THERE IS LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL
It was a Monday morning and the burning sun who woke from a good sleep cast its fury upon all the creatures on earth without excluding the Village of Ogbalo in the south. The singing of birds could be heard from the distant trees and the piercing cries of the domestic animals begging for food could not be ignored. The village kids were running up and down from courtyard to courtyard without a worry in the world.
It was the third day of my arrival in the village where my parents came from. I've never been there before in all of my 12 years of life. My mum used to tell me a lot about how life wasn't easy here. How they had to scratch the ground hard the whole season just to earn something small to take them through the coming season --Dry season--
Well, I was born in the city anyway, so I wasn't exposed to that kind of life from the beginning. My parents never thought of taking me there. They didn't want me to experience that life, until one fateful day, when there were no other options except for us to go back to the village.
As the first working day in the week, Mondays are always busy and there was no exception for Ogbalo village too.
One could see students in groups of two to four moving towards the community centre while some middle-aged men and women were also heading towards the outskirts of the village with farming tools, fishing tools and hunting tools.
Well, as a newcomer what can I do? Of course, my uncle was a farmer and I couldn't register for school yet so I could only follow them to the farm even though I didn't know anything about the course.
The past three days with my uncle were very fun even though with a mournful atmosphere. Maybe they were just giving my parents some time to rest in peace before they started dealing with me.
But from today, I was drugged along to the farm any other day. I thought I would be going to school even if not in the city anymore, there were still some schools in the community. But to my disappointment, that dream kept going far far away from coming true.
Everything was all about farming.
Either raining or shining, we were always on our way going or coming back from the farm.
I cried to my uncle a lot about going back to school but, every time I did that, my aunt would scold me for days and warn me to know my level.
To them, since my parents were gone, I was just a small piece of rag, not worth mentioning talkless of sending me to school. Isn't it better to go farm with us so we can produce more crops than to go waste your time and money in school?
They just can't think far.
It was a year now since my parents passed away and I've been staying with my uncle and his family. __His wife and two children__
here came a new academic year and my cousins were dressing for school in high spirits. Meanwhile, in a faraway farmland in a neighbouring community, a young girl of about fourteen to fifteen years old was busily hoeing the field like a legendary ancestral farmer. If you talk about speed and strength on the field, you can't beat her at all.
All these 10-plus months I've been with my uncle, I saw no hope of going back to school. So I thought about it and decided to make a good out of my farming skills. Who knows, I might get the opportunity to make money through it and then use that money to send myself to school one day.
So I invested all my energy into developing on the field and to everyone's surprise, I've been doing quite well.
I thought my hard work would make my uncle and his wife soften their heart and agree to let me continue my education but.... Well, I was promoted from a novice farm girl to the head farmer in the community. That was a very great achievement, right?
I mean no farmland in the whole village doesn't have a taste of my hoe before. You'll see me in Kofi's farm today and then in Sofia's field tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, you'll see me in my uncle's field with the others paying us the work we've loaned them. Very impressive.
After moving around from field to field dawn to evening without any decent food in my stomach, I finally came back to continue with another duty__Cooking for the family__
Do you think anyone was going to cook before you come back? Continue dreaming. They only cook their fill within the day, eat all and leave the dishes for me to come and take care of before preparing supper.
When the crops were ready for harvest, I was always ready for marketing. Either selling around in and outside the community into other small villages miles away or going to the district market with my aunt__ My uncle's wife__
My cousins always travel to the city to spend the holidays with their uncles and aunties from their mother's side so everything in the house depends on me to be done whenever the need be.
One day, after a long journey from the farm, I came to meet an unexpected guest in the house.
How did she come here? What is she here for?
So many questions in my mind but who's going to answer me if I won't go inside the house to ask?. So I suppressed my excitement and run straight into the house. Yes, you heard me right. I run so fast dropping the tools and baskets I was carrying there with no care. I never thought my grandmother would ever come to visit me after staying here for so long without anyone asking of me. I was so moved to tears.
"You mean she stopped school for a whole year?
And you still want me to put her in her formal class? How is she supposed to keep up with the class?
You should know that this is the second semester of the academic year and we're even close to the the end. Can she still write anything on the exams?"
An angry principal rattled on and on until he was choked with saliva.
