Wanja Odhiambo: An Authentic Taste of Proverbs 31

Posted by Yakuti in Archives | | 14 comments

Wanja Odhiambo runs C & W’s African Experience, a restaurant in Gloucester, UK, described by Food and Drink Guides as innovative, with delicious, subtly flavoured cuisine and a warm, friendly proprietor.  I dig into her life to discover the woman behind the business.

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“C & W’s, may I help you?”

The British accent throws me off. I feel guilty for expecting an African accent (whatever that is!) just because her name is African. I wonder if this is Wanja and how I can find out without being offensive. I quickly compose myself and remember I can do it the traditional way – by asking to speak to her. It turns out that it is not her, but Michelle, who helps out at the restaurant and is a lady about whom Wanja has very many wonderful things to say.

Then again, she has something positive to say about everyone and about every experience that she describes to me.

Wanja comes to the phone, and her voice throws me off again. I make a mental note to stop doing this – creating a picture in my mind for the interviews I conduct. I had expected her to voice to be deep and commanding, maybe even a little preachy. Instead, she sounds bubbly, yet calm, even motherly, and her voice is not deep at all. Her accent? Well, I would call it Kenyan with British influences. Whatever – it’s beautiful, and she is a joy to listen to.

Her unique name – Wanja Odhiambo – is where we begin. I am not surprised to discover that I am far from the first person to enquire about it.  “Of course people ask about it,” she says, adding that they also assume that she is Kikuyu just because her name, Wanja, is commonly found among the Kikuyu. “I’m not Kikuyu, I’m Meru,” she tells me. Her husband, Charlie, someone of whom she speaks very fondly throughout the interview, is Luo.

The fact that they have been married, and happily so, for ten years, is interesting to me, mainly because these two Kenyan ethnic groups have a deep-rooted dislike for each other that goes back into the early post-colonial days. While the grip of tribalism is slowly beginning to be loosened over the people of Kenya, I am certain that ten years ago, the notion of a marriage between a Luo and a Meru must have posed a serious problem. I ask about it.

“Charlie and I were good friends,” she tells me. “We knew each other; went to church together. My family knew him and loved him. My dad loved him, [but] then when he got serious, my dad did not want anything to do with him.” She laughs heartily. “It was chaos.”

The stereotypes that label many Kenyan communities come out even more strongly when marriage is a proposition, and Charlie and Wanja were not spared this phenomenon. One major stereotype about Luo men is that they are chronically polygamous. Wanja’s dad did not want his daughter to become a lonely co-wife. Besides, Charlie “had nothing,” Wanja says, hinting at possible concerns on her father’s part about how she would be provided for.

Her father was not present for the traditional arrangements, which Wanja says they kept pretty simple. It was clear to her that he would boycott the wedding, too, but he changed his mind and decided to attend. “Because of prayer,” she tells me, “he only turned around last-minute; the week of the wedding.” It becomes clear to me that I am speaking to a woman who is rock-solid resolute about anything she decides to do. Interestingly, and to Wanja’s delight, Charlie and his father-in-law are back to being better than best friends.

Her marriage began on a humble note, and she has seen fiery trials through the years. The wedding was only the beginning. “When God takes you through the fire, it is so that you can never have any glory. It was never about money or anything. Just loving God, seeking Him, and Him opening doors of the wedding and things like that. My family is not wealthy, but I never really hungered or anything, things were provided. I went I went to good schools. When I started seeking God, He just put this hunger in me. That’s why I think I had to marry someone who lives by faith. I had my options, by the way, but I wanted to live by faith.”

I wonder aloud how she ended up in the UK. “I never really wanted to come here, by the way. I studied German [in high school], and my dad really wanted me to go to Germany. You know how people finish school and are thinking ‘abroad, abroad’? I never wanted [that].”

She and Charlie went to the UK, but returned to Kenya after six months because things were a little difficult. While in Kenya, they decided to trust God and give it a second try, and “we got our visa, and there was no trouble. Eventually we got here in 2003 November.”

They were in the UK to pursue master’s degrees, but like many, they faced the challenges of being in a new land. There were delays, and shortly afterwards, Wanja discovered she was pregnant with their first child. They had to work, too. “Being people of faith, you’re not going to do the things that people do. We said Lord, You will provide.”

2007 came, and it was time to renew their visa. Wanja was pregnant, this time with their second child. Kenya was about to go through a turbulent election period. Charlie’s father, the renowned Bishop James Ocholla of Glad Tidings church, passed away that year – a day before she gave birth to her second child. Bills started to pile up. They got a rent delay notice. God still provided for them, but the big bills were difficult to pay. “We had the basics,” Wanja says. The same month when they got the delay notice, they got a letter saying their visa renewal had been denied.

