GIRL MEETS BOY CHAPTER 1
Prologue
Love is as true as the what the beholder giveth.
It is from the heart that it flows and from the same heart it is stored. Love
only may not be enough to last, but may just be enough to go by day in day out.
When the love is true, it builds one up bringing in a new person, a new soul
and a new mind.
‘Seal me
as a seal upon your heart,
As a
seal upon your arm,
For love
is strong as death,
Passion
fierce as the grave,
Its
flashes are flashes of fire,
A raging
flame.’
Songs of Solomon 8:6
Siba’s story
‘One
who laughs lasts, laughs best!’ These are the last words Siba heard from the
dying breath of his mother. He sat alone on the grave as the people departed and
was left wondering what the mother meant by these words…he blamed everyone for
her death…the dad who was never around when the mum was sick, the many family
members who came for funeral but were never available when she was sick, the
home pastor who prayed but it never helped, the doctor who treated but never
healed…he also blamed God for the countless times he prayed to Him but he never
answered. And he continued sitting there pondering on these words, but nothing
came to mind, so he wept and wept until his dad came back and dragged him back
to the house then left him with his younger sister Betty. Betty looked
confused, being so young and not being able to understand the situation, she
looked at the brother crying, and she started crying too, but mainly because
she was hungry and there was no food forthcoming. Siba seeing Betty crying, he
went to look for leftovers from the funeral and brought it to the hungry
sister. ‘Eat young one, eat,’ he said as he gave Betty a spoonful of cold
pilau. Their father arrived the following day stinking of changaa and fell
asleep at the wife’s grave, Siba looked on and understood he was grieving.
However,
the grieving was turning from days to weeks, he went and came back drunk and
slept at the same place every day. The food Siba and Betty ate were from the
leftovers of their mum’s funeral and soon enough it was over. Siba talked to
their father about this but he kept ignoring and continued sticking to his
daily routine. ‘Life must go on!” Siba said to himself, he was going to make
sure himself and Betty survived. So, he went to the streets, a street urchin he
became, begging for scrapes and doing any menial works he could get his hands
on so as to make some money. All he got at the end of the day went in taking
care of his sister, he never kept any for himself. His love for his sister
Betty made him a survivor in the streets, never getting caught, never using
drugs but most importantly was to get something for Betty.
Several
years passed, his father remarried and Siba ran out of home and choose to live
completely in the streets. He hated the new change, and so in the streets he
became a lone survivor for two years upon which the father later found him and
brought him home. His father enrolled him in a nearby primary school at class 6
as he was too old to start class 1. He was smart in class and picked up fast in
his studies, emerging the top of his class and joining a National Boys High
School upon which he continued excelling and was called to pursue Law at Moi
University. As he entered his hostel in Pazuri, a thought came to mind, ‘One
who laughs last, laughs best.’
Kasanda’s story
‘Another
girl!’ These were the first words Kasanda’s paternal grandmother said on hearing mama
Kasanda had delivered. Kasanda was born in a time when having a boy was more
glorified than having a girl in that society. As she grew up, she felt that her
father had secretly wished for a boy child, so she dressed up like a boy.
Having her dad’s affection was always her aim whether it entailed making a car
with a wire or even taking the role of the conductor in ‘cha mama, cha baba’
games…you name any childish boyish activity and she was there.
Kasanda
loved life and everything that came with it, she survived every dilemma they
went through as a family . She lived through it all, with wealth and without.
Born in a small village in Kakamega called Amalemba, she was named after her maternal grandmother, ‘my name’ her grandmother used to often call her. Her family moved
to Kisumu, where her mother used to make mandazis before she went to school to
teach so as to sell and make some money. Dad worked in Nairobi and so he was
rarely around, she grew up with her siblings knowing their mum as a sole
guardian. Kasanda had a lively childhood, she loved to play and even taught
herself how to do stuff like riding a bicycle, making car out of wire, making a
kite…you name it, Kasanda would try and make it.
A
few years later, Kasanda’s dad lost his job in Nairobi, he moved back to Kisumu
and now mum had to work extra hard to make sure they had food on the table…she
cooked mandazis and supplied to hotels, she made ice (only millennials born
before 2000 will know what l mean) and Kasanda and her siblings sold to the
neighbouring kids. Then another problem came knocking their door, the bank
threatening to throw them out. Kasanda’s parents were prayerful and always
hopeful, their friends helped, and they moved to another house. Kasanda’s dad
started an oil company and made lots of money that made the family amass so
much wealth that they could travel to different parts of the country and tour.
Yet again, something knocked, Kasanda’s dad lost his company and had so much
debt…the bank came by…their house was auctioned…they were counting days in
which they would be thrown out, but luckily enough that never happened even
when buyers came by to look at the house they never seem to buy it. Kasanda
knew it was a Guardian Angel watching over them like mother chicken watches
over its chicks.
Kasanda’s
family were no quitters they survived the storm and moved out again, their
father got again another job and Kasanda having excelled in high school, was
called to pursue Medical Psychology at Moi University. As she entered her BOMA
hostels gate, she said to herself, ‘Where is a will, there is a way!’
Comments