Untukmu Para Pengunjung

I share an office with 2 other people. One of them is married to a tsoko (monkey), which is also my totem, so she is considered to be my mother and John is her son-in-law (mukuasha). Every time he comes to my office and she is here, he must crouch down, clap his hands and greet her properly. The few times he has forgotten to do so, she has pointed and told him to get down (she's a tad traditional!) Monday afternoon at 4:30pm we were packing up to go home. John rushed in to give me his stuff so that he could run home from work. As soon as he came in she started shaking her head and saying "zvakaoma" (it is difficult). I asked what was wrong and she explained that he hadn't knocked. She said that when a mother-in-law is in a room, and the son-in-law comes in without knocking, there must be payment - a chicken, to be precise (live or dead was not clarified). So now we owe her a chicken, but we haven't seen chickens in the shops for months. She said the best thing to do might be for her to keep a list of all of his infractions (there are already several) and then present it at the end of the year. At that point we'll probably have to give her all we own! Sometimes it's not easy to have in-laws!