The anticipated mother-in-law visit

Since the delivery of the clothes and shoes I had bought, my mother-in-law had been upbeat. We had talked more times in the past two weeks than we had done for more than the three years I had been married to her son.

She had even promised to bring her friends to visit my baby and I and, of course, I obliged, even though I knew it would be hectic to host them.

I had planned to buy all the non-perishable things a week before the weekend of the visit, but other pressing matters related to work came up and I had to postpone the shopping to the Saturday before the visit. It was going to be a tall order, but what to do?

For the rest of the week, I found myself mentally planning every hour of the coming Saturday and Sunday. The more the weekend drew closer, the more I got mentally exhausted and wished I could postpone it, but it was too late.

I had come up with a checklist that I kept updating and by the time it got to that last Saturday, it was so long that I wondered whether I needed all the things I had listed.

Tiring affair

Anyway, in the company of my small sister, who had taken a break from college to come and help me, we started the Saturday at 6am with buying vegetables and other groceries from the market. That took us close to three hours, and by the time we were heading to Eastleigh to buy cutlery, it was already 9am.

I had been told Eastligh, in the outskirts of Nairobi City, offered fair prices. I bought serving bowls, two big sufurias and a few plates, cups, glasses and spoons. Moving from one stall to another, comparing prices and finally settling to buy unbelievably took me to 2pm. I was exhausted, but had to purchase the last items on my list — non-perishable food items from the supermarket.

By the time I got home in the evening, we were so exhausted that we wondered whether we had any energy left to host the following day.

We woke up early on Sunday to embark on cooking and cleaning. A friend, who lives close by, had offered to help us, and I was glad when she arrived at 8am.

We allocated each other duties; with my house help mainly focussing on cleaning the house and dishes. By the time the visitors arrived at 12pm, we were amazingly done with everything and were just bathing and dressing up.

We had prepared for any possibility of food combinations; therefore, we did not have problems with choosy visitors.

From the happy chats and laughter, it was clear that the women were impressed. When it came the time for them to hand me their gifts, I was surprised at the quantity of what they had brought. What impressed me most, however, was the stylish outfit they had bought my son.

As we escorted them to the van later that afternoon, I concluded that the visit was worth every hassle. Everyone was happy.