Senior Ladies Day

Today was Senior Ladies Day at St. Anna. Apart from the name, that is where any other the comparisons with Ascot end; although that said many did come in elaborate head wear.

Senior Ladies Day was established a long time ago. It is the day when the older ladies of the community are invited to the school & the Bishop’s residence to spend the day together. Judging by the turn out, it is an important event in the Gathuke-ini social calendar; I counted 50+. It used to take place every month, but owing to the ever increasing turn out and associated cost, it is now only every 2 months. It is an occasion to spend time together, catch-up, discuss medical conditions (I saw at least 2 of elephantitis), criticise elected officials and of course, gossip!

The ladies arrive from late morning and are received with tea. Speeches of welcome and introduction swiftly follow, then all take part in a program of exercises to the best of their ability (knees bend, arms stretch ra! ra! ra!). It was nice to think that my Omi (Grandma) does more or less the same thing every Tuesday night with the other residents on her estate. For a moment I had a vision of them all doing it together and gossiping all the while…I am sure the subjects of interest and scandal in Kenya are not that different from those Omi discusses. I wonder if wars could be avoided if we just sat all the elderly ladies down together and let them chat?

I only spent about 2 hours with the ladies during and after lunch but in that time my whole life was extracted from me, dissected, analysed, debated and put to rights. My age and my marital status i.e. not married were of universal fascination. To be 34 and unmarried in Kenya immediately suggests a whole catalogue of problems from mental instability to alcoholism. I tried to assure them that my problems are not as numerous as they thought, but the general conclusion was that I am on the scrap heap… this did not prevent 2 ladies asking me to marry their daughters however. Ha!

In the afternoon, there was singing and dancing; the school children came and performed for them and then for those willing and able, there was a Kenyan version of the conga which circled the garden 2x (the video is ace). Suitably physically invigorated, the arch-deacon of the dioceses then set to work on their minds.

It is now almost 19h00 O’clock and they are still here. Before they leave they will all receive a help package of salt, cooking oil, rice, sugar and matches to take home with them and for the bed-ridden who could not make it here themselves. And this is where I have to leave you to help distribute them.