Do we have good pain......

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He had it bumpy in his primary school days that is why he opted for mutiny, to fight back his mother, who happened to be a teacher in the only school in their village, the same school he attended. To add salt to the injury she was known to be a tough disciplinarian, the kind who never left any mistake slide without getting punished? No way in this gracious earth, her kids would be otherwise.

 “You have no idea how bad it was to attend the same school your mother teach,” he told me, how bad I asked jokingly, “you get punished twice for one mistake,”  how I enquired interested.

 “You get punished painstakingly in front of all teachers and pupils, which was so humiliating, no parent want to be termed as failed by raising crooked kids, my mother would almost break my bones in school and save the actual breaking for when we reach home,” He said.

I know you are wondering how crooked he was to deserve a broken bone, you know how parents are, apparently silence is an offence while talking was the greatest sin commited, who talks when their elder is talking?  Only ill-mannered kids like him and deserved to be ha….. killed!

Even in the case a question was asked I have no idea how you were supposed to answer, using gestures or something, being a kid should come with a manual because dealing with parents is a discussion for another day, now imagine stealing ten shillings to buy ‘kangumu’ and ‘bano’ during break, ‘si’ that screamed ‘getting boiled in the evening soup.’

“I felt rejected and had nowhere to run to, I planned on rebelling, because of the embarrassment I had no friends,, kids hated me and all I wanted was to prove to them that the high grades I scored were not fake like they thought, and plan one was to buy friends.

 One day I stole kshs.200 to buy loaves and sweets, there was only one multipurpose shop in the whole village and its early in the morning the shopkeeper asked me to collect change  later, I went back like ten like times to collect but he still denied me, I had to pass by after school to tell him that I would collect it in the morning, I knew if my mom was told I would get  roasted,” he continued.

A multipurpose shop is simply a village supermarket, it sells all type of products from farm inputs to animal feeds, household equipment’s, actual shop goods, wears, cosmetics for the village ladies with only fair and lovely for their faces, Skala lotions, braids, it also stocks cereals, ironsheets, nails, wheelbarrows hustlers right?

Back to my story, “The shopkeeper delayed intentionally and summoned my mother and what followed ‘war of githigithanio’.”  Don’t think too hard it, it simply means he was lucky to survive.

He was determined to remain relevant, he didn’t stop stealing from his mother even after escaping death by a whisk, why not hold a little naming ceremony? Shall we…  He has been nameless for long, how about Kevo?  It suits him right?

“A new shop was opened and I was obssesd with ASAHI labelled watches that cost kshs.50, back then, that was a lot of money even a bread went for kshs.22, you now understand why it was a lot of money, the issue was not the money but my little brother and a cousin, they would get jealous and report me,” narrated Kevo.

 At this point I was wondering who calls a fifty bob watch label and how can bread go for that less or what ingredients missed sugar, salt  if it had any but not yeast, why yeast? Because it makes it rise and get big and then I remembered they charge this much today because it is sliced, the extra shillings they charge is for slicing, are we in harmony we want it block like it used to be?

To cut the long story short Kevo said, “I ended up stealing kshs.150 from my mom’s box again, I bought three watches, an orange one for myself which I had been so obsessed with, green for my brother, it had to be almost similar to mine because if he suspected his was ugly, he would have snitched and a black one for my cousin who cared less about the color, the watches were given under a condition that they would be worn when mom was not around. It was hard to hide and show off at the same time.

Hell broke loose three days later, I was in the kitchen helping my brother clean his feet at our little bench behind the door, while mom was seated in her place was cooking ugali, when my cousin came in with his two sisters who asked me to show them   the beautiful watches dad had bought for us, that statement made me tremble and fear run down my spine I started to fumble and immediately mom asked me to explain what was happening forgetting the ugali.

My lies obviously didn’t add up and mom knew I had stolen her money, again, we were whipped and all the sticks broke and they went for sisal, sisal would be put in fire dried and salt sprinkled and whatever followed was bad pain, even slaves didn’t go through that, nobody should go through that.”

Do we have good pain? Kevo, how did you survive daily beating? The neighbors watched am sure they warned their kids from being seeing with him and even after all the beating they still couldn’t confess and the mom on realizing she might kill them postponed the fight to the next evening, the brother and the cousin could not take it anymore and they snitched, poor Kevin.

“My mom concluded, told me that she would not raise thieves, ordered me to strip naked and give her clothes since I had grown, I go look for my own, I thought she was joking, she forced me undress, remained naked, she then asked me to carry my watches and take them back to the shopkeeper and get her money back, I couldn’t imagine walking around naked.

 They thought I was rebelling but, deep down it was my way of trying to attract attention and have people around me, to stop feeling like the whole world was against me, I swore to not walk around naked and if it happened it would be the last day they saw me, I followed my cousin to their home and given clothes to wear, their mom talked to my mom and she cooled down,"said Kevo.

What they didn’t understand is that he stole to remain relevant, he felt inferior, and was battling with self-esteem. Could this be one of the reasons why children become hard headed, getting trodden until they fear canes no more?

Wow,  I hope you enjoy this story from Kevo, we will  definitely have part two and three.

Do you have yours that you want to share, reach me out.

ADIOS