Casglwyd a golygwyd yr hanes llafar hwn gan Ganolfan Adrodd Storïau George Ewart Evans fel rhan o brosiect Straeon Bawso.
 

Mae prosiect Storiau Bawso yn brosiect partneriaeth arloesol rhwng Canolfan Adrodd Storïau George Ewart Evans (Prifysgol De Cymru), sefydliad cymorth arbenigol Bawso ac Amgueddfa Cymru. Ariannwyd y prosiect hwn gan Gronfa Dreftadaeth y Loteri Genedlaethol.

Mae caniatâd wedi'i roi i'r stori hon gael ei rhannu

a. Yn archifau a chasgliadau Amgueddfa Cymru
b. Ar wefannau, e.e. Casgliad y Werin Cymru, Bawso, Prifysgol De Cymru, Amgueddfa Cymru, etc.
c. Ar gyfryngau cymdeithasol, e.e. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, ac ati.
d. Mewn cyhoeddiadau ysgrifenedig, e.e. adroddiadau prosiect, erthyglau cyfnodolion, ac ati.
e. Mewn unrhyw ddefnydd arall yn unol â nodau ac amcanion y prosiect

[Trawsgrifiad ar gael yn Saesneg yn unig]

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Cyfweliad gyda Kiyomi (Straeon Bawso)

Hyd: 00:30:19

 

So, the first question is, if you’d like to tell me about your experience of coming to Wales?

It was very nice coming to Wales. I came from East Africa direct to Wales. Yeah, it took us 7 hours travel. Two flights, change to Amsterdam when got here. But I arrived in Wales very late. Because there was a delay. I came in 2022 December. Yeah. So from 2022 December to date I’ve been around. Yeah.

So, about a year and a half?

Hmm. Year and a half.

And what were your first impressions of Wales?

Oh, Wales is very cold. Oh, my God. Wales is very cold. I always feel like come out of the house it’s warm, and in no time it’s raining so the weather is unpredictable. But I like it because it’s quiet, it’s a quiet place, yeah. Wales is very quiet. It doesn’t have too much activity like London compared to London. So I like this kind of environment yeah.

And over the year and a half that you’ve been here, have your impressions of living in Wales changed?

Like wanting to live Wales?

Or just what it’s like to live in Wales?

Yeah, of course I came from abroad. And this was my first experience of leaving my home country to UK and Wales. Definitely, I’m trying to adjust to very many things. Especially the dress code. You have to put on a lot of things to cover yourself from the cold. When I had just arrived, I froze. I was not told that I’m surprised to have a warm shoe on me and double clothes stuff like that. Our country is very warm so freezing on the street I didn’t have any clothes. I suffered. That day I had to go to the shop and explain to the lady in the shop. She told me, next day don’t come out of the house when you’re dressed like this. And that’s how it stared adjusting. I know now if it’s winter you don’t dress up like you’re in Africa. Yes, you don’t dress up like you’re in Africa. You have to really cover yourself nice and yeah – the cold can frustrate you. I couldn’t lift my legs it was that bad, I couldn’t lift my legs. But this time, this year I knew how to dress up. And I’m actually fine, yeah.

So, do you have a favourite item of clothing that saved the day?

Yeah, I have my favourite clothes. I have my favourite trouser, and my favourite jacket. My favourite cardigan, yeah. Put on my cardigan, I put on my jacket on top and then nice trouser. Shoes that are covering my legs properly. Yeah, I think I’m now fine.

You’ve got your Welsh footwear.

Yes, yes. I’ve got it. But I learnt the hard way. It wasn’t easy. I learnt the hard way so last year I think it was around Feb, we were still staying at the seaside. When I arrived in Wales I went to work at the seaside. We came out of my house; we went the lodge where I used to stay. When we opened the door oh, my God, snow. The first time of seeing snow. It was like goodness me. Just came out, stepped in the snow, took pictures. Just interesting. It was really fun, yeah.

You say that’s the first time you’d seen snow?

Yeah, first time to see snow in my life. Africa doesn’t have snow. East Africa doesn’t have snow. It was amazing. I took pictures, sent them home. It was fun.

And what was the rection from them?

They were like, ooh, she’s experiencing the snow now. But this year the snow has not appeared. So I think the weather has changed. I kept waiting this time to go for it. Nothing.

Fabulous, thank you.

Yeah.

So, you’ve talked about you came and you were at the seaside. Have you moved from the seaside now?

I moved from the seaside to the centre now.

So you’ve lived in a variety of places since you’ve been here?

I left the seaside. Now I’m up here in town.

So does that give you a sense of so having lived in a series of different places in the last year and a half do you have a place that feels home?

Of the three?

