Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Help Age: Sheltering the Unsheltered

It is Sunday, yes it is a sun-day but now it is setting, when I was young, we used to sing a goodbye song to the sun before inviting the moon for night plays. It was marvelous, it is unforgettable gone memories! Today things are different, as the sun started to set, I started a trip to meet this 100 years old Mom, she is living about 4km from where I am living. She lives with her granddaughter; she is 14 years old and an orphan.

The sun now was in its late hours when I arrived in this hut where this lonely mom lives, I need not to nock at the door since the door is open. I decide to take a quick glance at the room, I find her leaning toward the local made cooker, and she is warming her self since it is now getting cold this evening. She invites me in with a muted voice, she is so welcoming but it seems something has happened; her face is full of wrinkles.

I greeted her in her mother language; Kamwene; I am not very much familiar to this language and she is not very good in Swahili which I speak most, so our communication becomes a bit limited. Apart from the grand-daughter there is another person, a brother of this little girl who does not frequently live with this Mom but tries his level best to provide them with basic needs; not shelter.

We start our conversation where this boy acts as a translator between me and her, she tells me a lot. To find out how old she is I decide to ask explorative questions, in many tribes, their culture does not allow them to tell their age! She tells me that, during the WWI she was a young lady and that she remembers all that what happened by that time!

She was married to a man of her tribe and had eight children among whom four a still alive. She knows not how to read and count but she understand facts and can explain the event in relation to another event, example, she says, her first born was born during heavy rain season!!!

The most touching and hurting story she tells is complaining about her remaining children, they no longer take care of her, since I entered in this hut, she showed how much she was unsatisfied with this shelter she is sheltering in! It is a two rooms hut; she uses the front one as a bedroom, sitting room and kitchen with her grand daughter, the inside one is used by this boy as the bedroom and store.

Unintentionally, I ask her, what can I help? Her answer touches me down bottom of my heart, I feel tears comes to my eyelids; she points to this hut and tells me; this is kind of shelter I will DIE in! My response to her question is what is seen on this photo, though I have nothing much but I decided to shelter her before she leaves the world as it has been her great demand

My aim of writing this article, is not to disclose personal life of a person neither to show what I have given but to remind the community that; there are people who need our attention, assistance, care and love, that is a forgotten and denied age of those who have brought us to here we are and who we are today; but this is also a person concern of serving my community to shelter those who are unsheltered. Before the sun set today, before you reach at the same age and rejected, think and ask yourself how much you have given back to the community, back to the aged person, if she is treated like this today, ask yourself; who is next? Isn’t you? Your Mom, sister, daddy or…..! Help Age shelter the unsheltered.

GOD bless you.








6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you, that was extremely valuable and interesting...I will be back again to read more on this topic.

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

This is a message for the webmaster/admin here at servetanzaniacommunity.blogspot.com.

May I use some of the information from this post above if I give a backlink back to this site?

Thanks,
Jack

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

Thanks for sharing this link - but unfortunately it seems to be down? Does anybody here at servetanzaniacommunity.blogspot.com have a mirror or another source?


Thanks,
Oliver

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

how many time i do not do what i want to do but do what i dont want to do

Anonymous said...

Nice job, regards