Atieno has come back from America

Atieno has come back from America and now she starts all her sentences with, “While I was in America,”

She arrived three days ago and when I greeted her in Dholuo,

She strained her neck and asked me in English, ”Wochu sayin gyal?”

That she does not understand Dholuo well and she has forgotten how to speak it.

Atieno has come back from America and now she carries a small television in her hands,

She calls it a tablet and uses it to make and receive calls,

She also sweeps the screen of that television with her fingers and says she is browsing,

When she is not browsing, she puts for us some cinema to watch.

Atieno has come back from America and now she prices every item in Bucks or Dollar Bills,

When she bought a wrist watch in Kisumu, she informed us that it costed her twenty bucks,

When Adhiang’ asked her how much is twenty bucks in terms of Kenya Shillings,

She said it comes to around two thousand Shillings, very cheap,

Atieno nowadays considers a wrist watch worth two thousand very cheap.

Atieno has come back from America and now she says Kenyans are impossible people,

That she cannot understand why we do things the way we do them,

Like when Akinyi refused to hire a taxi and instead opted for a matatu,

She got surprised and said,”In America, we just take a cab.”

Atieno has come back from America and now she says she cannot believe it is possible for human beings to live the way we do,

That how can we live with all the smelly cows and goats mingling with us?

“There are no goats in America,” she said,

She cannot understand how we survive without a water heater,

Atieno now says she cannot live here in Alego with all the bushes and mabati houses,

Atieno says Mabati houses are not good for her skin.

Atieno has come back from America and now she says she cannot remember Ochieng’ Jakababa,

That man who almost married her before she went to America,

And the way she bragged to all of us how Jakababa is the love of her life,

How she cried when Jakababa threatened to call off their marriage plans,

Now she asks, “Who da fuck is Ochieng’ Jakababa?

Is dat even a name?”

(image credits: Manhattan central park in New York courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org)