Some people's stories...

One day I was talking to a man I’ll call Markus. He's about my age. Somehow we got on the topic of families, and I asked how many siblings he had. It turns out he is one of 29 children. His father is 81 years old, has three wives, and children ranging in age from 64 down to 1 ½. His youngest wife is 43 years old. Of the 29 children, only six have managed to complete secondary school (of course there are several that have not reached that stage yet…)- four men and two women. This is definitely a skewed ratio because 20 of the 29 children are female.

Another man, who I’ll call Jamie, is one of 35 children. His father is 74 years old, and must have minimum three wives as well. I’m not too sure how many he has. The youngest child is still breastfeeding but Jamie figures he’ll have more siblings on their way in a little while. Yikes! Although boys are generally regarded as more desireable than girls, that family has a big problem because... how in the world can that father divide his land between his 27 sons???

So many children here have wonderful names like Victory, Patience, Mercy, Grace… Names that sound like they have a meaning probably do… so I always ask for the stories… Victory is the name of the first son in a family. His parents had three girls first, then felt victorious that they managed to get a son after all. Patience is just older than Victory… I guess the parents were practicing patience waiting for a boy?

Everyone has a second name which also has a meaning. Chebet/ Kibet means a girl/boy born in the day time, Cheruto means a girl born while visitors are around. Other names are for when it is raining, if the child is born when the cows are coming home (sunset), in the middle of the night, early morning… I have even been given a name. It is Chebeni- meaning born later than expected J I am told I was born 15 days late… I now answer just as easily to Chebeni as to Allison in Mt. Elgon J

(**the following is not for children’s eyes**) Mercy’s parents have the most terrifying story. Her mother was just 15 when she married. Although she was extremely intelligent and gregarious, she couldn’t continue education after grade 8 because her family lacked school fees to continue. So, she looked around her and found the only thing to do was to get married. She knew her husband, who is about 8 years older than her, for about three months before they got hitched. Within a year, like all women in the area, she was pregnant. While in her 8th or 9th month, raiders came in the night intent on stealing their cattle. Before taking the cattle away, they stripped her and her husband, along with her mother in law and two sisters, tied them up, and dumped them in the middle of the forest. They stayed in that cold damp forest all night… eventually got untied, walked back to their farm, and shortly after gave birth to their first child, named Mercy. They felt their lives had been spared because of God’s mercy. Wow. Mercy's mom is only 2 years older than me... Don't worry, this happened far from here... and besides, all we have at the campus is one lonely milk cow. We are protected by an astute watchman and are bolted into our building at night.