It seemed like they had hit rock bottom. A kind and well-to-do couple invited the Odhiambos to live with them in a different town. “Talk about the love of God and finding an oasis in the desert. They received us with such open arms. Here we are, in the middle of a crisis and we’re living in one of the most beautiful locations in the UK, it was a beautiful house!” She pauses.

“I’ll write a book,” she tells me, seemingly concluding that there are too many miraculous events to fit into just one interview. She talks about the way God miraculously provided for a lawyer, moving back to Gloucester, living in a place where they had just one room and the unpleasant experience of having to share the basic facilities. “I remember praying, ‘Oh Lord, help!!’” The cry for help as she describes it gives me a clear picture of their desperation in that moment.

By God’s grace, they eventually found a lovely house. Charlie had found a job. At the very last minute, the landlord at this beautiful place cancelled on them. They were unable to move into that place. “You can imagine my struggle with God that day,” Wanja says.

They had found another place, not as nice, but they were desperate to move. “I always tell people, God was waiting for us to meet the right landlord, because it’s that same landlord who gave us this facility (C & W’s). You look back and you see He had His hand in it all along!”

Their visa was renewed, too.

We go back to the restaurant. Maintaining balance is a difficult task, something Wanja says she has accomplished literally by the grace of God.  Her husband helps out with the cooking – “but he does not do the chapos,” she clarifies. She tells me about her love for cooking, and her chapatis, for which she was famous in the neighbourhood where she lived. Michelle, the lady who answered the phone, has been a huge blessing as well. Wanja shares how she has led Michelle and one man to the Lord – the latter while she was cooking chapatis in the kitchen and conversing with him while he was in the eating area. “All my life I’ve been praying, ‘What is it You want me to do? Show me, I know you created me for a reason.’ And now I feel I am doing what God called me to do; I’m living in my destiny. I’m preaching the gospel, and I’m cooking.” I can feel her contentment across the ocean.

People told her she could not do it. She is certain she has had nothing to do with it, and she refuses to take the glory. She shares another story – apparently, the building that houses her restaurant is a significant one in the history of the church. Robert Raikes, the founder of Sunday School, started his ministry in the very place that houses C & W’s. “When we got to this building, a Christian lady came in here. She had been praying. She was excited, and she [told us] that this building is where Sunday School started.”

It all fits perfectly for Wanja. She considers her business a calling, and herself an ambassador to the nations. Her target market is the general public, and she cautions against businesses and Christians in general looking down on people simply because they appear to be lowly or of a different societal class. The Gloucester Member of Parliament has eaten and his councillor, have dined at C & W’s. She has a client who comes from a different town to eat at C & W’s simply because he considers it the most peaceful place he can eat. “We pray in here, what do you expect?” she says joyfully.

One common misconception people have about starting a restaurant is that millions start rolling in within a short period of time, something Wanja says does not happen. The initial years are the most crucial. “Money doesn’t come in as quickly as people think. When you start out something new, you lay the foundation first. The deeper the building, the deeper the foundation. A foundation is underground. There is this hole that you dig, and you pour stones and cement in it and you’re thinking, ‘Okay, I bought all of that stone, where is it going?’”  But that is what holds the building, she wisely says.

Looking ahead, Wanja sees nothing but victory. She is already working on her book, and does not want to wait until she has made it before she can tell her story. To many people, the fact that she runs a restaurant would indicate that she has made it, but she says she still has a lot to do. Quoting Habakkuk 2:4 and Deuteronomy  8, she says, “The just shall live by faith. If you’re going through a tough time, God is testing what is in your heart. Keep your eyes on God. When the delay is happening, I call it branding. You know how cows are branded? The farmer takes a hot iron and puts it in the fire until it’s bright red, and then brands it on the cow. For as long as that cow lives, it will always have that mark. You can never run away from it.”

The tough season of Wanja’s life was simply branding. “I’ve got the smell of God.” I don’t want to take any glory. I thank God that He’s making sure that I don’t even have the opportunity to do it. And the branding comes at a cost.”

And in case you’re wondering, yes, we’re related! Spiritually, not biologically. Gotcha! Check out C & W’s at www.cwsafricanexp.org.uk. If you’re ever in the Gloucester area, definitely plan to stop by!

Let’s keep Wanja in our prayers, ladies!

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1. Proverbs 31