talking to older women on life in the 80's & 90's

I enjoyed my Easter weekend so much. I spent it in Nyeri, talking casually to older women as we prepared meals or just had story time sessions over tea. I said I want to do more of this year, i.e., meeting old people and asking them about the past, as I immensely enjoy it. They have so much to share about stuff and pre-internet life.

This was not planned, but conversations in the village are a natural thing. I think that has to do with minimal screen time, sitting outside, and the nature of how things are done, e.g., sitting around a fire preparing a meal or just lazing around after farm time. Conversations just flow so well and late into the day or even night.

In this particular case, a neighbor passed by, and before we knew it, she was sharing about her younger days with us. We were speaking about life in Nairobi, and I shared how I don't enjoy apartment living and the lack of natural communes, and admiring how they do it so well there. This is not new to me, as I grew up in the village but have lost bits of connection with having to study and work far away. Of course, it's a privilege to leave and seek new things, but there are values to the systems of the community I deeply admire and miss.

The conversation ended with her sharing her early days in Nairobi, living between Westlands and Ngara. She worked for a Mhindi in a tailoring company, and over the years, she became a supervisor in her office. Those days, women rarely worked, and that caused tension between her and her husband, which made her quit work and go live in the village. She reminisced about climbing career ladders at a time when that was rare, making her own money at an early age, and how she was able to gain freedom from that amidst a strained relationship.

But what astonished me, among many others, was how she casually said she paid KES 370 for a one-bedroom in Ngara! Wow, thinking about today's rent prices, I can't even imagine how cheap that sounds, but this was in the 80s, and that was a lot of money. Another aspect that struck me is how much story we all carry, collectively and individually, and how reflective that can be when given an audience.