Of just what it is that makes it feel home?

Because it’s shared accommodation and different cultures, different ways of doing things. So to me the three places none of them has felt like home. Because the two were for a workplace then this one where I am currently it’s just a shared accommodation for working / students. But I’m not a student, but I’m living with students, and it is six people. Totally different. So when I’m in my room that’s it. When I come out, I have to go to the communal bathroom. I have to go to a communal kitchen. There is a way I like looking after at my things when I’m at home. It’s totally different here. They’re adults you can’t tell them do this. There was a time I was told to keep in my lane, so I was like, okay, I think I have to slow down a bit. Hygiene-wise, I was looking at it, having the background I told you all, I was looking at hygiene, I was like, guys, can you try to be like adults and look neat. So now I look at it the way it is and yeah. I just pray that it maybe before this year ends, I get a house which is one room. I have my own bathroom; I have my own kitchen. Yeah. That’s when I feel like I’m home because I can do what I like there, yeah.

And do you have - so you’ve got your room which you said feels okay.

Yeah, my room feels okay but you see, my room is not complete if I don’t have where I can cook from. I don’t have my own shower. I want to shower at a certain time. When you want to go and shower you find it occupied then you have to postpone. Your brain has already set to go and shower. Then you want to cook, you’re hungry, you go to the kitchen you find the stove already full. So my room doesn’t – just because it’s a bed and I feel comfortable that’s it, yeah.  So that’s it with the home arrangement and accommodation.

But home will be when you’ve got your own space –

If I have my own space I really, really would like it to be like home in the UK, yeah. I want to look at my dining, my kitchen, everything I want to look at it neat. So I can’t do it now. I only make my room neat, my bed neat, my room and that’s it, yeah.

Yeah, that’s a challenge, isn’t it, shared -

It’s a big challenge because accommodation here is very, very difficult. The nine months I spent they would never afford to give us accommodation. They tell us unless you are a student you can get studio accommodation, you can get one room unless you’re a student but I’m not a student. And I asked them even those that have got offices that get people accommodation, you walk in there they tell you I’ve got property for students, yes. But those of you that are working not in the city. So the priority here is for students. Because they’re the majority actually. The universities have to get quite a lot of good accommodation.

Hmm mm.

I even told the landlady, she has properties. I told her, could you please get me one room house that has a sitting area. I want to be like home? She said, no. It’s not available. You just can fit in the shared accommodation for now. Yeah.

Fingers crossed it comes through quickly.

Yeah, it’s one and a half years now. You come for work, you want to be like relaxed a bit, sit in the settee, watch tele. The common area you can’t put your tele there some other person will come and break it, you know. So and so. In your room it’s a small room it’s not a big one. You can’t put all the things there. But anyway, slowly like you say fingers crossed one day, one morning I will wake up and get the house, yeah. I will get it. I’m still having high hopes of getting that one that will make me feel like home in Wales.

So if we think a little bit about any point in your life you want to focus on so it doesn’t have to be the last year and a bit that you’ve been in Wales but anywhere. Is there a place that’s felt home to you?

Before I came to UK?

Could be.

No, I’d never left my country. I used to move within my country. Yeah. But when I used to move within my country okay, doing whatever studies and so on. I’d get accommodation that would feel like home. Yeah. I would get accommodation that would feel like home because I was facilitated for that. Yeah. So they would know I’m coming they would get me a place that I’d be comfortable so I could do my work when I’m happy, yeah.

And thinking about, again, across your whole life is there a place or a time that is very important to you. So it might be a happy memory or it might be a childhood memory or it might be just a place that you’ve been that feels like somewhere you’d like to tell me about?

Maybe when I was doing the studies. There is a place where I went and I climbed a very steep hill near the equator. The hill was too steep but we didn’t walk up the hill, we went up the hill with small bikes so there were expert people that rode us to that steep hill, you’d look down and you were like, my gosh. If I go off this bike and roll down, they will never see me again. So it was interesting. And we went there for five days. At first it was terrifying, second day, but the fifth day we were used. Just sit on the bike one and a half hours going uphill. It was interesting.

So if you were to sort of take me there can you tell me what I would see if I would be on that bike?

Yeah, if you were to go there because our… our district, our home district is a tourist attraction place. There are plenty of things to look at. You’d really feel nice going up hill on a small bike. Nearing around the hill, and then you see yourself on the hilltop and you’d be like, he rode me all the way through here and he didn’t trip off. It would be very nice you’d really enjoy it. We get very many people that come from this side and come for holiday there. There are many things to look at. That would be one. Then there would be another one where you go there stones that drip like breasts. Yeah. It’s next to that place, that hilly place. It is still within the same vicinity. It would be very interesting for you.

