans until the following season and sold the excess. I visited the family once a month, but the travel was expensive, and I always had to buy things for the family and my parents. During school breaks, my wife and kids visited me to experience a different environment.
When I wasn’t traveling, I sent them money through a money order. Things worked well for us until a drought hit the country, and people had to depend on the government to supply yellow maize flour from foreign donations. My father had cows, chicken, and goats, but the drought was a danger to the farm’s future.