Back in the village almost every household had a dog and each of these dogs was expected to serve a particular purpose. The dogs were mostly kept so that they could guard the homestead at night and to a lesser extent as companions in hunting and in the herding of other domestic animals like cows, goats and sheep.

Some homes were known for miles around because of the ferocity of the dogs that they kept. In such a home, the owner would carefully write a sign that read “Mbwa Kali” (ferocious dog) and hang it at the entrance of the homestead to warn any prospective thief that the home was well protected. These dogs would be carefully locked away during the day and on being set free when the owner went to sleep, they would keep a night long vigil in their designated homestead; very disciplined. Usually these dogs were well fed by their owners who even took the trouble to make the long journey to town to buy commercial dog food. They were also well groomed and rarely had any insects on them or parasites in their bodies.

In most homes however, the dogs ended up serving more as sirens than as guards. If thieves or wild animals came at night, the dogs would bark loudly to alert the owner and then take off in terror to save their own lives, leaving the master to deal with the crisis on his own. In fact, it was not guaranteed that the dog would be there to act as a siren, depended on where its sense of smell had taken it scavenging. During the day, these kind of dogs would be seen roaming the village looking for food handouts, with their huge floppy ears, ribs the stuck out and a tail that was permanently tucked between the hind legs. Occasionally, such a dog would stop with an audible sigh of frustration to vigorously scratch for flees with its hind limbs and would even attempt to bite the insects with its teeth with an angry growl. Its owner obviously never fed it, leave alone groom it to remove insects from its fur.

Depending on its owner, any dog could turn out to be a mbwa kali (ferocious dog) or a mũfi (mongrel). The ferocious dogs had to be trained, fed and groomed and taken good care of. On the other hand, the owner of the mongrel never took the time to train or feed it, groom it or even take proper care for it.

These two kinds of dogs remind me of our talents. God gives each one of us a special talent or talents. Some people take the time to train and nurture their talents until they become as useful in society as mbwa kali. Other people just take their talents for granted and never train or nurture them and so the talent ends up as emaciated, unkempt and disappointing as the village mongrel. And just as 1 well trained mbwa kali could be more useful than 10 mongrels as a homestead guard, a person with 1 nurtured talent is more fulfilled than a person with 10 talents that have been left to go to waste.