Prompt 2- Tambu's Arrival

Tambu expects that many aspects of her life will be improved once she goes to Babamukuru’s house. One of those aspects is her appearance. She describes her dirty and “peasant”-like self when she enters Mukuru’s car. However, she claims that “this was the person I was leaving behind. At Babamukuru’s I expected to find another self, a clean, well-groomed, genteel self.” Tambu believed that going to Babmukuru’s home would also improve her mind because there she would be “encouraged to consider questions that had to do with survival of the spirit.” Tambu describes how magnificent Babamukuru’s home was. However, I found this part in her description interesting: “Had I been writing these things at the time that they happened, there would have been many references to palace and mansion and castle….but I have learned in the years that have passed since then, to curb excesses and flights of fancy…I can now refer to my uncle’s house as no more than that- a house.” These sentences foreshadow that Tambu will, in the future, become accustomed to the luxuries of Babamukuru’s home.
Another part I found interesting is was her description of the kitchen. She mentions how she thought it was sophisticated at the time, but later recalls the shortcomings the kitchen had like a non-electric kettle, a missing pane of glass, etc. Eventually, Tambu will no longer consider Babmukuru’s home to be perfect. I feel that while Tambu wanted to get an education, she was more thrilled with the lifestyle she would be receiving at Mukuru’s home. Tambu rarely mentions how excited she will be to attend the mission and learn new things but focuses more on the material aspects of her new life. At one point when she is describing her lowliness compared to Babamukuru’s family, she tries to console herself by telling herself she would make good grades. “I tried to call up my courage by imagining what fine grades I would make, which was what mattered, why I had come to the mission in the first place.” It almost seems as if she has to keep on reminding herself that she is there to study not to accustom herself to luxuries.
In Tambu’s opinion, there is nothing important at the homestead. When describing her family that she has left behind, she calls them “insignificant” and “an obstacle in the path of my departure.” To her, the homestead was a place she wanted to escape. She even finds shortcomings in the Nayamarira, the river she loves, to make it appear unimportant.