Every evening, I eat with Edda, the assistant bursar at Mwika, and her husband Godrick. As part of the evening routine, Omega the house girl feeds their baby Faith.
When I first began to eat with the family, Faith at eight or nine months did not mind the evening porridge. But soon she got fussy. She knocked away the spoon, and porridge usually flew in all directions, primarily on Omega. Someone now had to distract Faith while the spoon slid into her mouth.
It would not be Edda. Edda had survived nine months of a wretched pregnancy with Faith with many hospitalizations, anxiety, pain and suffering. Edda made it clear to her husband that for the rest of Faith’s life, Godrick would now have to do the work. She, Edda, was too tired after all of that.
At times, the distracting of Faith during porridge would fall to Omega’s sister Lea, who also lives with the family. She would sing a song called, “Piga makofi,” which means “clap the hands.”
Sometimes Godrick would be disturbed during the meal to see the first five spoonfuls go everywhere else but his daughter’s mouth. Concerned that his daughter would not survive without that porridge, he would rise up and sing and clap. His song, unlike the song of Lea, was created spontaneously and repeated many evenings of flung porridge. If this song had a title, I would call it “Faith.” The first verse is “Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith, Faith.” The second verse is “Faith, Faith, Faith, mtoto mzuri (good child). Faith, Faith, mtoto mzuri.” In the third verse, the words of the first are repeated and then Godrick claps his hands and says, “Ah!” in a treble voice. Sometimes verses 1 and 2 are combined. Possibly Godrick has forgotten where he is in the song, but he has distracted his beloved daughter long enough to push that porridge down.
Last week Godrick was not around in the evenings. Omega had started to encourage Faith to walk. She also discovered that when Faith was balancing herself, her concentration was distracting enough to feed her. So one evening Omega’s sister Lea plopped Faith far enough away to force concentration. Omega slipped the spoon in, and Faith stumbled towards them, falling into Lea’s arms. After 15 times of this, the porridge was gone.
On Feb. 14, Faith will turn one year. Her steps are still faltering, but in a month, they won’t be. Who will run after Faith with a spoon of porridge?
