My Day With You-BBC Radio

I hear the knock on my wooden wall. It signifies time to wake up.I say a short prayer and throw back the covers. I fumble a round the dusty floor looking for some shoes. Gumboots. Then I walk to the kitchen .The big aluminum Sufuria is a quarter full with hot water, and a kettle with last night’s tea floats in it. I push the burning wood further into the fire. A pile of last night dishes are sprawled on various areas in the large earthen floored kitchen: cups kettle plates on one corner, the pot with the dog's food still in it .We forgot to feed Simba.

I put the kettle aside, on hot coals and pour in some more water into the Sufuria, this to wash the utensils. I pick 2 containers and head to the milking shed. Mama, my uncle is whistling a favorite tune that rises above the rush of the milk. I put three litres into one container and two and a half in another and take it to the two calves. I then rinse them and overturn them on the drying racks.
My uncle’s wife, tata has woken up their young baby in tow. It’s still pretty dark.

I hurry to the kitchen to get a cloth to wipe the milk cans. The baby wants the torch. Tata is struggling to light a lamp using a splinter from the fire.

We arrive at the collection point just on time for the Land Rover that weighs and records our milk. I carry the cans as Mama stays behind to have a chat and a smoke with his friends. The dew is heavy, lucky me my pants are well tucked in the gumboots.

Tata is cleaning the utensils, her baby tied firmly behind her back chewing on a piece of home made cake. He says –Ngaari- I don’t feel like going back to bed, so I start to peel potatoes for lunch.

My grandmother, Cucu wakes up next and complains that we made such a din we woke her. She picks her panga and basket and goes off to plant seeds of some plant. Outside the dawn is orange.
At nine, the workers begin to arrive .They first have a cup of sugared tea, along with Cucu who is heading to her friend’s home for a morning of catching up.

(I wrote this for The Radio BBC Competition,2005.It was read one morning,and they sent me a base ball cap in a very large envelope. I wear the cap often. To protect myself from the African sun}