"Dear Miss Kiona,
Good day to you from Ziberia. I hope you reply this letter soon because I shall make up my mind in one year. Miss Kiona, life has been tough with my husband. I'm going to divorce Nore."
*****
Kiona wasn't happy that she had to sail away to a far away country to engage in her volunteer work that might become a job if she liked it. She was a trained midwife who had helped in the delivery of many babies in her township. She wasn't familiar with the country she was asked to go on this special volunteer work. But she had to go, she was told, if she needed to expand her knowledge of nursing. Other midwives who had gone to the country, in the company of their husbands returned with diverse reports. Some liked it but others said they would pass on the offer any other time. Kiona had studied the map of Ziberia for many nights after working in the maternity during the day. However, as the deadline she was given to decide whether to leave for Ziberia approached, she became very apprehensive.
It wasn't a terrible place, after all. The Joneses and the Waterbumbums claimed that it was a lot of fun in the hinterland, where Kiona would report if she chose to go. Then, there were other couples. Mrs Filchmarker didn't quite like it there and would only go there again on a short stay. Perhaps to hike the nice mountains and view the landscape up at the place near the rainforests. She insisted that she didn't mind the mosquitoes. Her husband, Mr Filchmarker, had tended her when she had come down with malaria and was a terrible nurse at doing it. However, the natives were nice and their local herbal tonics were a relief. But she wouldn't return to live in Ziberia again.
Kiona decided to leave for Ziberia and packed all her credentials and travel belongings in one bag. It would be a short stay, if she didn't like it. There was that opportunity, which comforted her family. She was the third child in a family of eight children. Her parents were fond of her and loved that she chose to be a nurse. It was a calling to tend the sick. But she took it a notch higher when she enrolled to train as a midwife. Everybody but her family thought it was a good thing. But her mother insisted that it would distract her from the original calling, of tending the sick. Kiona loved to witness birth. It was surreal and she worked hard at helping mothers with birth complications. It was not surprising, then, that her supervisor extended the job at Ziberia to her. It was towards the end of the 18th century. She was going to live there as long as she wanted but she was warned that there were few Englishmen in Ziberia. What did that mean? Kiona was only 23 years and surely would love to be married someday.
Ziberia was a bush country with many happy local people. They liked her hair and said that she reminded them of a lark. She was chirpy and happy. She liked to speak in that inaudible language that their children were learning in the mission schools. However, she was a excellent midwife. The heat of the country was the only reason Kiona would have left the next day. The sun sat majestically everyday daring the natives to leave their huts. But they were rather amused as they left the huts everyday to their farms. It was the harvesting period and the children were excited. It was a lot of work as she watched them toil on the farms. But it did seem a more fun thing to do than planting? Kiona wasn't sure. Perhaps it was the sun that made them happy. The heat should force anybody into a shade.
Among the children that came to speak to or receive sweets from Kiona was a little girl name Sora. She smiled with a dimple. A dimple was the little hollow in the cheek when someone smiled broadly. The midwife liked to tell her stories of her own childhood. The little girl of about four years nodded all the time in consent. What did she know of England? But it was fun for Kiona that she had an admirer. After a while, other girls gathered around Kiona to listen to her stories of the wonderful births in their village. They were horrified to hear of such things. They were kids and shouldn't know how babies were born. They stayed back for the sweets. It was a fair reward for their time. Who was entertaining who?
Sora and the rest of the children weren't happy to welcome Nore, a boy whose mother had returned from a failed marriage. The mother was a sister to the Head Chief's first wife. She was from another village but had lived with her sister since her parents died in her youth. Nore didn't look like them. His mother had married from faraway to a place she was forbidden to marry. Nore's mother was warned that the marriage would be unsuccessful, but she was adamant on leaving her sister's home. She left and the village moved on from her. However, after nine years, the marriage failed and Nore came to live among his aunt's marital village with his mother. The mother wasn't loved anymore but tolerated well. So, was Nore. But Nore soon warmed up to the village boys. They played games and went out to hunt game and lizards. Sora learnt to avoid him especially when he found their group in Miss Kiona's house. Sora ensured that he didn't sit with the girls. Nore found a good spot away from the girls. His ears must sit well on his head because he heard every whisper in the group. He asked questions and Miss Kiona was generous with her answers. Eventually, the other girls 'graduated' from the group and some of them returned to help their mothers on the farmland.
Nore tried to become friends with Sora. They were the only ones left behind to help Miss Kiona with her chores. They fought each other with games of the mind. Miss Kiona had noticed the boy's interest in Sora of all the other girls. It was alright that they quarreled but wouldn't let her settle their disputes. She watched them grow up while she missed her motherland. She blamed the little couple for her reason to have remained in Ziberia. She had dated a few gentlemen but left out the option of a formal union with any of them. Her correspondence with Sir Williams in England had yielded no visit from him. She let him be. Nore reminded her of what a gentleman should be. He was poised, benevolent and had the right attitude towards his predicament. He said he wouldn't hate his father for ruining his childhood. That made him a man, in Miss Kiona's mind.
Eventually, as Sora wouldn't marry any of her suitors, Miss Kiona became amused if not annoyed with her. She was a beautiful girl and had come of age in her village. She didn't like child marriage with its attendant birth complications. But the girls of the village didn't have so much to worry about. They listened to the birth attendants and ate the right fruits and vegetables. But it was different with Sora who had confided in her that her mother was alarmed that she wasn't being nice to her admirers. Sora never brought up Nore in her conversations with her. Did she like him? Was she still resenting him for over ten years? They should have outgrown their childish tendency to quarrel only when she was around but wouldn't let her intervene in their case. Perhaps it was all right to ask them what the matter was. Would she ask them together? Or ask them separately? She began with Nore.
....To be continued next week.
Please pardon any typo. They will be fixed.
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