From Mombasa with love

A classic sailor's romance has ended with his Kenyan wife happily living in a village in Northeast China

Lydia Kathure, from Kenya, had never thought of going to China, much less live there. But when she met a Chinese man in 2006, her life began to change.

She was visiting a friend at a supermarket in the port city of Mombasa, and Liu Guihai, first mate of a Chinese ship, was buying some food for his crew.

"Oh, this man is Chinese and he can speak English," she thought. "It surprised me because usually when we met Chinese people, they would be doing their shopping by using body language."

The two spent a lot of time chatting with each other and eventually Kathure showed Liu and his fellow sailors around Mombasa.

The two became friends, and whenever Liu's ship docked at Mombasa, they would see each other. One day, Liu asked Kathure, from the Meru ethnic group, to marry him.

"I thought he was joking," she says. "But when he phoned his mother, I knew he was serious."

She brought Liu home. Her mother liked him but was worried because she didn't know anything about China.

"We thought China was poor and the people not very friendly," Kathure says. "When I eventually came to China, I realized it was a good place and the people treated me well."

In November 2008, Lydia followed Liu to his hometown, Zhuanghe village, in Dalian, in Northeast China's Liaoning province, where they were married.

Their marriage not only caused a sensation among the villagers but also made news in the Dalian newspapers.

"Liu Guihai served in the army for three years and worked as a seaman for 11 years. Nobody had imagined he would bring back a foreign wife," an 87-year-old neighbor told China Daily.

"Besides, Lydia was the first foreigner we'd ever seen. Hundreds of people came to see her at the wedding ceremony."

Kathure vividly recalls her wedding day. "They touched my skin to feel whether I was different. I didn't know what they were saying but I could tell they liked me."

At that time, Kathure could not speak any Chinese. Liu was the only person she could communicate with, so she accompanied him everywhere and kept asking questions about anything that was different to life in Kenya.

One of her most frequently asked questions was: "Why do you Chinese eat that?"

Liu's village is near the sea, and the people there like eating all kinds of seafood.

"In my hometown, we only ate fish," Kathure explains. "But here they seem to eat everything: crabs, shrimp, sea cucumbers, jellyfish and so on."

When she first visited Liu's home, the family prepared a big meal to welcome her. However, one glance at the dishes and Kathure had to admit she couldn't eat any of them.

For several months, Liu cooked special meal for his new wife, who even ate at a separate table.

"Did you know people eat silkworm pupas?" she asks before showing a video clip on her mobile phone.

"My father-in-law likes eating them. Once I went shopping at the market and saw hundreds of these black worms squeezed together in a basket, still wriggling. Oh, my God!"

Despite these problems, Kathure's tastes started to change. Now she eats crab and shrimp. "This is my second home. Sooner or later, I'll get used to it," she says.

Having lived in Zhuanghe for five years, Kathure now enjoys her life there. She wears stylish clothes, makes delicious jiaozi (dumplings) and has even learned to play mahjong, one of the most popular games in China.

Because of her appearance, Kathure is obviously a foreigner. But, when she plays mahjong, she is treated just like another villager.

"Mahjong is very interesting. In the beginning, I lost money as I learned it, but now I can play very well. Sometimes, I go to mahjong parlors to play with strangers. Last week, I went twice and won 200 yuan ($32.80) and 140 yuan," she says.

Kathure speaks fluent Chinese, which she learned from people around her.

When her mother-in-law, Hou Guihua, asked her to fetch some corn flour, she would bring back a bowl of rice, or even a tomato. Hou told her the name of each thing she picked up until, step by step, she had learned the names of different foods and everyday articles.

"I was so lucky that Lydia married my son," says Hou.

But she did not approve of the proposed marriage when Liu called her from Kenya.

"When my son said he wanted to marry a foreigner, and she and I wouldn't be able to communicate, I couldn't imagine how we'd manage."

To her great surprise, her son's Kenyan wife turned out to be a fine daughter-in-law.

Kathure works hard as an English teacher but, according to Hou, always helps around the house and farm.

"I help Liu to wash his parents' feet in the evenings," she says. "We are a family, and I treat them as my own parents."

Kathure teaches English in Dalian, about 140 kilometers from her village. She rents an apartment in the city center and stays there from Monday to Thursday.

Every Friday morning, she teaches English at a bilingual kindergarten back in Zhuanghe. Her 3-year-old daughter, Angel, attends there.

On the recent Halloween, Kathure lit pumpkin lanterns and taught the children to put on scary masks and say "Trick or treat" and "Happy Halloween".

"Children are excited by Lydia's classes," a teacher surnamed Gong said. "Maybe they were scared at first by Halloween but it taught them about culture. As a foreign teacher, she introduces a new language to them in a pleasant way."

After the Halloween lesson, Lydia took Angel out to the playground, where Liu Guihai was waiting. Angel was happy to see her father, but didn't talk much to her mother.

"Today, mum put on a scary face and frightened me," she complained to her dad.

The parents played with their daughter for a while then went off to their own school.

In 2010, Liu quit his job as a seaman and set up a school that mainly teaches primary and secondary school students English.

"It's not easy running a school," Liu says. "We invested about 800,000 yuan in it and fortunately it has taken off. We've got more than 100 students now."

When everything in China fell into place for Kathure, she decided to become a permanent resident. Next year, on the sixth wedding anniversary, she will be able to apply for permanent residency.

"I love China," she laughs. "I will live here with my beloved husband, my Angel, my students and friends, and Chinese food and mahjong."

And once she becomes a permanent resident, Kathure's family members will be able to enjoy much longer visits to Zhuanghe. Her sister and brother have been to see her but could only stay for a month.

Kathure has been back to Kenya twice. Whenever she misses her hometown, she phones her parents. And she still retains some Kenyan habits.

"Meru people like singing and dancing. When I do housework, I always put on a CD and dance while I work."

Kathure wears striking bracelets and earrings that were made in her hometown in Kenya.

Not long ago, a friend told her that an African student in the Lushunkou district of Dalian does traditional hairstyles. So Kathure caught a bus there and spent a whole day and 800 yuan having hundreds of small braids put into her hair.

"I live here in China but I'm trying to keep my culture," she says.

Lin Lin contributed to this story.

zhangxiaomin@chinadaily.com.cn