WHEN IT RAINED GRATITUDE IN KENYA

BY PETER ONYANGO OTIENO

In the 1980s, when I was in lower school in Kenya, I used to trap birds. This became a habit. But then I realized that God's creations deserve to have dominion and freedom, and that it was not right to hear a bird cry as it struggled to free itself. My full answer came when I lived in a rural area and was looking after our family's goats.

One day, it was about to rain, and I started to hear a wonderful melody from a bird I didn't yet know. In the Luo language, its song is said to sound like, Koth chwe! Koth chwe! [Let it rain! Let it rain!], followed by, Dak ti ukom, Dak ti ukom [Why can't you sow? Why can't you sow?]. Frogs, too, began to make a like melody. I knew I had to hurry home with the goats to find shelter as the clouds thickened.

Sometime after the pour that followed, I asked my grandma about the bird's song and the frogs' melodies. She told me that animals communicate. She said they give insight when a heavy pour is coming, and inform God's children when the time is ripe to sow. They do speak, she told me, in hidden ways, and yet in meanings as real as ideas of good from God. Oh, I said, that is great to know. Then I understood that birds, because they exist in God's creation, are useful and should not be trapped.