Ndinini (Danini) Kimesera Sikar

Hi, everyone.

We are standing on a bridge between one way of family life and something much different, to something that relies not only on human care but also technology to manage the many responsibilities of raising a family.

My plea to all of you is to be careful and move with intention.

leaving traditions behind for the new ways can be very risky.

And let me explain.

See, I was raised in a Maasai village in Tanzania, in a family of 38.

One father, five mothers and 32 siblings.

And I can literally name them all.

There's Namilok, Malia, Sam, Nanoto.

I'm just kidding, I won't do that.

As a kid, my first job of the day was to milk our cows and goats.

It took about two hours, but we girls did it together.

It also hurt my fingers, but I loved it, because we sang to the cows to help them relax and give more milk.

After the milking,

We went for firewood.

It took three hours.

We girls did it together, singing on the way to the bushes, eating fruits and dancing on the pathways.

Next, we went for water.

Another three hours.

The water hole was maybe 10 kilometers away.