My birth

My name is Chidima Ugwuoke. I am a 25years old lady who has lived a good number of her years in pain, frustration and misery not because I choose to but because of the people I spent good numbers of my years with and the environment I unfortunately found myself, due to the obnoxious and prevailing circumstances at a certain period of time in my life while growing up as a child but now a single mother.

I am from ihekwere village of Nsukka local government area in Enugu state Nigeria, born into the family of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Ugwuoke who were counted among the poor folks in the community. My father was a bricklayer by profession, while my mother roasted plantain and maize in its seasons. I happen to be the first child from seven children, six girls and a boy. My father, a sexagenarian had to work extra hard to ensure that we lacked nothing. Although he was very hard working, it wasn’t an easy task for him and the entire family, who were all involved in the providing process in one little way or the other by either hawking of pure water, tired in transparent water proof or hawking of fresh pepper from one street to the other at the cool of evening after few hours rest from the long and stressful day in school by my younger siblings chigozie and chioma who were both seven and five years old respectively and I.

Hawking in our tender age as kids was never considered as child labor in the sight of our parents who were complete ignoramus. It sounded pleasant to their ears and those of neighbors’ around, who saw us as good children whenever we give into these practices but in actual fact, obnoxious to a sensible man who knows the danger lurking ahead. Street hawking was to them a help from God, to relief them of much work load, making the providing program a little bit lighter.

Schooling was a little bit difficult because the fund was really not available to begin with. Due to limited fund, I was compelled to attend one of the local primary schools in the village, a community school to be precise, at ole community. A school that wasn’t recognized set up by the community to help the poor folks get an education. It was indeed a school for the poor, built by the community who saw education as a must experience for every child in the village. Although there were no doors nor windows in the buildings, whose roof were unable to hold back the angry rain from drenching us during the raining season and though we were compelled to sit on bare floor because of insufficient chairs and desks, the teachers employed to teach were almost the best that could hardly be found else where in the village not because they thought better than others but because of their commitment and devotion to their course which was to bring out the best in those they taught, putting in their every effort like one that were not after the pay. This I believe should be the attitude of teachers, this should be their ever burning desire, to help bring out from kids the best they were created to be.

I was the best in my class, always coming out with good grades after any internal examination. I never had any major challenge from any other student because I was really good academically. As a result of my excellent performances, I was appointed as the head prefect of my school by our headmistress who became quite fond of me. Then I was in primary four. My father was so proud of me and could boast about it because his desired plan, which was to see his kids do well academically, was gradually paying off and his enthusiasm towards giving us an education was given a life-line, though we were very poor to the extent that poverty became a member of the family. You could not only experience its effect but could also see, feel and touch it.

Education was very expensive, although the school I attended was built to help the poor folks get an education, it was still a hard nut for the family to crack. My younger sibling’s Chigozie, Chioma, Chinelo, Chinyere and I were the ones attending school at that time before the arrival of the twin. With collective efforts and co-operation that existed amongst the family, we were able to take a day at a time, handling every situation it brought our way. It was a beautiful experience because the bond that existed within the family enabled us scale through these huddles and made the burdens of life a little lighter.

A Foolish Decision

A year later, mama became pregnant again then I was in primary five. I thought they would quit having kids because of our present

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: copyright 2011 by Evans .H. Egualeona
Bildmaterialien: Evans .H. Egualeona
Lektorat: Greg Ehor
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.03.2013
ISBN: 978-3-7309-1462-5

Alle Rechte vorbehalten

Widmung:
I dedicate this book to God Almighty and also to the young promising female children out there that are victims of sexual abuse.