One of my personal rules is that I am ALWAYS at home when my children come home from school. They are away for nine hours from the time they are picked up by the bus till they are dropped off home. A lot happens to them and with them during that extended period of time and they are at their most talkative as soon as they are back. Later on they get busy with homework and reading and in my son's case 'going down to play'. So I cherish this 'golden hour' that I get to spend with them. A lot of nuggets of information pop out during this time and they keep our communication channels well polished and flowing!
Long ago when my daughter had just begun school, I used to teach in a college in my hometown and I would be back just forty five minutes after my daughter had been picked up from her school by my mother. The minute I would step into the house, my otherwise charming and well mannered little angel, who by then had been changed into play clothes and served food by my mother, would say 'Please go back to college, we do not need you here!' This was her way of conveying that she wanted her mother to be there when she was back after just three hours in kindergarten. As a result of this experience I made it a point to accept all future commitments only during the time my children would be absent from home, either for extra curricular activities or for school.
Sometimes if I have wound up my afternoon on line classes and have already finished making their hot home made snack, I stand at the window when I hear the bus. Simply observing the children when they do not know they are being observed, teaches me a lot too! The slump of my son's shoulders tells me he has a couple of heavy text books in his bag. Not at all usual in this education system where text books are kept in school everyday for the Elementary classes. So that translates to slightly more home work for that day! My daughter frantically scrolling through her Snap Chat, Viber and What's App messages on her phone the minute it connects with our wifi even though she is three floors below, signifies that she ran out of mobile data during the course of the day - again!
That long ago late October day in 2011 was no different. We had just moved to Nairobi and were getting used to living in Africa again. The children came home from school and the first thing my then seven year old son shouted out when he saw me was ' A teacher from our school was kidnapped!' I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second. 'God had we left our one hundred and forty six year old school in our home town only to bring our children to a school where teachers got abducted?' was the first thought that crossed my mind. My daughter immediately guessed my thoughts. She hastened to clarify that this was a former teacher from their school who had got married and moved to Somalia with her husband. She worked for an NGO there and had been kidnapped by land pirates during the course of her duties along with a male colleague. She added that a number of her classmates had been taught by this lady when they were in Elementary School and many of the current teachers had been her colleagues so the whole incident felt very close to home. Too close for comfort, actually!
Over the course of the days that followed my children kept updating me about the lady. How the whole school was frantically praying for her release, how her health was deteriorating because her captors denied her essential medicines which her husband kept sending to what he guessed was the closest town from the place where they were being held and how negotiations for ransom had failed yet again. I also followed the news on the international media. I remember listening to President Obama saying such atrocities against American citizens would not be tolerated and vowing to get her back safe and sound!
Finally came the news of her rescue three long months later, in a daring midnight operation, by a team of top notch American Navy SEALs. My son very cheerfully brought home the news from school. I remember he was so excited that day as if he had personally been part of the rescue! All was well that had ended well, by the grace of God, the brave men in uniform and of course the American President who gave the command for the rescue operation.
The book 'Impossible Odds' by Jessica Buchanan and her husband Erik Landemalm was published in August 2014 but I got it from the school library and read it only a couple of days ago. I guess all the people she had known personally in school had laid first claim to it! I was so riveted by this book that I broke my own cardinal rule and stayed up reading it up to 1:00 am on a school night and got only five hours of sleep as a result! Imagine my surprise and excitement when the FBI agent mentioned by name in the book, who was coordinating with Jessica's husband after the kidnapping, turned out to be my daughter's former teacher's husband! And a favourite teacher, I might add. I have read about FBI agents in books earlier but never about one that I am acquainted with and whose family I know really well! Strange things happen in Africa! Then I remembered that the kids had told me all those years ago that he was actively involved in this case! The book just proved it.
Jessica talks about having no access to a bathroom since they were living in the open dessert with their captors. She and her colleague had to share two bowls and two spoons with a whole horde of heavily armed pirates, there was extremely limited access to drinking water and she had no feminine hygiene products at all. She had to use dirty pieces of cloth with the result that she had severe urinary tract infection and then was denied medication and antibiotics to combat it. It was the fact that she was slowly dying that compelled America to attempt the raid to free the two of them. I saluted those twenty four brave hearts who were air dropped into the Somali dessert on a moonless night in January 2012 and who had put their lives at stake. I also felt immensely grateful for sparkling bathrooms, water when I want to drink it and the means to have as many showers a day as I want.
It also raised a pertinent question in my mind. Unless you are an American citizen, would your government care enough to attempt this kind of rescue for you? Would my government attempt it for me if, God forbid, I am ever in such a situation? Against Impossible Odds?
