You are a woman now

Yesterday my adopted Zambian mother, Mama Rose, who lives beside us, saw me scrubbing the floor. She proudly told me “you are a woman now.”

“What was I before Mama Rose?”

“You were a lady. But now you are a woman. A strong woman. You are hardworking.”

She was referring to the fact that I now wash clothes by hand, sweep inside and outside my house, lug big buckets of water around the place, can light and cook on a brazier and that I run outside to rescue my washing from the rain before hanging it back out 10 minutes later when the showers have passed.

And that’s pretty much the biggest compliment a Zambian woman could be given. So I’m taking it.