The Little Girl from the Village

We shall set up the bonfire remember to carry your little wood to keep the fire burning!

The Little Girl from the Village

So once upon a time there was a young beautiful girl who lived in a small village; she was the only kid hanging around the village as all others went to school. She had started school only for a term in a school out in the desert before she was taken and moved to the town marking the end of her dream of getting an education.

In the morning she will rise and watch the sun rising..it gave her hope and reason to believe in herself. Then she prepares breakfast and serve the kids going to school despite being a kid herself. Then she will go out to fetch water which was an everyday routine. Carrying a metallic bucket (dont ask why not plastic because by then the plastic menace was not there everything was metallic including the karaya) on her head shaking as water literally trickled down from her little head budging below the weight not well built for the tough job. Then coming home to start the fire ….kwa kwa kwa you will hear the sound of the axe on the wood ……and the neighbours will know she is back to start preparing lunch while undertaking the household chores. Everyone will call her and send her around…..she was fast and listens to the elderly a virtue admired by many.

The little girl from the village was destined to be great with or without formal education. She went to a school of life a school where she learnt life was tough. To survive you have to work extra harder especially if you were given up to a relative and you had no formal education.

Just for once imagine if you were given up at an early age of 2 years? It was not easy on her but she carried on with a smile always walked away when someone was screaming at her. She learnt to bottle up her anger and instead will smile making the one screaming question if she was normal. That little girl met her prince charming almost by accident; one day as the prince visited the village one elderly lady asked him when he is getting married?

Isi gurba….atin amm ya gudate….yommm wo futt?

(You are now old enough to have a wife and start a family, when are you getting married?)

But Prince charming also had fair share of his troubles. Lost his mum at a very young age lucky for him he was taken to a boarding school in the far land very close to the border. A boarding school from class 1 sounds like torture but in this case it was a blessing in disguise. All his siblings were taken by his aunties who lived on another side of the border and were married by a completely different community. It’s struggle not to have a place to call home as the father remarried and the prince charming lost all hope of ever settling.

Love, marriage and family had no meaning to him.

He was such a bright kid with the best handwriting winning in an East African Regional Hand Writing competition only when he was 9 years old in class 3. When sick he will walk to the hospital by himself and look for neighbours where he could rest before going back to school. There was no holiday as he had no place to call home remember and a friend he met at school become his brother.

So many years passed by and it was time to go to high school and after questioning himself for long he decided to take the ride of his life. He literally brought himself to high school and here he met some volunteer teachers who encouraged him to believe in himself again. This is where he met the elderly lady whose home he visited when they were given an outing to visit relatives.

He led his class severally but he also a fair share of fun! The sound of a guitar from the far villages drove him crazy he will drop everything and literally sneak out just to sing and dance to the great melodies of legendary songs. He later became a composer and one of the greatest musicians of our time but that is a story for another day. The search for education brought the young man to a very cold chilly place; getting the hot porridge was a blessing in the morning and the Mandazi from the school dining was a delicacy many will risk being sent home for stealing.

As he visited the village now done with school and was just employed he noticed the young girl coming home all soaked up and her teeth grinding against each other! Wondered why she was not in school as the little girl sung her heart something that she does routinely. But today she looked a little bigger and taller; the elderly lady ……who the prince charming was visiting had ideas for marriage. This was repeated over and over again.

(Baadhi malaika Rabbi tann laal, intal dansa akan tak ingare bekh) whispering into prince charming ears look at that little angel! She is so well behaved and would make a great wife she narrated.

Unknown to little girl in the village that was the beginning of a new era and a new life…..the prince did not respond to the elderly lady this time but he took a second look and liked what he saw a hardworking young girl who had all the qualities of a great wife.

Barely a month down the line a plan was hatched to trick the little girl in the village to go and collect a sack sent on a truck. As she ran outside 2 motorbikes awaited (The only bikes in town) two strong women grabbed her and one tied her on herself jumping on the back of the bike as the little girl screamed for her life. She was sandwiched between the rider and the strong lady, her mouth covered with the hand so no screams will be heard.

As fate would have it no one was in the village on this day. Those days it was compulsory for everyone to attend national celebrations so all were in the open space (Kuwanja) listening to speeches and the songs whose composer was not even conducting the choir he asked a friend to do it for him while he was on a mission. Instead he was committing a crime….should I call it that or following his heart as he found a new love…what was happening is a real life kidnapping. It was love from one side…the little girl from the village had nothing to do with it.

The songs were so long on purpose as it kept everyone busy long enough to execute his plan. Many cried their hearts out as it touched on social issues and the heroes of their time. He managed to kidnap the little girl from the village and calming her down with a promise to take her to her mother. When she realised this was a lie she attempted to run away twice but she was not fast enough for the strong lady who was accompanying her! The second attempt was worse the two bikes were racing her down and literally that was the end of her dream of ever going back to the village. A few months passed by then a wedding happened and she become a proud owner of a sofa set and a home to call her own. And for a little girl who had never sat on one this was a big deal…it was a leather sofa and only two homes had them in the entire village.

One year passed by as the marriage blossomed the little girl from the village was blessed with a bouncing baby girl. A tale of a little nomad girl born literally in an period of transition as the country faced a dilemma of who is going to be next leader. The country was mourning, a great leaders just passed on but in far away land in the village there was a Jill to celebrate the birth of a baby girl against cultural norms.

The prince charming now a husband asked the little girl from the village to name her little baby going against tradition she was named after her maternal grandmother.

They both celebrated the nomads girl birth even giving her a special name. Every time she cried they sung a special song to her a famous song in the village. As she grows up the little girl will be great like the american dollar…….I am not sure why not the local currency…..

We should be careful as parents the names we give to our children and the songs we sing to them as they grow up! I am not sure if the baby #NomadGirl lived to the expectations of The Little Girl from The Village and Prince Charming and the praise song they sung to her back them!

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