Do read it! It will make you appreciate the high comforts levels you enjoy that much more! It will also make you realize the true value of family and friends! As she says, 'Who wants to die without saying Good Bye?'
I returned the book to the library this morning. As the assistant librarian checked it in, guess what she said? 'Oh Jessica's book? She is a good friend of mine!'
Long ago when my daughter had just begun school, I used to teach in a college in my hometown and I would be back just forty five minutes after my daughter had been picked up from her school by my mother. The minute I would step into the house, my otherwise charming and well mannered little angel, who by then had been changed into play clothes and served food by my mother, would say 'Please go back to college, we do not need you here!' This was her way of conveying that she wanted her mother to be there when she was back after just three hours in kindergarten. As a result of this experience I made it a point to accept all future commitments only during the time my children would be absent from home, either for extra curricular activities or for school.
Sometimes if I have wound up my afternoon on line classes and have already finished making their hot home made snack, I stand at the window when I hear the bus. Simply observing the children when they do not know they are being observed, teaches me a lot too! The slump of my son's shoulders tells me he has a couple of heavy text books in his bag. Not at all usual in this education system where text books are kept in school everyday for the Elementary classes. So that translates to slightly more home work for that day! My daughter frantically scrolling through her Snap Chat, Viber and What's App messages on her phone the minute it connects with our wifi even though she is three floors below, signifies that she ran out of mobile data during the course of the day - again!
That long ago late October day in 2011 was no different. We had just moved to Nairobi and were getting used to living in Africa again. The children came home from school and the first thing my then seven year old son shouted out when he saw me was ' A teacher from our school was kidnapped!' I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second. 'God had we left our one hundred and forty six year old school in our home town only to bring our children to a school where teachers got abducted?' was the first thought that crossed my mind. My daughter immediately guessed my thoughts. She hastened to clarify that this was a former teacher from their school who had got married and moved to Somalia with her husband. She worked for an NGO there and had been kidnapped by land pirates during the course of her duties along with a male colleague. She added that a number of her classmates had been taught by this lady when they were in Elementary School and many of the current teachers had been her colleagues so the whole incident felt very close to home. Too close for comfort, actually!
Over the course of the days that followed my children kept updating me about the lady. How the whole school was frantically praying for her release, how her health was deteriorating because her captors denied her essential medicines which her husband kept sending to what he guessed was the closest town from the place where they were being held and how negotiations for ransom had failed yet again. I also followed the news on the international media. I remember listening to President Obama saying such atrocities against American citizens would not be tolerated and vowing to get her back safe and sound!
Finally came the news of her rescue three long months later, in a daring midnight operation, by a team of top notch American Navy SEALs. My son very cheerfully brought home the news from school. I remember he was so excited that day as if he had personally been part of the rescue! All was well that had ended well, by the grace of God, the brave men in uniform and of course the American President who gave the command for the rescue operation.
The book 'Impossible Odds' by Jessica Buchanan and her husband Erik Landemalm was published in August 2014 but I got it from the school library and read it only a couple of days ago. I guess all the people she had known personally in school had laid first claim to it! I was so riveted by this book that I broke my own cardinal rule and stayed up reading it up to 1:00 am on a school night and got only five hours of sleep as a result! Imagine my surprise and excitement when the FBI agent mentioned by name in the book, who was coordinating with Jessica's husband after the kidnapping, turned out to be my daughter's former teacher's husband! And a favourite teacher, I might add. I have read about FBI agents in books earlier but never about one that I am acquainted with and whose family I know really well! Strange things happen in Africa! Then I remembered that the kids had told me all those years ago that he was actively involved in this case! The book just proved it.
Jessica talks about having no access to a bathroom since they were living in the open dessert with their captors. She and her colleague had to share two bowls and two spoons with a whole horde of heavily armed pirates, there was extremely limited access to drinking water and she had no feminine hygiene products at all. She had to use dirty pieces of cloth with the result that she had severe urinary tract infection and then was denied medication and antibiotics to combat it. It was the fact that she was slowly dying that compelled America to attempt the raid to free the two of them. I saluted those twenty four brave hearts who were air dropped into the Somali dessert on a moonless night in January 2012 and who had put their lives at stake. I also felt immensely grateful for sparkling bathrooms, water when I want to drink it and the means to have as many showers a day as I want.
It also raised a pertinent question in my mind. Unless you are an American citizen, would your government care enough to attempt this kind of rescue for you? Would my government attempt it for me if, God forbid, I am ever in such a situation? Against Impossible Odds?
I returned the book to the library this morning. As the assistant librarian checked it in, guess what she said? 'Oh Jessica's book? She is a good friend of mine!'
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