"Principal please, just assess her and see how she performs then you can place her accordingly" explained my grandma calmly.
She was very upset when she heard that I wasn't schooling
She couldn't believe that the only grandchild that her daughter left for her was used as a labour machine for that damned family. Did they think she grandma Laura was invisible?
Tired of arguing with the villains for a long time, she took me straight back to the district capital, a small town called Westland and then to the school straight after letting me have a delicious meal for the first time in a long period.
After a series of assessments, I was finally accepted into the school almost jumping a class in the process.
The teachers and the principal were all amazed. When I came for my entrance exam results, they were all looking at me with their mouth agape.
Actually, there was nothing to be amazed about. Even though to everyone I was in the house for a year, I never really left my books.
Because I always help my cousins with their homework during my days with them, I also got time to do some research and study on my own.
Everybody thought Fiona was the queen of the field but, I wasn't just that. I was also the empress of the book just with an invisible crown___
Today was a great day, I mean a day that I've almost lost hope for. But here it was, the day that I could go back to school.
I was very excited when I set foot on my new campus. Those 356-plus days on the farm while my colleagues were in the class were my worst nightmare.
I've experienced what it means to be maltreated by your auntie. I worked like a war horse or more like a robot. Yes, a robot. No feelings, no emotions, no food. Just work, work, and work. But thanks to my grandmother, I could still sit in the classroom and listen to the enthusiastic teachers explaining things to the pupils.
In a flash, I've spent three weeks in school already and today was the first day of writing our end-of-academic-year examination. Can you imagine? Spending just three weeks to learn everything that everyone else used months to learn. So pitiful.
Grandma Laura was an old lady after all. I still had to do many house chores and help sell some provisions in the small store. Not much time was available for books. While other kids were playing, Fiona was moving right and left with different tasks at hand.
While everyone else was having sweet dreams, Fiona was with a stack of books the size of three pillows trying to understand what was written in them.
On the last day of our exam, after my last full stop, I came out with a heavy heart. I wasn't having any friends then, so I could only sit somewhere thinking about what the outcomes might be, not knowing there was something more devastating waiting for me in the house.
" You are Fiona, right? Your grandma just had an accident and was taken to the hospital. You should hurry up to go see her." An aunty next door explained with pity all over her face.
What? Grandma had an accident? And she's in the hospital? How? When?
I felt like I was struck by 3500-voltage of lightning bolts.
My brain went blank and my limbs went weak. I sat on the floor for a very long time before coming back to my senses
I asked about the hospital and rushed there without even removing my uniform only to learn that my grandma who was energetic just this morning was gone in a blink. My only family was gone just like that without saying goodbye. Why? Why always me? Was I destined to never have any loved ones around me? Was I fated to stay alone through this dark world? I was very depressed and despaired. What a life.
Three months after my grandma's burial, I was still sobbing uncontrollably on her grave without any feelings for the outside world when I heard someone calling my name in high pitch.
"Fiona, come quickly, your teachers are here"
Teachers? Oh no, I was still supposed to go to school. I couldn't even check my results. Wait, it seems the school has resumed for about two weeks now but, I never thought of it.
When my grandmother died, I was cast aside by everyone else. They all said I was a curse and never wanted to associate themselves with me again.
I received coldness from every eye, and hatred from every heart. I felt like every day was torture to me, sinking me deeper and deeper into the depths of the ocean of darkness.
But at the last moments when I thought everything was going to be over for me, news came. __A good news__came.
I was actually awarded a scholarship to study in every school of my choice from the Junior high till university with everything provided by the education ministry.
The reason been that, even though I've passed all the other subjects well, my science was very superb catching the attention of the government. Especially my agricultural aspect. Remember I was once the queen of the farm after all.
So people from the ministry have been coming to the school for a long time now only to leave in disappointment every time. I was absent the whole time. So they now decided to look for me.
After they learnt about my situation at home, they couldn't help but let out a long sigh. Who would have thought that the national treasure of the education ministry was about to cry herself to death because there was no one to take care of her?
To me, winning that scholarship was just like a dream. Even after staying with my principal for years through my junior high education till stepping my shoes into the gates of senior high with no worries about school fees, food, clothing or whatsoever, till now I still can't believe it.
Today even though just in a small amount of brightness, I was assured that, there is really light at the end of the tunnel.