So it’s like a breast milk?

Yeah, like real boob of a woman it comes out like real breast milk. So we even call it breast of a certain woman. This was a historical woman so this is like – these are when they were moving they stopped there and become like monuments. So people very many tourists go there. It’s like a cave you go in but you find the breast milk, that stuff dripping. It drips. Year in and year out. It’s a tourist attraction. Very nice. You’d love to take pictures. Call others to come and look at it. Yeah. That is it. Yeah.

It sounds wonderful.

It’s really nice, it’s really nice. I always tell people here East Africa is a place to be.

And is there a time that you’ve been, have you been many times or once or –

No, every time you go – if you…when I’m home and I want to change environment you actually can go there and sit. The trees are so refreshing. People tent there and camp there. You just go there it’s a home away from home and you hear the birds singing on top of you in the trees. It’s a really quiet place. Nice place to stay. Not the hilltop but that other one where they are like breasts.

What are the colours like?

It’s tree. It’s green. The colour of that one that trips is like a stone. It’s brown. It’s like a stone but you can really see it dripping. Like a breast of a man. Yeah.

Oh, it sounds wonderful.

Yeah, it’s really interesting.

Would you like to tell me a little bit about what your life was like growing up?

Err – when I was growing up, at around 5, I developed asthma. They first kept on saying I had bronchitis. Then from bronchitis they said asthma. It really disturbed me from 5 years up to 16 then I outgrew it. I had to leave my home district. I came to the capital city. And when I came to the capital city the asthma checked out. Yeah. They used to say you can take some local medicine it will heal but it didn’t. When I left the cold place and came to a warmer one it went.

You’ve come back to the cold and wet –

Yeah, but I completely healed. Actually, my mum, because my dad does not exist anymore, my mum was worried she was like, you’re going to the UK the winter. I said, no. I’m no longer asthmatic. I outgrew it, yeah. I outgrew it completely. Yeah.

I have the same, actually. I was asthmatic and then when I got pregnant it went.

Yeah, you can outgrow it, you can outgrow it. Some people don’t believe that certain things happen but it’s true, it’s possible. I just changed. Actually, it was the paediatrician who advised my parents then that this child, try this. You’ve given her plenty of medicine, she’s not responding. Just remove her from this cold weather, take her to the capital city and see how she will be. As soon as I stepped in the city the asthma checked out.

That’s a big move for you and your family there –

Yeah, they brought me and kept me with my mum’s sister. They remained there but I stayed with my mum’s sister. And I didn’t have asthma anymore, yeah. So that was it.

So your mum and your mum’s sister have been important people for you?

Yeah. Very important. My mum’s sister I call her mum. I call her mum because from the time I was young she was living with my mum. So when she got married she came to the capital city they were living in the capital city. My family remained back in our home district. I came and lived with my mum – I call her mum, yeah. My young mum – my auntie, yeah. So she’s really, really good. She’s my friend. And everybody knows she’s my friend, yeah. So they’ve been a very, very, very strong rock to my growth.

And do you want to talk a little bit about that; so you’ve mentioned your studies a few times would you like to tell us –

My studies? Yeah. Actually, when I came to live with my auntie she took me to the hospital. She went with me to – she told me, come let’s go the hospital together. I think she was going for antenatal. She was going for antenatal if I’ve not forgotten. Then when I reached there I looked at the nurses very smart. They are putting on uniform that was white, red and it was ironed with pleats, very neat. I told my auntie; I have to put on that uniform. I like it. She was like, oh. I said no, I have to put on the uniform. I like it. I want to become a nurse now because I like the uniform. That’s how I joined. That’s how I became a nurse. I actually went to that same school and I did the nursing and I put on that uniform. I really used to iron it nicely. I would feel nice when I’m sitting, put all the pleats together, no wrinkles, that’s me. For three years I did the general nursing. Yeah.

And then you specialised?

No, I’m a general nurse. Then after that I started doing the studies, yeah. I started doing the studies after that, but I’m a senior nurse. General nursing. I did not specialise in anything. The studies we do them according to the seniority back home. If you’re a senior of a certain level you can do studies with the people who are carrying out researches.  Yeah.

And do you have a research specialist then?

I have certificates of participation and so on –

Is there a topic that you particularly love working on or?

Like in my field. I never went out of my field. It was basically HIV, then I go to paediatrics. Yeah, it was medical basically. Yeah. But in the community when I was doing my research, I would come across people who have got like domestic problems. I was trained to do counselling so I would do that also and do counselling because that one also I specialised in it.

And is that something you enjoyed?

