My China story

In the fairly large mud walled, grass thatched house of Mr. Odiko, we all spread our sacks on the nicely decorated floor made out of a mixture of soil and cowdung as we got ready to watch the movie that we have already watched countless number of times before. But each time it was newer and more interesting than before. It was Saturday evening and as usual the evening parts of the weekend were our only time with the only television in the entire Nyamthoi village. There was no space for children like us any other time as adults crowded the house to either watch news or talk politics with Mr. Odiko a man who pride himself as a well traveled person and knew everything else that no one else in the village knew. The small great wall TV attached to a car battery was set for us and the video tape of the one and only Bruce lee set in motion with Enter the Dragon movie. This is how I first met China, Movies were the only way we could interact with the world outside our village apart from the stories we were told with our grandparents after dinner around the fire lit on the three stone stove outside the house. from the movie stories of Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen, and Sammo Hung I fell in love with China. The more I watched the more I knew of Hong kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Hongkun, Xidi plusa whole lot of Chinese culture, and the more She continued to steal my heart.

However I could not understand how a grown up man like Bruce Lee could not write properly but instead wrote nasty sketches that did not represent any letter of the alphabet.Little did the ignorant me knew of Chinese characters! I was awed by men who could fly and hit the air producing sounds of “Uf! Uf! Duf!” every day to and from school which was kilometers away I would practice my Kung Fu and Tai Chilike I saw it in the movies like my father is a Hero (Jet Li) and drunken master(Jackie Chan) and to even make it authentic I would always shave my head clean to look like a shaolin monkand would pretend I am sick when meat was cooked at home so that I don't eat it, but these did not help me much when I got into fights which was very often because I happened to have been the punching bag of everyage mate in school. I was the one who everybody could beat, every fight I would be beaten to a pulp and I would train more and more but the results were always the same in the next fights. This is how I first ever wished to go to China, there maybe I figured I would get a real “Shi fu” who would teach me how to fight then everybody would not be beating me up like this, from these childhood days China was and has always been my dream land where I will go learn Kung Fu and come back and save my village from bullies.

Back at home it's not uncommon to see children running after tourists with excitement greeting them. I remember the first time I saw a Chinese like it was yesterday! That is the day I walked the longest distance in my childhood, I followed the couple for the whole day running after them when they were on their bikes never letting my eyes off them even for a second incase they decided to fly or make any of the tai chi or Kung Fu moves. I listened very attentively for any cat sounds that Bruce lee utter in his fights among the strange words they were bubbling. All I could make of what they were saying was the sound of someone messing with the utensils in the kitchen, chingli! Twangla! Punglu! Pangla! Things that I couldn't make meaning of then, I felt sobad that they knew and were even greeting people in the words that I knew and could relate to like Jambo! Jambo! habari! Yet I could not even repeat a thing they said in their language. That night I had a tsunami of feelings of Tiredness, confusion, excitement about the day I met ‘jet li brother'(the male tourist) and ‘don yen sister'(the female tourist), frustrated about the strange language that I had not even heard Bruce lee who sometimes also write strange things speak! I wanted to understand the language and the writings! From this day onwards I started yearning to learn the strange language (Chinese language) and the strange writing (Chinese characters)

Chinese presence in the country has always been felt for over half a century now ever since the sailing expedition of Chinese sailor Zheng He in the Kenyan coast. From then thereon the ties has been going stronger and stronger. Made in China is probably the first fluent English sentence I ever spoke apart from 'my name is Rodgers Onyango Tom!'Simply because you could find that sentence everywhere! You get into our kitchen all the utensils were made in China, the electronics in the house from my dads phone to our small transistor AM/FM radio was made in China, the Kenyan market is so dominated with Chinese products from the small and simplest like a panda razorblade to the most complex like Thika super highway that we cherish with high regard and pride. These products are a blessing to majority of the Kenyan middle and low income earners because most often than not they are always affordable and cheaper for them. As a teenager from a humble background there was nothing in me that would be missed among my mates. It never mattered whether I was around or not, for one I couldn't keep up with the trend of fashion because my cloths majorly consisted of handed down cloths from my older siblings, the ones they couldn't wear no more and to add salt to injury everyone at least had a phone handed down to them by their family members who were tired of their old phones and were buying new ones. All these took a nasty turn when my uncle came home from Nairobi city with a present of a phone that turned me into a celebrity. I was the proud owner of what could have passed as the loudest phone in the planet, and guess what? It had a mark of made in China on its back. Such occurrences no matter how trivial they were brought me more and more closer to China.

Throughout my short 24years on planet earth, China in one way or another has calibrated my life both positively and negatively. as I went through university I wanted more and more association with China beyond the movies, I envied their family cohesion, I thought of further studies in Chinese institutions in China, working in China or with Chinese companies and as my course Bsc. Community development predisposes me to undertake developmental work I started thinking of how I can engage Chinese funding agencies to help fund the avalanches of projects I have thought of when I finish my studies. I would have still doubted it even if God himself would have told me that this soon I would be able to speak some Chinese, wearing Chinese regalia, singing and dancing to a Chinese song while helping in and witnessing the launching of Confucius institute at Egerton University. This was the end of the beginning of my Chinese dream, rewinding back to a few months ago a lot unbelievable “firsts” had happened. After enrolling for the Chinese classes offered by the institute, I had greeted my first ever Chinese hands that of my teacher the cute Lu Yang, had tasted my first ever Chinese food the moon cake, celebrated my first ever Chinese new year, learned my first Chinese words and Chinese characters which at first I thought would be like rocket science but turned out to be a piece of cake! I had taken my first Chinese HSK exam which I passed with ‘running' colors! Heard first hand information about places in China, Chinese traditions and couldn't help but laugh at the primitive childhood knowledge I had of China and the people of China. Destiny can only be delayed but not denied, I am a man destined to stand on the Great Wall of China, shop in Beijing, enter in a Shao lin temple, learn Kung Fu and maybe even marry a Chinese lady. Long live China, long live Kenya and long live me.