The young girl got onto the bus in Nyabugogo Bus Terminus in Kigali, her heart trembling with anxiety. She had never been to Kigali before, yet here she was about to start on a journey that would take her through three countries, ending in a place she had been told was called Nairobi. Everything she had heard of it spoke of a big, scary city, so many people, a foreign language, foreign food; everything was going to be new to her. The only person that she knew in that place was the woman who had been her Sunday School teacher nearly ten years before.
Some two years earlier there had been a huge event that had pulled people from all the nearby ridges to witness. It was the wedding of Florence her teacher, to a man from Kenya, a place very few had ever heard of before. The most amazing thing to her eyes was the huge amount of food served at the reception unlike the customary wedding receptions witnessed in that area. It had left a lasting impression on all who had attended. She heard her mother discussing it with her friends for days afterwards. She heard them saying that Florence's parents had immediately occupied a special place in their society. Nobody else had a daughter married so far away in country that they could only dream about. The home came to be known as 'Kenya'.
Some months later she heard that Florence and her new husband had left to return to his home in Nairobi. Nobody had any idea what that country was like, or how far it was; some said it took nearly two days of travel. As far as young Francoise was concerned, that was the last she expected to hear of her former Sunday School teacher.
Bu in fact it was not a year later that Florence had contacted her mother, about getting a house help now that she had a young baby and needed to keep working at her business. Her mother, instead of looking around, had immediately volunteered her before even asking her opinion. She was full of ambitious ideas for her daughter in that far country, as if she was sure the girl would one day return from Nairobi with lots of wealth.
Young Francoise now sat at her window seat pondering these things as departure time neared. Her passport was so new, having only recently attained the age that allowed her to be taken as an adult in her own right. She would dearly love to fulfil her mother's fantasises, but she could see the huge obstacle of learning a new language before she could begin understanding anything about that society. She was full of fear that unlike her Sunday school teacher, who had married at home before going off to live in a foreign land, she would find life so tough, fail to fit in and be forced to return home in disgrace. Her whole body cringed at the thought of trying to live down a reputation of one who had been given opportunities and failed. How would she live in her own home, knowing that people were talking behind her back?
The bus journey was a complete blur to her. She did get off with the other passengers at the Uganda/Rwanda border to present her passport, took a soda in Kampala (the midpoint of their journey), and a few hours later did the border crossing from Uganda into Kenya. At this point they had been on the move for almost a day. It was nighttime when they reached this border. She wondered how much longer it was all going to last. Her body cried out in weariness. She felt naked and vulnerable. The languages being spoken around her were new, the shops they passed were so different from anything she had ever seen. Only a couple sitting two rows in front were speaking in Kinyarwanda made her feel as if there was at least a connection with anything she had known in her former life. Some were speaking what she was sure was English, but spoke so fast that she could not catch even a single word. Her stomach was so unsettled that she could only take a soda. Then they were herded back into the bus and they were now in Kenya. The journey took them through many towns bigger than any she had known back home.
Finally, with the shadows showing it to be some time in the afternoon, the conductor told her in Kinyarwanda that she was near her destination. That was the first she knew of the fact that she was not going into the big city of her dreams. The bus stopped and the conductor helped her take her bags down. Her heart was beating wildly. Would her teacher know where she had been put down? What if it was the wrong bus stop? How would she find her way without the language? Would she ever see her mother and siblings again?
As she collected her baggage around her she heard what must have been the most welcome sound of her entire life. "Welcome to Kinoo, Francoise!" in her own language. She recognised her teacher's voice even before looking up. She turned and embraced her like a long lost relative, which only a minute before she feared she herself might become.
"Thank you so much!" They clutched at each other for a long moment before Francoise noticed a tall man standing to one side looking at them.
"Meet my husband," said Florence. The young girl went to give him the hug that was customary back home, then hung back thinking it was perhaps not the done thing. But he put her completely at her ease by bringing her into his embrace just as if she were still at home. She would later learn that it was not at all customary here. She would observe that people passed each other, with merely a word thrown and responded to without anyone stopping to greet each other properly.
