He was the newspaper vendor and shoe cobbler in OlKalou. For all my years in OlKalou, I never saw Mathenge standing up. Like every good shoe cobbler of back in the day, Mathenge sat on the floor in a very unique pose which we associated with shoe making. The soles of his feet face to face with each other in front of him. That formed an enclosed empty space in front of him where he fixed the shoes.
I now know that sitting style. It is a Yoga pose. Indians also sit in the same manner while eating their meals sitted on the floor. I do not know exactly how old Mathenge was, but he was a grown man, yet he was so flexible being able to pose like that on a concrete floor as he worked the whole day. I could not strike that pose in my teenage years, not in my young adulthood, and definitely not now. I would snap like a twig if I tried, so, lets not go there.
Did I mention Mathenge was also the only newspaper vendor in OlKalou. Daily Nation, Standard Newspaper, Taifa Leo and Weekly Review were the only papers for sale back then. There were very few people in OlKalou who read newspapers.
At my home, when our college going siblings came home, our father gave them money to buy Daily Nation. One of us younger kids were sent to Mathenge to bring the newspaper. Our older siblings read cover to cover and even filled out the crossword puzzle.
