Give me an ear won't you?part I

"I'm leaving you in charge of these children...," these are the words that my mother left me with yesterday after giving me a heart to heart yesterday.Why would she tell me this and I have an elder sister in the same house to help keep my lesser siblings in check?
Well let me give you some background on where this statement was coming from before I give you my opinion.You see my elder sister came here in around 1996 joined some uni in New Jersey but decided after a while to move down here where things were easier.Anyhow after some time my aunt who is one year older then I am came over and they lived together.My sister finished her Associate degree in IT and got some jobs to keep her going, my aunt on the other hand never got to starting school as she was trying to make some cash for fees.Soon my small sis came over and now they were three.So as things went my aunt started dating this jungu dude and she got paged.My big sister never really approved of the relationship but it ended soon but she still gets along with his family (they keep the kids on some weekends) and talks to him once in a while.When my aunt was going out with this dude my sister had hooked up with some West African dude and she got paged and she had her kid some months after my aunt.For some reason which I am not privy to and have not bothered to delve into my aunt and my big sis disagreed.I know these things do happen but my aunt held no grudge and went on with her life, what my sis did in turn was kinda extreme; she looked for all the pics that she had that had my aunt in them and cut my aunt's head out of each and every one of them!It only gets worse she refused to talk to her at all until one of my mum's earlier visits and at this point it was just functional conversation.What used to happen is that when my mum would want to visit her sis (my aunt) that is, my sis would drop her at the doorstep and honk when she came later on to pick my mum.One day my mum took a second too long to come out and my sister told her,"If you aren't out immediately when I come I will leave you hear!"This affected my mum so much that she broke into tears.I know you can have a grudge with someone but to the point of not talking or setting at all I think that is a bit much especially if you are here in the states where if things get narrow you have no-one to lean on.
Anyway after a while my small bro checked in so it was the three of them.My small sis was the one who would take care of my big sis' kid who never saw daycare at all until this year.My small sis has come a long way with that kid.Also my big sis broke up with her boyfriend (inner details which I have not been made privy to) and to add insult to injury the guy stiffed her on child support by some way under-reporting his income and getting some cronies from his home land to concoct a new family on paper.As a result he pays a pittance that even I can pay.That isn't right at all but I really would like to hear what went down between them but since she refers to him as a psycho that isn't going to happen soon.
What shocked my mum when she got here was the way people live more as house mates then as a family.I only lived in this house for 3 weeks before I was off to school so I didnt get to see much amidst recovering from jet lag,apartment hunting and all the other things shags modos do when they get to cherembes.
Oh I have just remembered something that happened recently that had us in shock!I have an uncle who came to the states around a year or so after her (yes too much family in this part of the world) who's like a couple of years older then her.So anyhow he set up shop in Chicago and kept in touch with the rest once in a while.He was not good when it came to that and I too would get e-mail updates once every 3 months but when I was in Kenya I knew how life was hard knock in the states so I didnt ask him for money or anything.But his number one sin was not going out of his way to help out my big sis and small sis.Anyhow my mum had not seen him in 6 years and to remedy this my small sis decided to perform a covert operation.She invited him over for Christmas.If my big sis had known she would have gone to the extent of moving to a motel for Christmas with her kid.When he came over she made herself very scarce and remained in her sanctuary (her room) while my aunt,uncle,bro and sis bonded and hung out.On Christmas day itself she opted to go spend it at one of her few pal's houses as opposed to spending it with us.Anyway the next day my Uncle was leaving and that was when she decided to punish my small sister for her indiscretion.
To be continued.........