Having a Wild Animal

Some things don't translate. As we've been informing our friends about our pregnancy, we've found that most Kenyans don't just come out and say "I'm pregnant." I don't know why this would surprise me as this was true in my grandparent's and even to some degree parent's generation - "with child," "expecting," or "bun in the oven" were just a few of the phrases that developed to convey this "delicate condition." So, I thought you might enjoy learning how Kenyans, especially Maasai, convey the news.

Throughout Kenya, you can express being pregnant in Swahili by the phrase "mja mzito." Literally this translates to "one who is becoming heavy." There is really no word for "to be pregnant" although there is one for a pregnancy. In Maasai, I would be considered "keroshi," again, meaning "heavy."

In the past, many Maasai would commonly say the woman "keeta olowaru/osoit" - "has a wild animal/stone." According to our friends, this phrase was used in order to not place any real emphasis on it being a baby as they didn't want to hope too much in having a child in case they might lose it (common with high infant mortality). Today, many people within the CCC church have told us this is falling out of practice as they come to have hope in what God is doing, so using this phrase would show lack of faith/trust in God's provision. They have even told us that the usage has been preached against in many churches.

As our friend Cosmas was visiting, he informed us that there was an even more formal or polite way for a husband to say his wife is pregnant - "Keji entomonoi boo." When translated, this means "My wife is outside." This takes some thinking to understand. In Maasai culture, women are the ones to do much of the work apart from watching the cattle, including gathering wood for cooking, maintaining/building the house, going to market, working in the garden/field, etc. So, for a man to say his wife is "outside" it means that she is able to go outside to do the chores now, but will soon be "inside" as she has the baby and takes care of a newborn.

Whatever way you want to express it, we are grateful for the gift God has given us!