"Put the bags into the boot," he said, picking up the nearest. "This taxi will take us home."
When they arrived at the gate the car stopped, to allow the husband to open the portal. Francoise was amazed at the stone wall seeming to go on for a long way in both directions. The gate swung open, letting the car through. They all three carried the bags into the house.
"Will I be living in this large house now?" she wondered to herself. "How lucky Florence must be!"
Her new mother (for that is how she decided to think of Florence) showed her to her room. "I am going to be sleeping in my own room," she marveled. Then her mistress showed her to the bathroom to wash off the dust of the long journey. After coming from the bathroom all the weariness of travelling for 24 hours from Kigali descended upon her making her feel like a heap of manure. Even though it was only afternoon, she only desired to sleep, but her mistress wanted her to eat something, despite feeling her stomach still unsettled. The only thing she recognised was ground-peanut sauce poured on the boiled bananas. The other items were unfamiliar, but she tried to have a bite of each, exploring the taste.
During the following week she got to hold a month-old baby for the first time in her life, and learnt that her 'mother' had a peanut butter business. She was familiar with peanuts but had never been exposed to the making of butter from them.
In the weeks following she got into the rhythm of the household. Cooking, cleaning and washing became second nature to her. So too did feeding the baby, washing him and his clothes separate from others. She even got to befriend the older woman who was mother in law to her employer.
Never having been near a man before she found it unusual that Dennis could demand anything from her, whether it was a glass of water, to brush his shoes, or to serve him lunch during the day. For he had his office in the study of his house. While Florence went out in the morning and only popped in to suckle the baby, he was in the house all day, except for when he left to go to town, which was a very rare event. When he did, she felt the house became too quiet and empty.
On most days he woke up, went to the toilet then took a bath. Then he came into the dining room for his breakfast. After that he went into his study and stayed behind that door until eleven when he went out into the sunshine (if it was a warm day) citing cold feet. Then he would take a cup of tea with a light snack, before withdrawing back into his study. Francoise learnt that he traded foreign currencies on his computer, but she had no clue what that meant. Trading was what his wife did, for she would learn when her boss went to buy her peanuts, when she took them to the mill to be made into peanut butter, or when she took them for roasting. She saw Florence packing them into plastic containers for customers. That made sense to her because it was visible. But what that man did was not trading to her, as she never saw him with any of his trade goods in his hands.
The afternoons after lunch, she usually had most of her chores done, so after putting the baby to sleep, she could be found on light duties of ironing and folding the clothes that she had washed the previous day, and if there were none she took a short rest. This was the hour in which she took her daily bath, changed clothes after having oiled her body with a strong-smelling perfume. Dennis on the other hand, would read the newspaper in the sitting room, or sometimes a book. She saw more of him than in the mornings. He made more of his demands on her then. He found her more alluring in her clean clothes and smooth shiny legs. Sometimes as she fed the baby his milk, her legs would part a little, affording him a peek of her young thighs as he read. Much as he was sure she was not aware that she was showing him her goodies, it crept into his mind to take advantage of her naïveté, while they were all alone in the house.
As her grasp of the language improved he could see that she now understood more of what he said to her. One day he asked her into the study to show her some pictures. She was astonished to see her own face on the screen of his computer. She saw many other people she knew back in the village.
"These were taken during the wedding. Do you remember it?" he asked her.
"Oh, wow! I can see my mother, aunts and even neighbours here. It makes me feel almost at home."
Then he threw her completely off her balance by starting what she realised was a video of the same event. Except when she had spoken her mother tongue with Florence, she had not heard it anywhere else, but now here she heard it spoken by many people as the event went on. She was almost jumping up and down with excitement.
"I had never noticed you when I had watched this video until now," he said while snaking his arm around her waist. She flinched, like she would run away but did not, taken completely by surprise. "You have become very good-looking." He caressed her waist region and moved towards her bum.
