CASTING A WIDER NET: Meet our First Mom in Kenya

CASTING A WIDER NET: Meet our First Mom in Kenya

Our “Casting a Wider Net” series features mothers around the world who’s voices have typically been excluded from the blogosphere, due to lack of access to computers or the internet, low literacy or poverty. This feature aims to include their important and distinct perspectives with interviews and occasional video clips.

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Meet Wilkister.  She’s a mother of seven children, including a remarkable two sets of twins, ranging from 7 to 18 years old.  She lives in Western Kenya and tends a shamba (farm) of maize, cassava, millet and vegetables.  She met her husband, a primary school teacher, when she traveled to his village to visit her sister who had married a relative of his.  The marriage was sealed with a pride price, she moved in to his homestead and has become an important member of his extended family.  Her relatives describe her as responsible, strong and hardworking.

Unlike many other women in her village, she graduated secondary school.  She speaks four languages fluently and worked as a translator for me on a recent trip to her village.  The following are some of Wilkister’s thoughts on marriage, family and life… (more…)

Mama Mzungu (Kenya)

Originally from Chicago, Kim has dabbled in world travel through her 20s and is finally realizing her dream of living and working in Western Kenya with her husband and two small boys, Caleb and Emmet. She writes about tension of looking at what the family left in the US and feeling like they live a relatively simple life, and then looking at their neighbors and feeling embarrassed by their riches. She writes about clumsily navigating the inevitable cultural differences and learning every day that we share more than we don’t. Come visit her at Mama Mzungu.

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