Saturday, February 13, 2010

Ngiramatoni adventure!

Today we spent another day with David and Arnold.  Much of the day was spent out in Ngiramatoni (a village a bit outside of Arusha) trying to find my grandfather.  (Uncle Gogo was such a trooper.....he's caught my cold which I caught fom David last week, and he's sick and sneezing and coughing, but still coming with and helping out and I think I ended up with the BEST uncle in the whole world!)

We thought we found my great uncle and he was trying to find other family, but they were, unfortunately not at the village yesterday.  Also, he had a bit of a strange idea as to who my Mom was.  He kept saying Lilian Emmanuel Sirikwa, our biological mom, is a teacher who got her college degree and moved away from the village to teach.  That is not our Mom though....so either he has gotten the wrong information about her, or we hae the wrong Lilian Sirikwa.  Mommy is rather perplexed.  He was a lovely man though....and his last name is Sirikwa, so we are probably related to him somehow.  Below are photos of us all together.  He really spent lots of time this afternoon trying to help us out.  Also, he owns a coffee plantation and used to be a government leader for the area.  David (our gardener and rafiki who came with us to help) was very impressed.  He wants to help Mommy look into property in the West Kili area as his close friend is the MP for the area.  hmmmm....we'll have to see about that.

In any case, tomorrow David (our rafiki or friend) has kindly offered to go back out to the village with our birth Mom's photo and some better information on the family.  It will be easier to just have a few grown ups along than the entire family.....it was too hard to search with everyone.  Once we have found our family, then Mommy will find a time that works with David and Arnold's school schedule and we will all go back and visit our family.  We haven't given up yet!  We have just been delayed, not defeated!

3 comments:

Mama Ezra said...

Hi, My name is Sarah Sirikwa, I am an American married to a Maasai, we have a son together and live in America. We had been living in Arusha for the past 4 years though. My husband is Nyangusi Sirikwa. He will be back in Arusha next month. He knows all of the Sirikwa's. Amy Summers knows us too. I would love it if he could help you know the Sirikwa family for Aki's sake. They are a very proud and huge family. Let me know if you are interested! All the best, Sarah

Akira and Clara Shei said...

Hi Sarah! It's soooo great to meet you. Thanks so much for writing. It is so exciting to think that I have family in America too! I'm excited to move there and it is even nicer to know that I have family there. I HOPE that we will be on our flight to America on the 26th of February so it sounds like we might miss your husband. We did find my grandfather today and met him for the first time. He was so nice....named, Laban Lekamoi Sirikwa. I would really love to speak with you more and find out where exactly we all fit in the Sirikwa family. It's GREAT to make this connection. Can't wait to speak to you more. THANK YOU!

Mama Ezra said...

my email is metzger.sarah@gmail.com we live in Lexington, Massachusetts. My son's name is Ezra Sirikwa and I would love for him to meet his cousins!!!!!!!!!!!