Till Worlds Do Us Part

up the hut and would wash any of our dirty clothes. As she did things she would hum. She'd then take the three buckets and take me to the beautiful river

where all the other girls would bath and then I would w

me as us, or coming up the hill as we were going back down. He would greet Gamu and then me and him would talk or laugh about the stori

re hut, and from there there were elders in charge of distributing food to the villagers according to their proportions every morning. All the males old enough work

I asked him playing wi

e. She is supposed to clean, cook and fetch water every morning..." Yoké

d untangling my ha

do not have a child your chores as a woman is your

dded, taking

ncieve is considered p

for what?"

n their youth. So such women are asham

about

aid looking away. He did not look

com

you." He looked at me

I aske

looked a little nervous. "Can I try d

ng?" I as

n I

ted for him to show me w

gh my hair. He then made them twirl arou

ing and he withdrew

wanted to try?"

y and scratch

y..." He

ay." I s

he hill." Yoké pointed. "They c

ladies with buckets making

I nodded

at me and tur

ur water." I pointed

smiling nervously. "I have enough wat

gged li

?" I ask

just you are a little lonely sometimes sinc

p at him.

and left

led at one another. And from time to time we would catch each other's eye

t Gamu's mood changed only if we met Yoké and Uma on that day. I wanted to ask her why that wa

home she would set

'd go throw up behind the hut. Whenever she made boiled corn only, which I wondered why Furah used to give them to Yoké. I would enjoy it and ask for more. And e

n the hut I was always under the strict supervision of the chief. Gamu would never speak to me whenever the chief or Furah was around. Sh

was that the village had strict rules and each day Yoké told me about more things that were forbidde