by Daniel Onyango

Created on: May 26, 2009

NEIGHBOURS

'One, two, three, four, five.......ten, eleven, twelve....twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty three........forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty!' exclaimed Bongo jubilantly as the tiny ball shot away from him. His short-lived joy turned into alarm, and then panic as he watched the ball bounce off a slab jutting out of a pavement, and slowly slide into Fatuma Kelele's sitting room.

He looked at his brother in consternation because as far as he was concerned, Kim deliberately distracted his concentration by narrating the tale of the monkey and the crocodile. To add insult to injury, he was now faced with the impossible task of pleading with Fatuma to release his ball

In a bid to continue juggling it on his right foot he inadvertently kicked the ball too hard, and unwittingly it had ended up where it did. Although his ball juggling technique had improved tremendously over the last couple of days, his right foot was still clumsy. Left-footed as his older brother Kim was, he couldn't, however, beat his record of a hundred juggles without the ball dropping because the latter had mastered using his right foot as well.

Fatuma Kelele is Bongo's family's next door neighbour. Her moods are as unpredictable as the weather, and so is the way she relates to her neighbours and their children. On account of her childlessness, she had always read a conspiracy by the neighbours and their children to malign her. During her brighter days, though, she bought candies and bananas for the neighbourhood children.

It usually began with her asking Kim-her favourite-to call everybody present for a treat. She started the 'party' by saying that they had been nice kids that week, and in any case, they were all lovely and respectful children. Then she would sing her favourite song wape wape ooh, vidonge vyao wakicheza waambiye shauri yao. This song, a popular Kiswahili hit, loosely translated seemed to be saying: 'give, give them what they deserve, if they don't listen, it is up to them.' Karen, Bongo's mother who was in the same teaching staff with Fatuma, had always wondered if there was a hidden message in the song. Knowing that her colleague ached to have her own children, she avoided doing anything that would deter her children from venturing into Fatuma's house.

Fatuma's moody character, this vidonge song, and her on and off camaraderie with children have only intensified the neighbourhood

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>