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summary

One of the weaker interviews; the answers are short and it is confusing in parts. The narrator left her first husband because he beat her. She then married a man who was much older than her because she felt that an older man would let her “live in peace”. However, there have been times she has regretted this, because her husband’s age and ill health means that: “...it seems as though I am his husband, because I am the one who caters for his needs”.

detailed breakdown

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Section 3	Describes how she was married, at her parents’ choice, to her first husband, because they could no longer afford school fees.
Section 4	She had six children altogether, but the first one (by the first husband) died. Her second husband is old – “circumcised in 1926”.
Section 5	Her property was burned by the Sabaot during the clashes. Fears that the clashes are not over and that those who burnt her property will come back.
Section 6-7	Discussion of the traditional ways of teaching girls about hygiene and sex.
Section 7-9	Traditional practice of smearing cream on the body. How this has been replaced by other skin products that have appeared in the shops. Problem of low self-respect for those who can’t afford them. Veiled reference to girls turning to prostitution, because of their desire for material possessions.
Section 9	Circumcision – boys are circumcised around 13 or 14, but “ he is the one who decides. If you force a child and he embarrasses you out there, what will you do? That is undesirable.”
Section 9-10	Narrator doesn’t like living in the mountain, where they are surrounded by forest and it’s “very cold”: “We couldn't get a piece of land and that's how we ended up here. It was not because we thought this place was good.”
Section 11	Discussion of what it is like being a co-wife.
Section 12-15	Describes her experiences of modern family planning. Her mother bore 21 children but most died in infancy. Believes that the practice of driving away an infertile wife is a relatively new development.
Section 16-17	Wedding songs and ceremonies.