November 24, 2009 - At THAT Age

One day last week while Grace and I were out and about running some errands, Charles told me that he spoke to his wife on the phone and she told him that his mother was sick. I asked him what was wrong and he told me something that I didn't understand, but I told him I was sorry she was sick and that I hope that she will feel better soon. Then he says to me:

"Well, you know, at THAT age there's not much you can do."

I know that Charles is 38 so I was thinking that maybe his mother is around 60, which I don't consider to be very old. But when he made that statement, I started thinking she was 85 or 90! So I asked him her age; he thought about it and said, "Over 50!" I told him that where we come from that is not very old, to which he replied, "She was born in 1952 so she is 57."

Of course I knew that the life expectancy in Kenya would be lower than in the US or Europe, but I've never actually known what it really is. So, now I know that (according to the CIA World Factbook) the life expectancy rate for the total Kenyan population is, in fact, 57.86 years (slightly lower for men, slightly higher for women). Women here often look much older than they are because their life is hard and they work really hard from a young age doing a lot of physical labor (unlike their lazy counterparts, in my opinion). Our housekeeper Jonipher looks about 65 I think and she is 47 I believe. So, I suppose it is understandable why Charles thinks his mother is so old at THAT age!

For a bit more about Charles, here are some of the pictures that Kristoffer took of his family when he visited Machakos early in October (and you can see that his mother definitely looks older than 57):

Charles, his wife Janet, his mother, his sister, his niece, his uncle, his nephew, and his son in front (from left to right)

Charles, his wife, his son and daughter (daughter is under all those blankets - she is now almost 4 months old!)

Charles' mother and son (he sleeps with her every night)

The house Charles is building. He is VERY proud of such a strong door and windows and the house will a have a toilet inside, which is a pretty big deal. He is almost finished now after working on it for 2 years.

Kristoffer and Charles eating ugali and sikuma wiki (traditional Kenyan food)

Charles' son, mother, wife, niece and sister

Charles' wife Janet and daughter Hezrah

I printed these pictures for Charles yesterday so he could take them to his family and he was really appreciative of that. I'm sure they don't have family pictures taken very often! We might pay them a visit this weekend with Grace.

LMW