Very much. I do it even now. Someone can be like low, feeling really bad and so on – when I talk to that person that person really feels there is still hope. Even after this I still can make it. Yeah. I have spoken to many people who have challenges and they tell me, your conversation with me has impacted me. So I feel proud of that, yeah.

Really proud. Yeah. That actually leads into a question that I have here which is I talk a lot about magic moments. So a moment when something changed – so I don’t know if there is a magic moment in your life you’d like to – you’ve obviously provided lots for other people. Is there one that you’d like to talk about?

Something changed like – when I come to Wales, I didn’t have anybody I know here and it was quite challenging so but through workplace and church. There is a lady who told me, there is a lady from East Africa, I will get her contacts, you meet with her. She could be from your home district. And to me that was magic. She changed everything. I was like, wow, I even have somebody in Wales who is from East Africa. Even though she’s not from my home district. And she’s Christian. That one was so nice to me. It felt really good, yeah.

And what was it about that that was so important for you?

So important for me. I’m sitting with you because of her. Yeah. I wouldn’t have known that you exist if it were not for her. So that’s why I call her magic. And another thing, I had challenges with my first job. She told me, go and speak to certain people, and right now I’m working. So to me she’s magic. Yeah. She’s magic. She turned around things for me. in a joking way, she’s a simple lady, but she’s, I don’t know how I can mention it, but she came timely to me, she came timely. Because it was going to be a challenge, but all of a sudden she had just a small sentiment. Go to a certain place and that was it, the story changed completely. And today I’m here with you. I wouldn’t have known you were here if it were not for her. Yeah.    

So, we’ve talked a little bit about your hopes which are around having a place that can be tidy and your own –

Yeah.

Is there anything else you’d like to say if you imagine that future what you’d like it to look like?

The future in Wales?

It could be in Wales, I don’t know. What do you want your future to look like?

My future, I would like it to – because I’m a mother of two. And my children are not here. They are young adults. So in future maybe if I settled down here I would like them to come to Wales and live with me. Though my son told me, mum, I can’t handle the cold. I told him, you will get to know that people dress up like this and they handle. So he was still there. Even if you’re talking of me coming to visit, maybe when it’s not cold. But in the cold, no. So my future I look at it like settling down here. Having my children come, if they want to stay because you can’t force an adult to do something. They can stay, if they want to visit they visit. So me, I’d be happy to stay here. I like Wales. Yeah. I like Wales.

That’s fantastic, thank you. Is there anything that thinking about this as a story – your story will be informing how future generations of people think about Wales if it goes into the museum. It’s about who are the people that live in Wales now is what we want to know. Is there anything you haven’t said that you would like to say that you would like to be noted or for people to know about?

Living in Wales?

Who you are living in Wales now, yeah.

Well. Now I’m here but I haven’t settled in very well. But I’m hoping to settle in because I came to work. And the job got some challenges, but like I told you, she was magic to me, she turned everything. So I’m hoping to see myself settle in and settle in, in future … I don’t know whether I can buy property here and feel comfortable and stop renting. I don’t know whether it’s possible but that would be a very good option for me, to buy property and stop renting, yeah.

That’s great.

But when people - I’ve had work mates, about two, they came from England. I even have a friend who came from England. When they come here, they don’t want to go back. So they say Wales is very good, Wales is very quiet. Wales does not have too much traffic. So I’ve also witnessed it, it doesn’t have too much traffic. A few times I’ve been to London, oh, my God. It’s too much traffic. The place is too busy and you feel like I wish to go back.

[laughter]

Yeah, Wales is a good place. People come like they are visiting, people come like they are working. Before they know they have settled. My former workplace is a lady who said she came when she was younger than me, they’ve lived here for 45 years. But they just came like you come on holiday with her husband, after today they’ve never gone back. And they’re from England. So Wales has got that gift of people wanting to leave the noisy place and come here to settle, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that’s what I did. I came from England and stayed –

See! Yeah. England is too much traffic, too much excitement. Too much of everything. Everybody this but here people come – and that’s what I like I like quiet, calm places. So when I get to England there for a day or two I think I should go back. I should go back now.

That’s brilliant, thank you. Have you said everything you want to say? Is there anything –

I think so. If you have got any more questions to ask me?

We’ve covered all our questions but it’s just if you want to – it gives us a really picture of what–

Of what Wales is? Now that the sun has come up, I am one person who likes sitting at the beach all the time, looking at the water and seeing the sunset. Seeing the water come towards me as I run away from it and back home. I did it a lot last year. Every time I was free, I would go and sit. I like looking at the water, yeah. I’m a beach person. Yeah.

Me too. Me too.

It’s so nice. So refreshing. Just keep quiet there and look at the water. Yeah.

 

Me too. That’s brilliant, thank you so much.