Chapter 7, pages 70-92 Summary

Rung'ei Trading Centre is an African shopping center. Indians come to buy food to resell in Nairobi for a profit, and there is an Indian population there. The iron snake, the train, comes by. Every Sunday, the young people of Thabai gather at the train station for a social event. Afterward dances are performed and fights break out.

When Gikonyo is young, Gikonyo's mother Wangari is thrown out by her husband Waruhiu and takes the train to Thabai. She does not have money for much schooling, but Gikonyo learns carpentry, which he loves. He can identify woods by their smell. His mother likes to come to the workshop to get cast-off boards for firewood, for which Gikonyo chides her, lovingly. Gikonyo is in love with the beautiful Mumbi, daughter of prestigious elder Mbugua and his wife Wanjiku. Mumbi has...